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Rising Tide

Interesting take on what AI means for designers and creatives. Specially that it is the opinion of someone who started in this business in 1980 and has successfully adapted to many cataclysmic changes since then. 

If we can glean any lessons from the introduction of the computer to the design world, it's that one can offload the uninspired tasks to the machines, all while formulating new ideas and forms of communication. Designers and creatives of all stripes can make the unexpected while the robots replicate the necessary background pieces to our existence.

The argument might be that the bar for what is deemed an uninspired task is raised by AI. In the time of X-acto knife and tacky glue, having manual dexterity to deliver a precise output with such tools may have been seen an inspired effort. Not everyone could produce the same quality of results. When that was no longer a point of differentiation, then something else was. The goal post has moved a good bit this time around but this is not the rising tide lifts all boat. It is more a tide will obliterate the livelihood of some. The question is whether upskilling will be enough for those impacted or should they move in a different direction entirely. 

I was chatting with a former client recently and he was excited about being able to create product roadmaps using GenAI. He speculated this job of a product manager would soon become obsolete. This idea of using AI to replace the workforce is a popular one these days.

The key to making productive use of multimodal AIs is understanding how and what to delegate to a machine, so that both the human and the AI can accomplish more through collaboration than by working independently. However delegation is something professionals routinely struggle with: They either assign too much, or not enough, or not the right tasks. Working alongside a multimodal AI will require workers to master the art of delegation.

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