Getting AI to the right temperature
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I've spent this past spring thinking and talking a lot about AI. I can't say the vibe is optimistic. There are a lot of real worries from email practitioners about the speed in which AI is being adopted by c-suite leaders and how it will affect their livelihoods.
I know I'm not the first one to say this; we are looking at one of the biggest disruptions in tech since the internet came to life. With that though, comes the hype and experimentation before ultimately landing on some norms. How long that takes remains unknown.
History supports this, too. I know many readers likely grew up on computer and console gaming in the late 1980s and early 1990s – do you remember how hard those video games were!? You couldn't find a tutorial and map systems didn't exist yet. Want to find your way around Hyrule? Congrats! You're now a video game cartographer, having to draw out your map on paper.
What about websites in the late 1990s/early 200s? There were the "browser wars" to figure out best practices and from all the wacky websites using HTML/CSS/Flash came standard frameworks to make website creation easier and more predictable.
I'm sure the same thing will happen with AI. Right now we're at the height of the bubble and excitement, and time will tell what happens next.
So what should you be doing in the meantime? Here are my suggestions:
- Remain open-minded to the possibilities – a lot of AI is bad, but not all of it. Take what works for you, ignore the rest.
- Layer AI on top of your work – if you depend on AI, then your programs are fragile. Make sure you can do the work without the help of AI, and layer on top to find efficiencies.
- Learn to think in systems – email developers in particular are going to be moving away from bespoke email creation and into enabling others to create. This will allow you to be a strategic partner in the email program rather than only doing production work.
- Invest in your email design system – related to point 3, get your systems together so you're spending less time in code and more time on higher level work.
Want a slightly deeper dive? Jacqueline Freedman from Making Sense of Martech recently interviewed me about where we are with AI.
I'm a little worried about the up and coming email developers. The points above depend on having a robust understanding of coding emails and all of its quirks. But maybe I can remain tragically optimistic. When there's disruption, the next generation often figures it out.
Tell me – what advice are you giving to others when it comes to AI? Hit reply and share it with me, and maybe I'll add it to the next email.
Talk soon,
Megan
