Opting Out on AI isn’t an Option, Corporate Leaders Say
Say goodbye to the days when using AI was considered cheating—AI is now part of the assignment.
Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke made this clear in a memo to staff emphasizing how essential AI is to creating the best canvas for entrepreneurial success.
“…but it was too much of a suggestion. This is what I want to change here today,” Lutke wrote. “Using AI effectively is now a fundamental expectation.”
Many in the creative world are still trying to put up a resistance, but stubborn arguments for outdated methods didn’t save the typewriter, darkroom, or film projector, and won’t prevent casualties from AI.
Soon, artificial intelligence will be so deeply integrated into so many tools and services that claiming you don’t use AI will be ludicrous.
If you avoid Gemini but use Google, you’ll still be using AI for research—it’s baked in.
If you avoid ChatGPT but use spell check—guilty! You’ll still be editing with AI because it’ll be baked in.
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Companies are weaving AI into their tools to make them faster, smarter, more efficient, more effective, and more capable.
AI will give us the same boost, if we capitalize on it.
But what about those who try to ignore and resist?
“Those who will not wake up and understand the new reality fast are doomed, said Micha Kaufman, CEO of the freelancing platform Fiverr.
He told his team that if they do not leverage AI to become exceptional talent at what they do— “a master” —they will face the need for a career change “in a matter of months.”
That’s where we are!
“If you don’t like what I wrote; If you think I’m full of shit, or just an asshole who’s trying to scare you—be my guest and disregard this message. I love all of you and wish you nothing but good things, but I honestly don’t’ think that a promising professional future awaits you if you disregard reality.”
Hitting a similar note, Lutke said, “Frankly, I don’t think it’s feasible to opt out of learning the skill of applying AI in your craft; you are welcome to try, but I want to be honest I cannot see this working out today, and definitely not tomorrow. Stagnation is almost certain, and stagnation is slow-motion failure.”
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As a freelancer, you don’t have a CEO to warn you or give it to you straight. But you do have me.
And I’m telling you, the time for hemming and hawing is drawing to a close, folks.
Clients aren’t going to be debating the love of art and craft with you. They aren’t going to be coddling you. They aren’t going to wait for you to be sold on AI.
New bars are being set, and if you’re not prepared, you’re going to get passed by and left behind.
CHECK OUT: WRITERS, 11 Ways To Make AI Work For You
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