Marketing by Design – Design thinking that makes marketing work
I test the AI tools, design trends, and brand moves marketers are talking about, then tell you what holds up and what doesn’t. Written by the author of the bestselling The Visual Marketer, after 20+ years leading brand, creative, and digital experience marketing teams.
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AI Hype is Dying Down, But Not Because it's Going Away
Published over 2 years ago • 4 min read
5 May 2024 | Issue #46
In this issue:
The AI hype will die down
Thinking frameworks for AI
How AI is changing work at Asana
Midjourney breaks free of Discord
An AI agent for your browser
I'm in Cleveland!
Midjourney on the web
The AI hype will die down. It's already starting.
Even though I'm 46 issues into this newsletter, at some point it will come to an end. The buzz around AI will go away and people will become accustomed to it.
The reason for this is that AI will eventually be baked into all software. It will just be a given.
This hype is similar to the hype of the late '90s/early 2000s when it was buzzy that a company had a website or other web presence. This was a way to differentiate a company. (Anybody else remember the ads telling us to look for a company's AOL keyword?) Ten years later, sites were promoting that they were responsive. Again, this is just a given today.
The members of the Today Show asking, "What is the Internet?"
I'm not saying the outcome is the same, just the hype is similar and I expect it to follow a similar curve. Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia says of AI, "It's bigger than PC, it's bigger than mobile, and it's gonna be bigger than the internet, by far,” Now, we know he has a vested interest in this.
Since he made this comment in November 2023, Nvidia's stock has grown 70%, so it makes sense he'd be bullish on AI.
What does this mean for you?
It means that AI will be a part of your life if it isn't already. Many of these free-standing generative AI applications will be baked into the tools you're already using.
My grandmother once said she felt bad for future generations because she had seen so many advancements in her lifetime. She saw the rise of the automobile and her home was one of the first to have a TV because of my grandfather's job at GE. She couldn't imagine what would come later.
But think of what we've seen in the past 25 years. The explosion of home computers, our lives moving online, a supercomputer in your pocket, and now AI.
Things are moving faster than ever, and I can see how that can be scary. You don't have to be an early adopter, but pay attention to what is going on and don't let it pass you by.
Until the hype dies down, I'll be here helping you keep up with some of the changes that are happening with AI in the design and marketing space.
Thanks for being part of the ride!
NEWS AT THE INTERSECTION OF MARKETING, DESIGN, & AI
🧐 5 Reasons You Need Thinking Frameworks for AI
Everyone has different levels of knowledge when it comes to AI. How to think about everything involved with AI needs to be considered. Diego Pineda recently published a framework for how to think about AI.
A structured approach: Organizing thoughts, analyzing problems, and guiding decision-making processes.
More than technical: There are complex ethical and societal issues that we can't ignore and must strive to understand.
Dustin Moskovitz (not to be confused with Adam Mosseri) discusses Asana's journey integrating AI to revolutionize workplace efficiency and creativity. For designers, this means AI can become a co-creator, enhancing their ability to innovate and streamline workflows.
AI-enhanced collaboration: AI models are seamlessly integrated into Asana, acting like team members to improve workflow efficiency.
Creative empowerment: AI tools provide support by handling mundane tasks, allowing designers to focus on higher-level creative processes.
It's finally happening. Midjourney is now available on the web. If you have already created more than 100 images, you are eligible to try out the web-based version of Midjourney.
Harpa.ai offers different AI tools to use on any web page
I was just introduced to Harpa.ai. It's a Chrome plugin that adds an AI agent to any web page. So far, I've only used it to summarize a couple of articles, but it has potential. I just upgraded to the version that gives me access to ChatGPT 4 and I'll play with it a little more over the next week and give a better report next week.
Speaking of next week and Brian Piper, (sorry for the bad segue), when you read this newsletter, I will be in Cleveland attending the third annual Content Entrepreneur Expo.
If you've scrolled this far in the past few weeks, you've read that I came up with the idea for After Design at last year's CEX.
This year, I'll be one of the writers celebrating the launch of The Content Entrepreneur by Joe Pulizzi and Friends (I'm a friend. It's in print. He can't take it back now). Check out the book if you want to build a business based on content you create. All proceeds go to The Orange Effect Foundation.
HOW CAN I HELP YOU?
If you want to learn more about what's available, here are some links:
Marketing by Design – Design thinking that makes marketing work
Jim MacLeod
I test the AI tools, design trends, and brand moves marketers are talking about, then tell you what holds up and what doesn’t. Written by the author of the bestselling The Visual Marketer, after 20+ years leading brand, creative, and digital experience marketing teams.
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