You vs. AI: All the arguments you need to prove you're better
AI is a recruiter's dream hire. But YOU are the real McCoy!
Spit in any direction, and it’ll land on an AI. Bet!
There’s an AI in Figma, Canva, Notion, Grammarly, Bing, and where not! It’s faster, cheaper, doesn’t need weekends off, doesn’t demand better appraisals and doesn’t get tired too. It’s every recruiter’s dream hire. So, it wasn’t too much of a recruiter to tell me, “AI can do your job.”
I asked, “Okay…which aspects of my job?”
In my head this time, I built my case:
When we started playing and competing with bots, did the Olympics cease?
When tech got virtual assistants, did human assistants become obsolete?
When crypto soared to the Moon, did fiat lose its worth?
So, the recruiters, cheap-ass founders and PMs, who think AI can replace you, can dream on coz you’re the real McCoy, and I’m gonna prove it. Plus, I’ll give you real arguments (with data) to build your case and get that job.
I scoured 30 job descriptions from the top, mid-sized and budding firms, 10 each, to shortlist the skills and responsibilities of a UX Writer/Content Designer. Below are the findings:
From where I see you, my lovely ‘human’ UX writer, you are the only Moon in a star-studded sky! You’re safe.
If you still need convincing, keep reading.
Care to share your thoughts about this newsletter? Please do.
We can get a designer or PM to prompt-engineer the content.
Really? When they have their plates already full and brimming? Go ahead! Pretty soon, you’ll be hiring new designers and PMs.
Well, a few'll take on the additional workload if we throw a few perks at them.
Yeah…a FEW!
We could hire a prompt engineer!
Ummm….UX writing is fairly new, and you don’t have any respect for that role. Think the brand new ‘prompt engineer’ will feel satisfied in their role? Or confident that they can pick the right content out of the many options the AI will generate? Or competent to crunch countless UXR insights, in-person discussions, customer sentiment, body language cues, brand voice and tone, and product requirements in a single prompt to generate the ‘right’ words?
Didn’t think so.
Bottom line
Automation via AI rocks when you want templates and efficiency in repetitive work.
UX writing, a.k.a. USER experience writing, needs more than basic inputs. Unlike ChatGPT or Bard, UX writers are not LLMs (Large Language Models) that predict the next best word. They’re artists who take their entire life’s experience along with the product’s research, feedback, and goals to craft content that’s strategic, empathetic and on-brand.
Parting thoughts
We had this poster in our office -
We can give you fast and good, but it won’t be cheap.
We can give you good and cheap, but it won’t be fast.
We can give you fast and cheap, but it won’t be good.
Here’s my AI spin to it:
It can give you fast and on-brand, but it won’t be crisp.
It can give you on-brand and crisp, but it won’t be fast.
It can give you fast and crisp, but it won’t be on-brand.
So, recruiters planning to lay off people thinking AI is faster and cheaper, please know that the output is not better. It’s not original. It’s not human.
Take it from someone who tried ChatGPT and NotionAI to write her a newsletter. It came out bleh! And a newsletter is so many words. Imagine how tough it would be when you have 25 characters to convey the same message.
Now, a few words for YOU
It’s challenging and scary. The road to landing a good job is exhausting and disheartening. But, the companies that see their audience as humans, not users, who see you as a human, not a resource, will seek you out and always value your work.
Seek them out. Pursue them. They’re worth the effort.
Further reading
Are You Developing Skills That Won’t Be Automated? | Harvard Business Review