A Screwdriver is a Useful Tool. So is AI.
Don't fear the tool. Rather, learn how to use it.
In 1440, Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press. Scribes everywhere became fearful of losing their jobs. Critics warned that mass access to books would lead to loss of curiosity, moral decay, and civil unrest.
What happened? The entire manuscript copying industry collapsed within a few years. The vast majority of scribes lost their jobs…as scribes. But at the same time, literacy rates skyrocketed, intellectual curiosity advanced rapidly, and large swaths of human beings eventually became liberated for the first time ever.
Major news media likes to feed us a constant doom loop regarding how artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming the downfall of civilization. Families are being destroyed, jobs are being lost, and entire segments of our economy will never be the same.
But you know what? We’ve heard this story before.
Every advancement in technology has caused disruption somewhere, somehow. The invention of the mechanical loom in the 1800s automated weaving, largely eliminating demand for that skilled labor (this created the infamous Luddite movement). The broad rollout of electricity in the later 1800s led to health scares and sweeping changes in social patterns as we turned night into day. The mass distribution of automobiles in the early 1900s decimated every industry related to horse-drawn transportation. Cheaper personal computers in the 1980s ushered in fears of mass layoffs for administrative and financial professionals.
AI is already directly tied to mass layoffs, especially in middle management and software developers. After two decades of being told to study computer science, young adults entering the job market now are often unable to find entry-level employment as programmers. The new tech bubble is displacing tech workers — oh, the irony!
I look back at the tech startup I co-founded in 2015, Prolaera. It took three full-time software engineers almost two years and close to half a million dollars of investor capital to build a really solid training management and HR integration platform. By my best estimate, I believe that a single programmer could build the exact same platform in three months or less using today’s AI coding tools.
Good timing on that one for Jassen, right? Yes, but…
With the democratization of computer programing through AI tools, colloquially referred to as “vibe coding”, independent programmers are building incredibly useful software tools in their spare time and building businesses that make them thousands of dollars per month, with no investor capital, in just a few months.
That’s idea to revenue in a single calendar quarter, and they keep 100% of the equity in their business, while still providing real economic value to their users.
But wait, there’s more!
While some people are using ChatGPT as a therapist, the reality is that we, as humans, highly value human connection. We are in the midst of a loneliness epidemic, and also a massive cultural shift in attitudes towards discussing mental health. What has this done for human therapists? I don’t know about where you live, but in my area, every therapist is booked to the gills with new business and has had to stop accepting new clients.
Correlation does not equal causation, but could it be that people start their therapy journey with AI, and that makes them realize they want a human therapist? Things that make you go, “Hmmmm.”
AI is being used for all sorts of things today in business. Consider the following:
Using ChatGPT to generate checklists from Internal Revenue Code citations that you can use to streamline your own workflows for tax clients. (Whoops, there goes my old job!)
Using Gemini to compile industry pricing data to help you determine competitive pricing for your own offerings.
Inputting video recordings of your own somatic healing sessions to help develop an outline for your new online course.
Create strong visual elements for your brand if you’re graphically challenged, saving you thousands of dollars that you may not have as you start your online presence.
When it comes to marketing in particular, AI can assist with many tasks, such as…
AI Disclosure: This image was 100% generated by Google Gemini.
Looks good, doesn’t it? If you’ve been reading my drivel for any length of time, you will have already noticed that I don’t use graphics very much, because my brain thinks in text (yes, I usually even dream in text).
Did I just take away revenue from a graphic designer? Yes. But would I have even hired a graphic designer to make the above graphic for this blog post, for what is basically a hobby project? Nope.
A screwdriver is a very useful tool. I use one almost every day across the various construction projects I have going as I build a tiny house village to provide affordable housing in my community. I use a lot of tools, and they’re all useful. I’m most certainly taking away work from local construction workers by doing so much myself, but I find joy in that work, and I need to keep costs down in order to realize that affordable housing dream.
Can that screwdriver be used for harm? Yes. The pointy end can most certainly be dangerous if applied incorrectly.
AI can be dangerous, and we will continue hearing examples of that. But AI is also a profoundly useful tool, especially for small businesses and solopreneurs operating on a tight budget. Like many things in life, take away what is useful, and leave behind what isn’t.
Process Prompts
What is my most frequent recurring client question, and how can I use AI to create a reusable guide to that question?
What repetitive, time-draining task in my business could I automate with AI?
What business topic do I know I need to research more about, and how can AI conduct that research for me?
What written form do clients hate filling out, and how can AI turn it into a polished format?
What obstacle in my business do I spend too much time overanalyzing, and what prompts can I give AI to break it down into next steps?