The Tools Get Commoditized. Humans Don't.

Every major technology triggers the same fear. Here's the pattern, and what it means for your career amid AI

If you look at history, all the pessimism of profound technologies washes away because convenience is king. Evolution is the flight of man. Let me explain how this relates to us and the world of AI.

Experience-Maxing Is Legit

IRL matters more than ever, and we bet the farm on it. VaynerX is now fully integrated as an experiential agency that treats analog, in-real-life work as a production day for social. You’re getting social creative production as an added value. It’s like when Jason, and now Train, followed me around the world. I’m living my life, but I’m vlogging, because it’s content for social. It all ends up on the phone and goes viral.

The technology is here, but what people are craving is the in-life connection. Experience-maxing works because the experience is the substance and the content is the distribution. As a brand, you need both.

We’ve Gone From Fear to Confidence

In the beginning with AI, there was a lot of trepidation, and now we’ve gone from fear to confidence. The energy at Cannes this year proved it. People are no longer on their back foot wondering if AI is going to take them out. They’re asking a better question: what does this mean for what I make, who I make it for, and how I move my business?

AI is not going to be about this doom and gloom some people say. We will have entire companies, industries, and jobs created because of it, just like we had with the tractor, the internet, and every other technology.

Remember six or seven years ago? Big data, big data, big data. Internet of things. And big data really did play out. But here’s what most people didn’t anticipate: at scale, it became a commodity, not an advantage.

The same thing is coming for AI. Over the next half decade, the tools will get commoditized. The humans, and how they use them, will be the variable. It has always been like that.

Respect the Fear First

The idea that a machine could do that work triggers a very human fear: it’s going to take my job.

Of course it does. And we have to respect that fear first. The message isn’t “get over it.” The message is: stay open, lean in, try it. Then people start to see the tedious tasks disappear, and they love it. But respect comes before adoption.

I had one person on my team at Vayner who was very concerned about AI early on. So I googled, right there in the room, old forum threads of people furious about Photoshop when it came out. Same fear. Same hyperbole about machines taking everyone’s jobs. Same thing with the computer before that. Same thing with the television. Same thing with the radio, etc.

History is clear on this. The people who got great at Photoshop outflanked the people still working on old Microsoft products or on paper. It’s the same today. People who know how to use the stuff are your problem…not the stuff itself.

Convenience Is King

Look at history. All the pessimism around profound technologies washes away, because convenience is king. Evolution is the flight of man. It is what it is. And we have to have optimism, because optimism begets optimism. It also happens to be historically correct.

This shift is seismic, full stop. What’s different now is brand. Brand informed by humans and insight. The human matters more than ever, because of the empathy and the connection. At scale, the tools will commoditize. The humans won’t. That’s why we’re all craving real world connection. Anything that is inherently analog is about to win. Landscaping. Restaurants. Bars. Running clubs. Hiking tours. Putting the phone down. People are yearning for it all.

Live in Real Life, Then Go Hard on Social

OGs, listen to me carefully. Do you remember back in the day when you had websites in the late '90s and then you woke up one day and realized, wait a minute, our website has to be read by Google so we show up on the first page. This is what this fine gentleman is describing. If you are not creating content for social, if your websites and your places that you show up digitally are not structured to be readable by these agents, you have no opportunity of being bought.

Jungle Gym, Not Ladder

The best career advice in my whole conversation with an exec at Cannes came when they described their own path. It was not up and to the right. It was a jungle gym, not a ladder. You go sideways. You go down to go up. You get more tools in your toolkit along the way.

The bottom line for every young marketer: be a learner, be curious, and never give up.

And that can mean looking “silly” in the short run.

Many people in corporate marketing don’t have the humility to take a job at a lower title. To take one step backwards for three steps forward. But that risky job, the one where everyone in the hallways asks why you took it? High beta, high return.

And if it’s a two-way door, walk through it. If it doesn’t work, walk back through it and go to the next thing. That’s the move most people are too proud to make, and it’s the one that builds the careers worth admiring.