I’ve been exploring how AI – in particular ChatGPT – can be used to quickly generate articles and other forms of written content. As with any new technological leap, there is the chance that what once needed a lot of people will become automated: leaving people like me with not a lot to do.

Personally, I think the human touch in creative tasks is important – but I’m sure many 19th Century hand-loom weavers said much the same thing about the mechanised cotton mills.

I recently had a conversation about generating content for social media with another marketer. I tend to treat a creative endeavour as something that needs mostly mental effort while my interlocuter treated it as more of a relaxing activity where your mind can freewheel. Hard slog vs light touch, essentially.

There’s no right or wrong to this – just a different sort of approach. But the combination of the thinking about AI, the ‘fun activity’ approach to creating content together with how I find the phrase ‘consuming content’ really irritating led to the following poem:

I’m creating content
For users to consume.
My messaging will resonate
And engagement rates will boom.

I love creating content:
It’s super-easy too!
My app does all the thinking
And clicking’s all I do.

The AI is fantastic,
It really understands
What my personas want to see
And helps me build my brands.

I’m glad I’m so creative
And really clever too.
My engagement rates are soaring
And clicking’s all I do!

And who’s to say that my speaker here isn’t on to a good thing? Maybe the valued skill of the future will be the ability to coax the right messages and words out of the AI-driven tools.