AI's Impact on Creative Task Management

AI Automation is killing human creativity. A recent study by Gartner shows a significant drop in innovative output in companies heavily reliant on AI-driven automation. But only if you let it... The Gartner report highlights decreased employee engagement and a stifling of novel ideas in organizations that have fully automated key creative processes.  However, the study also revealed that strategic integration of AI tools, focusing on augmentation rather than replacement, led to significant productivity increases and enhanced creative problem-solving. I fundamentally believe AI automation is a powerful tool for accelerating progress, but only when human ingenuity remains central to the process. And it would be a mistake to simply replace humans completely. So, here are my thoughts and takeaways from the Gartner study: ✅ Focus on augmentation, not replacement.  ↳ Leverage AI for repetitive tasks, freeing humans for strategic thinking. ✅ Invest in employee training and development.  ↳ Equip your team with the skills to collaborate effectively with AI. ✅ Foster a culture of experimentation and innovation.  ↳ Encourage employees to explore new ideas, even if they seem unconventional. ✅ Regularly evaluate and adjust your AI implementation.  ↳ Monitor its impact on employee creativity and make necessary changes. AI automation can be a game-changer, but it shouldn't be at the cost of human creativity. The key is to find the right balance between automation and human ingenuity. For more insights and strategies for leveraging AI in your business, follow my page for regular updates!

What is the true impact AI will have on your work? You can read all the research you want attempting to prognosticate the impact on jobs, but the best way to find out is to drill into specific tasks, projects and campaigns, and find out for yourself. Here’s an example of what I mean: I’m in the midst of planning the MAICON 2024 agenda, so Speaker and Agenda Planning is top of mind. To expedite things for this demonstration, I asked ChatGPT to build a list of what’s involved in the process. Prompt: you are an event planner responsible for creating the event agenda, researching speakers, and selecting speakers. build a task list of all the activities involved. [It gave me a solid list including Phase, Task and Details. But, for the purposes of this post, I wanted to be able to customize the data.] Prompt: can you give me this is a csv format for download It did. I then uploaded that CSV to Google Sheets and added the other columns you see in the image—Est. Time (All Human), Est. Time (With AI), Est. Time Saved, Sample AI Tools, and Notes. You can review the example spreadsheet for yourself, but here are a few notes and highlights: Assumptions (Not actual MAICON data, just for this demonstration) * 2 day, in-person event. * 40 Speakers. 30 from submissions, and 10 main stage who are recruited. * 100 speaker submissions to review. Highlights * 16 tasks * Est. 220 hours without AI * Est. 178 hours with AI * Total time savings of 42 hours (19%) * 9 of 16 tasks (56%) are able to use AI to increase efficiency and creativity This is rough (I put it together in about 30 minutes, so forgive any typos or errors), but hopefully gives you a practical approach you can use to cut through the hype and analyze AI’s impact on your workflows moving forward. P.S. No one actually knows what will happen to knowledge work jobs and careers when we have GPT-5 level AI and beyond. All we can do right now is analyze specific roles, tasks, projects and campaigns to the best of our ability, and then try to project out the impact over the next 12 - 18 months. Anything beyond that is educated guesswork at best.

🔥 Will AI steal creative jobs, or transform them? AI isn't the enemy; it's your secret weapon. 𝗜𝘁𝘀 𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝘀 𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗵𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺. Think about the tedious tasks content creators slog through - image replacements, article categorization, cranking out SEO-packed content. They're mind-numbing, creativity-killing, but essential. AI can eliminate that burden. AI can't touch the one thing that makes humans irreplaceable: creativity. Generative AI regurgitates the information it was trained on. Divergent thinking and unique perspectives are, by design, not within its DNA. Embrace AI Integrate AI tools into your creative process, streamline your workflow, but keep the creative reins firmly in your hands.

Just a thought before the weekend. With the introduction of new technologies certain tasks traditionally performed by junior staff are being automated. In many cases the junior position is eliminated, and residual task is redistributed to more senior employees, actually increasing their workload. Historically, the roles of secretaries and accounting clerks exemplify this transition. With the advent of personal computers and advanced software, routine tasks like typing, scheduling, and basic correspondence management, once the domain of secretaries, have been automated. Consequently, these tasks have increasingly been incorporated into the responsibilities of professionals themselves, including managers and executives. In accounting, sophisticated software has made the data entry and basic bookkeeping roles of accounting clerks redundant. These tasks are now often handled directly by accountants and finance managers, adding to their comprehensive role. In creative and technical fields, such as graphic design and engineering, advanced tools have automated tasks that were typically handled by junior staff. Senior professionals in these areas now directly engage with tools like CAD software, reducing the need for junior drafting roles. The future, shaped by GAI, will likely see an expansion of these trends. In industries like marketing and advertising, AI’s capacity to generate basic creative content might reduce the need for certain junior roles. Instead, senior marketing professionals might oversee the refinement and strategic integration of AI-generated materials. Likewise, legal services might witness AI automating document drafting and basic research, once the remit of junior staff, shifting oversight and strategic refinement to senior lawyers. Moreover, GAI is expected to make complex business platforms more accessible to a broader range of employees. This will enable senior employees without deep technical expertise to perform tasks that were previously the preserve of specialists. Consequently, the skill requirements for senior roles may grow. The result is that many professionals and managers will be responsible for a long list of simple and quick tasks, that once took much longer to perform, and were the responsibility of more junior workers. #generativeai #ai #tasks #automation