Everyday AI Podcast – An AI and ChatGPT Podcast - EP 134: AI in The Communications Industry: How To Stay Irreplaceable

Episode Date: October 31, 2023

The communications field has been filled with tons of fears and questions around AI. With so many AI use cases matching those in the industry, many are wondering what is next. Megan Thomas, Owner/Director of Buzz Communications, joins us to discuss how to stay irreplaceable in the communications industry and adapt to AI.Newsletter: Sign up for our free daily newsletterMore on this Episode: Episode PageJoin the discussion: Ask Megan and Jordan questions about AI and the communications industryUpcoming Episodes: Check out the upcoming Everyday AI Livestream lineupWebsite: YourEverydayAI.comEmail The Show: [e-mail] with Jordan on LinkedInTimestamps:[00:01:35] Daily AI news[00:04:00] Mixed feelings in communications about AI[00:06:15] Australian guidelines around AI[00:07:20]  Megan's experience with AI[00:09:20]  Advice for AI in communications[00:11:50] Adapting to AI[00:15:12] How AI helps us communicate[00:17:15] Use case for AI in communications[00:19:50] Final takeawayTopics Covered in This Episode:1. Concerns and attitudes towards AI in the communications industry2. Exploration of generative AI in creativity and communicationKeywords:fear, nervousness, communications field, AI, industry, careers, generative AI systems, communicating, stay irreplaceable, podcast, daily newsletter, keep up to date, experts, latest and greatest, sign up, take notes, know more, daily news, voluntary code of conduct, regulating AI, risks, misuse of technology, landmark, AI governance, major countries, promoting safe and trustworthy AI, G7 countries, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK, US, European Union, AI Act, hands off approach, economic growth, Biden White House, executive order, economic reports, productivity, GDP growth rates, growth, Goldman Sachs, Australia, owner and director, Buzz Communications, AI impact, heartbeat, nervous, excited, terrified, ChatGPT, graphic design AI, job impact survey, BuzzFeed, lay off, laws, ethical guidelines, AI deployment, regulation, interactions, generative AI system, magical, Metaverse, digital art exhibition, NFTs, AI image generators, penny dropped, possibility of creativity, experimenting, technical person, corporate communicator, advertising, copywriting, corporate comms roles, side hustle, main stage, curious, opportunity.Send Everyday AI and Jordan a text message. (We can't reply back unless you leave contact info)

This is the Everyday AI Show, the everyday podcast where we simplify AI and bring its power to your fingertips. Listen daily for practical advice to boost your career, business, and everyday life. Meet Firefly AI Assistant, now live in Adobe Firefly, the all-in-one creative AI studio. Just describe what you want to create and the assistant handles the rest, orchestrating multi-step workflows across Photoshop, Premiere Express, and more in one conversational interface. You direct the outcome. The assistant accelerates execution. There's a lot of fear and nervousness, specifically in the communications field, about what

AI is going to mean, not just for the industry, but for people's careers and their professions. You know, what happens when all of these generative AI systems can do more and more in terms of communicating? Well, that's what we're going to talk about today is how to stay irreplaceable. in the communications industry. So stick around for that. But thank you for joining. My name is Jordan Wilson, and this is Everyday AI.

This is your daily live stream, podcast, and free daily newsletter, helping everyday people like you and me keep up to date, how we can all stay irreplaceable. So we always go over the latest and the greatest, bringing in experts to dive into topics that really matter to you. So as a reminder, please go to Your EverydayAI.com, sign up for the free daily newsletter. If you can't keep up, if you want to take notes, if you want to know more, that's what that

daily newsletter is for. And as a reminder, if you're joining us live, thank you. Please get your questions in. What do you want to know about staying irreplaceable in the communications industry or just what do you want to know about the comms industry in general as it pertains to AI? And if you're listening on the podcast, make sure to check out the show notes, as always, a ton of more information in there, as well as the link. If you want to come back and chat and hang out and connect, make sure to do that.

So before we talk about what's and how to stay irreplaceable in the comms field, let's go over as we always do in the AI news. So two really big pieces of news today. So world leaders are reportedly agreeing on a voluntary code of conduct. So a breaking and exclusive report from Reuters details how the G7 countries are set to agree on a voluntary code of conduct for regulating advanced artificial intelligence systems to mitigate risks and potential misuse of the technology. So this voluntary code of conduct will be a landmark for AI governance among major countries

with 11 points aimed at promoting safe and trustworthy AI globally. If you don't know, the G7 countries are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK, and the US. I believe so. Yeah, that's right. And the European Union obviously has been at the forefront of regulating AI with its AI Act, while other countries have taken a more hands-off approach to boost economic growth, especially the U.S. You know, we just, the Biden White House just signed an executive order at, you know, geared toward AI yesterday, whereas other countries have had this kind of in place for years.

All right. Next report of the day in AI news. A new report from Bloomberg shows that Goldman Sachs is very bullish on AI and its impact on the economy. So Goldman Sachs predicts, predicts that generative artificial intelligence will contribute a significant boost, not only in productivity in the U.S. and other major economies over the next day, but specifically leading to an increase in GDP growth rates. So measuring the impact on the economy. So the report from this Goldman Sachs study shows that they are viewing this boost in productivity to project to result in a 2% expansion rate by 2027 and a 2.3 rate

in 2034 for the U.S. economy. So if you don't study economic reports, a 2% expansion rate from one sector is actually enormous. So looking at major, major growth in that report. So just two big stories for today. There's always more. So make sure you go to Your EverydayAI.com. Check out the rest of the AI news as well as other trends and everything that's happening.

But you didn't come to listen to the AI news. Maybe you did. But you probably came to listen to our guests speak today and to talk about AI in the communications industry and how we can all stay replaceable. So please help me welcome to the show. Megan Thomas, the owner and director of Buzz Communications Australia. Megan, thank you for joining us. Hey, Jordan.

Thanks so much for having me. Yeah, absolutely. And I think I have to give you a special shout out because this is a live show. And you are in Australia. So it's a party there, almost midnight. So thank you for joining the show. I really appreciate it. I know. And it's Halloween too. Oh, that's right. That's right.

Spooky stuff probably going on outside. Well, let's, all right. We'll do this then. No tricks. Just the facts. What is kind of the overall kind of heartbeat of, you know, communications, professionals, you know, even let's talk in Australia. Are people nervous about what Gen AI means to the industry and to their careers? Yeah, definitely. I've been talking to quite a few people in communication roles in Australia, and some of them are excited, for sure, but that would be the minority. Most people, even if they're excited, they're a bit terrified as well, and some people don't even want to ever use it. So I think that they are nervous. They're hearing a lot about chat GPT being a good rider.

and also the sort of graphic design, AI applications as well and making people nervous. And there was a little, there's a job impact survey on, there's an AI for that saying that AI could take 98% of a communicator's role. There's already AI for 98% of the role. And then you hear stuff in the news like from BuzzFeed, saying they've laid off people and, you know, I don't think that was necessarily AI related,

but it all adds to that fear. Sure. And, you know, I think it's interesting, too, because the everyday AI show, I'd say the majority of our audience is in the U.S., but we do have people listening from all over the world. And I think there's different attitudes towards AI. But also what's, what's I think interesting, Megan, is Australia has been kind of preparing for this for a while, right? Didn't you guys have some basic laws in place around AI for years? now? Yeah, you've done your research. Well, Jordan, yeah. Australia likes to think of itself as quite progressive in that space, and we have some ethical guidelines put in place by the government back in 2018, I think it was, and they were quite sort of good principles around how AI needed to be deployed. I don't know how much take-up that they've had, and certainly all the big organizations have had to put their own things in place and the regulation still needs to catch up. But yeah, the thinking has been being done for quite some time. Yeah. And, you know, I think we're kind of in the same boat here.

So, you know, we both have, you know, even my background, you know, I was a journalist and then I was kind of working in a media role or, you know, marketing role for a decade after that. talk can you talk a little bit making about even your own kind of first interactions you know with generative AI and then I want to unpack it but do you remember kind of the first time you saw output from a generative AI system and what was that in real reaction um it was it was crazy like I felt it was almost a bit magical in some ways I felt like last year I started playing around a bit with the metaverse and um I was in in a art exhibition, it was a digital art exhibition using generative AI.

And that's kind of when the penny dropped for me and went, whoa, this stuff's cool. And I started hearing about NFTs. And then I got a little bit obsessed with AI image generators. And I was, you know, on the couch, watching telly at night using these things. I was like, wow, you know, it felt like the possibility of creativity was what attracted me, I think. And then when chat GPT dropped in November, is it November? Yeah, that's when the sort of text version of it took off. And I've been experimenting.

And I don't purport to be any kind of expert at all. And I'm not a technical person. But I just have been playing with lots of different AI applications. And I didn't answer your other question. So what do I do? And my background was as a corporate communicator started in advertising. copywriting, that kind of stuff, and have been working in corporate comms roles for the last 20 years or so, and then recently taken my side hustle out onto main stage as a communicator.

So, yeah, I guess I've been one of those people who's also a bit nervous, but also very curious and excited by the opportunity of it. I think maybe without even intentionally doing so, Megan, you just gave people out there listening some of the best advice because you said, I'm not an expert. You started playing. You are both nervous and curious. So with that in mind, you know, how would you speak to others in the communications field that maybe weren't as early as as you, right? So it sounds like you were a little earlier to the game in your exploration. But, you know, for maybe those in the comms industry that are a little bit newer to Gen AI, what advice can you give them to kind of take

that similar route as you. Yeah, might have been a bit a bit of luck on my place. And I am sort of quite naturally curious. I think for me, the first thing I did was trying to understand, you know, what is it that a communicator does? Because you can't, you can't sort of talk about whether we're going to be replaced if you don't actually understand what that role entails. And a lot of people think it's just writing or just content creation. And that's part of it. But there's much more than that. You can't do that in a vacuum and it's more strategic. So I started by sort of breaking down a creative model of what the role of a communicator does. So there's obviously the strategic elements of it. There's understanding your audience. There's the analysis. You need to

understand, you know, what environment your message is actually landing in because you might have a perfectly well crafted message, but if you don't understand the environment you're dropping it and it can go really badly. So looked at the whole process and then, you know, where AI might be able to help. And it can do like AI also is not just about content creation, which exploded my mind when I started exploring that world. And so where the human can supplement what the AI does

and then together how it makes it even more powerful. So it was pretty much playing. You need to move it from concept and talking about it to actually getting in there and experimenting and just working out how it does work for yourself. And hey, as a reminder, everyone, if you're joining us live, we have Megan Thomas here, the owner and director of Buzz Communications Australia. We're talking about how to stay irreplaceable in communications roles. So make sure to get your questions in, like Jackie said, Jackie, thank you for joining us.

She said, happy Halloween, but also AI is not scary, thanks to Jordan. So I'm actually with that as a transition, Megan, I know that even personally here in the U.S. And I'm sure a lot of your colleagues as well, as generative AIs kind of skill sets changed, right? You just said it's powerful. But even early on, the AI image generators weren't that great. Now they're very good. You know, now there's generative AI systems that do a great job at graphic design and creating pitch decks and press releases. So as kind of the gen AI skill set changes into more traditional roles that someone in comms would be working in,

how can people not be scared and how can they kind of get ahead? Yeah. Well, I think you're right. I wrote an article earlier in the year saying that AI won't. We don't need to be scared because it can't understand context. It can't be creative. It can't understand emotion in the way that. humans do. Guess what? That's all changing. And now, you know, AI can do some of those things.

We're now seeing with some of the new things coming out, which is a little bit, a little bit scary. But I think there are areas. So if we look at the area of being strategic, right, one of the things that communicators find it difficult to do is we're all time core, right? and you don't always have access to the data and the insights that you need in order to make sure that you're crafting a message that's going to work. So with AI, you can do that analysis up front. You can do amazing things with competitor analysis, with stakeholder analysis, with research on different environments,

which then means that whatever message that you're coming up with is even better. But you can't do it without a human involved. because, for example, there's a communicator I really respect. And we had a referendum in Australia recently. And everybody had to vote either yes or no. And there was a lot of conversation about, and it was quite heated some of it. Are you a yes voter?

Are you a no voter? Blah, blah, blah, blah. And somebody completely on a different topic had headlined their communication campaign. a guilt-free way to say no. Now, it was nothing to do with the referendum, right? But the outcry that came out with that meant that she had to come out with an apology

and say, hey, I'm sorry, it was nothing about the referendum, it was about this. So you need to understand that environment. And AI can't do that for you. You have to have somebody thinking outside of the data, the silo, the system that you're thinking in. to combine that awareness of the culture, the politics, the people, the behavior, and how they're going to respond to what you're doing.

So you supercharge what you're doing with the combination of AI with that human experience and intuition. I love that because, yeah, Megan, like what you talked about with the Gen AI skill set always expanding, I think we just have to, as humans, you know, upskilling and and staying ahead of the curve, we also have to kind of shift and change our role as well. So I love that point. Great, great question to hear from Ben. So Ben, Ben, thanks for joining and asking, how can AI help us better understand the people

we're communicating with and how might they best receive a given message? Great question. So, Megan, what are your thoughts on that? How can AI better help us understand the people we're communicating with? Oh, yeah, that's a great question, because you have to understand the people that you're communicating with in order to have a message that works for them. So one of the things that I used to do that worked really well in organisations but would take forever is get, do you have like employee engagement or employee sentiment? You know what I'm talking about? Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

We have a survey. They tell you how happy they are. Like, well, how I'm not. So as a professional communicator, one of the first things I would do is try and get hold of that raw data. And I would sift through these spreadsheets and I would actually do a find for the word communication through thousands of these spreadsheets. I would pull out the comment. I'd put it in a document. I would work through what the themes were, come up with some solutions to socialize that and that would form the basis of a communication strategy on something, right? Oh, it was exhausting. Now, I don't need to do that I can put the spreadsheet in. It will find the themes and it will do it in two seconds.

And it would probably have taken me two weeks to do that. And I don't know how accurate it was. It was just based on me pulling out bits. I might do a word cloud, you know, if I had access to that. So that would be, that would be one way. Wow. Wow. I mean, you can tell Megan's, Megan's a communications pro because she had a perfect answer ready

with like a superb. use case. So like even what Megan just said right there, if you're looking for a way to better resonate with your audience, that's such a good example. Hey, since you, since you knocked that one out of the park. Let's take another question here, Megan. So Maybrit asking, and Maybred, thanks for joining the show as always. What is your favorite use case in using AI for communications? Favorite use case? Oh, I've been doing lots of different things. But one of the, one of the things I did recently was because I want to help communicators understand AI and how they can use it. So it's a bit of an education piece I'm trying to do. And you hear all these acrony, there are so

many acronyms with AI, like chat GPT, but you hear Gen AI, AGI, AGI, LM, la la, la, you know, all of that. So I first thought, well, I'll ask Chat GPT to come up with a visual analogy that helps me explain those different acronyms. And I asked it for about 10 or 20 or something. It spat a bunch out. And I liked a couple. I liked ocean and I liked a music band. So then I put that into, what I put that into?

I think Bing. And I created an ocean. I said, for the ocean, I wanted a fish and a dolphin and an octopus and some coral and did similar with the band. And then after I got the image that I wanted that explained each of them, I could animate bits of it using a different AI, which is called, I think Genmo was the one that I used. So as I was talking through each bit when I was showing it in a session,

the little octopus was my AGI because it's super smart, was doing its thing. And the little dolphin was going around for another thing. So that, yeah, education and marketing. I've been using it more recently in two. There's so many cool things that you can do now with Chat GPT and the new version of the Dali E bit and the plug-ins, some of which I've learned about from you, Jordan, those plug-ins.

Change my life, my goodness. Did a little marketing campaign. I created some taglines in Chat GPT. I then created some images in Dali-E. I put them into Canva. And then you can even with Microsoft, oh, I can't remember the notebook now starts with D. Post it straight to your socials. Yeah.

I love, thank you for mentioning plugins because as anyone in marketing, technology, communications, it's so important you have to use the plugins. My gosh. All right. So I'm going to, we're going to wrap this one because, Megan, it's late where you are. But I want to end with one very direct question because we've covered a lot. You've given such great advice, handled some questions. But what is?

And maybe just how? Let's just answer it how one more time. How can people in communications stay irreplaceable? Well, I think they can experiment as much as they can. But trust that the foundations of communication, they don't change, you know, continue being strategic, continue understanding your audience. continue trying to be a great storyteller. And then as much as you can,

just experiment and play. And that's the only way you learn, really. So understand what it can do for you. And I think it can make us even better communicate us. I mean, y'all, Megan just laid out the groundwork. So if you're in the communications industry, if you're worried about all of these new features and empowers, so to speak, of generative AI. She just laid out the roadmap for you.

Megan, thank you so much for coming on the Everyday AI show, late your time in dishing out such great tactical advice for everyone, not just in the communications industry, but everyone. We very much appreciate you coming on the show. Oh, thanks so much, Jordan. Had fun. All right. And hey, as a reminder, there's always going to be more.

Make sure to go to your EverydayAI.com. sign up for the free daily newsletter. A lot more about what Megan is doing and some more insights into our conversation today as well. So we hope to see you back for another day of everyday AI. Thanks y'all. Bye. Meet Firefly AI Assistant.

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See it today at firefly.adobie.com. And that's a wrap for today's edition of Everyday AI. Thanks for joining us. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave us a rating. It helps keep us going. For a little more AI magic, visit Your EverydayAI.com and sign up to our daily newsletter so you don't get left behind. Go break some barriers and we'll see you next time.