First, a story

In late April 2023, I woke to an impromptu 15 minute meeting with HR blocked off on my Dropbox work calendar. I knew exactly what this was: a reduction in force, or “RIF” as they call it, aka mass layoff. My job as content strategist was about to end.

In all of the negativity that followed that day, what I remember most is was what Dropbox founder and CEO Drew Houston wrote in a company-wide memo:

That was almost 2 years ago and I haven’t been back in tech since. And guess what? Drew is totally right. Content jobs are getting harder and harder to find, and it’s pretty obvious why…it’s the rise of the “I can get ChatGPT to do this” mindset.

As a writer and content professional, you can’t not get upset at this new reality. The thought of a machine doing what should feel uniquely human — writing — feels yucky and offensive. It’s dangerous, too, because we are witnessing our livelihoods evaporate before us.

Hey, I respect you for being upset, but can I offer some advice? Don’t stay mad. There is a way out of this, and it’s better than we can imagined.

3 key AI mindset shifts to adapt right now

Accept AI for what it is

Artificial Intelligence is a generational technology that’s revolutionizing the way we live. Resistance to this is futile, unless you go old school and start writing literature and poetry.

As soon as you surrender to this inevitability, the sooner you’ll snap back on your feet and start using AI in your favor, i.e., increase your influence and make more money.

Ever since I’ve accepted AI (for me it didn’t take long because I think it’s pretty cool), a totally new world of potential has opened up.

AI is not here to replace you (but you need to do some work)

It may feel like AI is going to replace you, but it’s actually going to make you better at what you already do. But be prepared to learn some new and challenging things (I’ll cover this topic soon).

Better yet, AI can also make you better at more things related to what you do. As a content strategist, AI enables me to build empowering tools that I could only once dream of.

You are now an editor

Are you a writer? Congratulations, you’ve just been promoted to editor.

You see, LLMs can write — just not very well. They need human guidance on all sorts of things like style, voice and tone, strategy, direction, etc. And they are only as good as you teach them to be.

I know it sounds scary or disrespectful to hand over writing duties to a machine, but the sooner you do this the sooner you’re going to catapult your success as a content person.

To make this easier, think of the LLM as a writer or editorial assistant that works for you.

As editor, you are in charge. Now let AI 10X your success.