By now you’ve seen the hype cycle:

One of the AI giants drops an impressive new feature or tool.

It condenses a lengthy legacy workflow into a turnkey task.

The fanboys praise it and create YouTube videos.

The headlines declare the end of entire professions.

Sometimes it even impacts valuations and moves markets

Then the masses start playing around and the cracks start to show...

This is not to say that the rapid developments of AI capabilities are not remarkable or game-changing.

They truly are, and the pace of development is mind-bending.

But they're typically not the kill switch they're often made out to be.

I'll explain.

Over the weekend, the latest episode of this cycle hit close to home with Claude Design’s Friday drop.

Seemingly out of nowhere, you could now develop an entire brand design system in less than an hour.

Crank out slide decks, websites, prototypes, and videos matching that kit.

Among other things, you could basically create the output assets similar to what I just announced as the Intellectual Headshots Premium Portfolio last week. 🫠

Not gonna lie, my stomach did drop a bit when I first saw it, but here’s why I’m not freaking out, and perhaps these apply if you’re feeling a potential disruption by AI in your domain as well.

In order of impact, ascending:

1/ These tools are still expensive — most early Claude Design testers were reporting burning through their weekly tokens in a couple of hours, after which you pay-as-you-go, which could get exhorbitant quickly.

New tool doesn’t equal free tool.

2/ These tools cater to DIYers — yes, I agree everyone should be leveraging these tools, but most are not (remember Ruben Hassid’s donut graph?).

AI advances will increase the number of do-it-yourselfers, but in the short-to-medium term, there is still a significant population who don’t have the time, skill or desire to climb a learning curve. Especially one that’s ever-changing.

That done-for-you or done-with-you population is your client pool, and always has been.

3/ These tools still require quality inputs — we can oooh and ahh superficially at the outputs, but to get to uniquely valuable outputs, you have to have well-curated inputs.

In the case of my Intellectual Headshots work, those inputs include a clear Narrative Spine of your business, the well-articulated lens and pains of your buyer, a defined strategic direction and tone, an intentional decision of what type of assets suit your needs.

These inputs come from non-negotiable pre-work that requires human skill and judgement (at least for now!).

4/ These tools are accelerators — rather than existential foes, you can think of these tools as opportunities to elevate your service, trim delivery times, scale your business model.

In doing so, you potentially won't need to relegate yourself to some lower level beneath larger firms or agencies — AI is flattening the terrain, actually expanding the types of clients you're now competitive in pursuing.

All in all, will your (my) offers need to evolve in response to expanding AI capability? Certainly.

But innovation has always been necessary for any business.

If you can absorb the pace of change, and keep your eye on providing value, no single feature release will ever put you out of business.

Just don’t sit still.

💡

-Wes