I feel like there’s been a distinct lack of people talking about AI recently, so I thought I’d throw in my two penneth…

AI has existed in some form since the 1950s, however, we’re at a point where AI tech is able to be embraced by a much larger demographic. This is awesome. Over the last couple of months, some of the generated imagery and applications of AI have been incredible - and this is just the start, the first steps of experimentation as we all learn how to best utilise this new tool.

Will AI Steal All Our Jobs?

I don’t believe so (although freeing up enough time to only work a 4-day week sounds like a joy to me). There are many areas that apply to my work that I think with more testing and implementation AI can assist with this year. (Plus I'm sure there are a fair few I haven’t even considered as of yet!)

Process & Automation 

With AI augmenting our process we will be able to focus on the more creative aspects of our work and hand off some of the more laborious tasks to our intelligent friend in the cloud. Assembly.ai is a prime example of this. Being able to distill an hour-long podcast into topical areas, and giving a short overview for blogs or introductory previews is super valuable and something that can save personal time. Of course, manual proofreading and tweaking is necessary but the time saved getting to that stage on the copy that doesn’t have a huge value weight attached to is useful.

Research and Frameworking 

Using AI as a tool to refine large data sets, highlight trends, or help summarize conversational content. Lively has already been using a few tools to help us digest and summarise our Fresh Takes series. We can build out succinct highlights of each 30-40 min episode and use keyword identification to help show trends across single episodes or the entire series. After this initial filtering, the results can much more quickly be copy-written into social posts/blogs & reports.

AI & The Creative Industries

We’re already seeing some incredible imagery being generated via a prompt. It’s also worth noting that a lot of this imagery is then polished further by artists in creative programs. I think in the future there may also be a case for an AI-generated b-roll. The amount of time I have spent through the years chasing clearance to get a shoot or some drone footage to use in a sequence. Perhaps AI could help with evergreen establishing shots or cutaways and save time/money for reinvestment into the primary content. Again, this would never be a complete replacement for having talented operators capturing against a brief. But it could prove a convenient solution when working with smaller budgets or tight time frames.

With more experimentation and the maturing of AI models, more opportunities for seamless integration into our processes will happen. 

It’s already quite overwhelming the speed at which this space is advancing now. Every day there’s 100’s new discoveries and articles highlighting the latest output or use case. New LLMs and APIs that refine the output further and make it simpler to integrate into products.

Look at the recent release of Microsoft’s Co-pilot and the upcoming release of Google's AI assistant into their product suite. We have all been working with these products for years and soon the way in which we interact with them will change forever. 

I think it’s important for businesses and individuals to dip their toe into this water at the earliest point possible. This technology will 100% have an influence on our lives to varying degrees in the coming weeks/months/years. We have recently integrated ChatGPT into our new website so you can enquire about all things Lively - please do give it a try www.lively.agency.

People I speak to liken this to when the internet first emerged. We were curious, skeptical, excited, and possibly a little intimidated all at the same time. We’re in a similar spot now - an onslaught of creative thinking and technical innovation that will disrupt and reshape the way in which we work and live forever.

The exciting part will be seeing which AI becomes ubiquitous and leaves us wondering how we ever functioned beforehand (think, smartphone, sat-nav, sliced bread.)

To finish, I’m handing over to our Marketing Manager, Ana, as she talks about how her job has been made more efficient with the use of AI assistance in these early days of business integration.

How AI made the podcast launch process smoother

Launching a podcast requires many bits and bobs to make it work. But working with Assemble AI I was able to elevate my marketing process.

The very easy interface and user experience make it perfect for first-timers. It analyses the video you drop in and gives a wide variety of options it can support with eg. chapterisation, transcription, and phrases highlight. 

After a few weeks of incorporating it into my daily work, I found it the most beneficial for giving me a starting point and fresh inspiration. It was a great supporter when I had writer’s block and gave me inspiration for how I write copy for multiple assets from social media posts to blog content. 

Using Assemble AI was definitely incredibly helpful, saved my time, and boosted my creative process. But you definitely can’t rely on it entirely - it still needs the human touch to truly make it work.

Header image created via ChatGPT prompt, generated in DALL·E.