The biggest pro to the era of AI so far is output.
I left university and started a job in digital marketing in January 2023. One-person marketing team. I knew it was going to be difficult, but I wasn’t too worried.
At the time of my interview, ChatGPT was just starting to become known in the tech and marketing world. I used it in my pitch to show how I’d transform their marketing – me as a hard worker, combined with emerging AI? That’s a team.
Two years later, I use AI all day, every day. Job stuff. The continual business ideas. Personal life. Problem-solving. You name it.
It works. It’s brilliant. It’s made me faster and more productive than I’ve ever been.
But it’s also made me worse at my job.
Here’s what I didn’t expect: I’d become dependent.
I can’t write a sentence without second-guessing it and throwing it into Claude to “improve.” Heck, I’m probably going to have to put this blog post for a spin in GPT or Claude due to how poor my writing has become. (Update – Yes, I did do that for the odd sentence or 2.)
And slowly, without realising it, I killed the one thing that made me good (or at least interesting) at marketing in the first place – creativity.
When I finally decided “yep, I’m going to do marketing for a living!”, that was because I was a dreamer. I have had visions of campaigns companies can do, the thought of carrying out campaigns that are fun, wild, a little against the norm.
Not so much anymore. I got lost in the idea of producing an outcome. Trying to stick to a standard I had set that is completely unrealistic. Instead, we must act on impact. A campaign with impact far outweighs 10 useless pieces of content that’s done half arsed with the help of AI.
Here’s what I need to do differently:
Use AI when you’re genuinely stuck. Use it to speed up the boring parts. Use it to polish your thinking, not replace it.
But don’t let it do your thinking for you.
The problem isn’t AI itself – it’s how I used it. I reached for it first instead of last.
If you’re letting AI do that thinking for you, you’ll end up like everyone else. Just like me, creating optimised, polished, and forgettable content.
So here’s my advice (mostly to myself):
- Use AI as a tool
- Let it do all the sh*t work we don’t need to do
- Use it when you’re stuck
- Let it analyse your data from your incredibly amazing data-driven local SEO campaigns
Don’t:
- Let it replace your thinking
- Let it create your whole campaign
- Let it take over your day-to-day
AI can help me execute those ideas faster. But it can’t have them for me.
That’s still my job.
Final Thoughts
If you’re stuck in the cycle, let’s chat.
I’m Calum, Owner of Everyday Digital.
I write about Local SEO, Google Business Profile and how businesses can get found on Google to increase their leads.
