Your New Co-Worker May Be a Robot—And That’s Actually a Good Thing

These digital companies are using artificial intelligence to help creatives do what they love

Don’t expect your company’s newest hire to shake your hand or take you up on that friendly invitation to lunch. It’s not that they’re trying to be rude; it’s just that they would rather stay behind and analyze data, transcribe notes, and do all of the boring, yet necessary, work that’s been piling up on your desk. Oh, and they’re also a robot.

Artificial intelligence (AI)—machines that rely heavily on deep learning and natural language processing to perform human-like tasks—is infiltrating the modern workplace at a speed faster than you can tweet a funny cat meme.

So while your robot counterpart will happily stay behind to do all of the routine tasks you could probably do with your eyes shut—and, no offense, do a way better job at it, too—you can focus more on what you love to do, like bounce big picture ideas off of your colleagues over a cup of coffee.

“AI is going to allow you to do what you specialize in and allow you to use your brain to think more, to be more strategic and creative,” AC Lion CEO Alan Cutter told online trade magazine Digiday. “Allow the AI to do the job that you never really wanted to do and, frankly, aren’t as good at.”

This includes work like data analysis and routine task management—areas in which AI excels, but most of us don’t have the time or if we’re being honest, the desire to do with machine precision. The best part: The Digiday article says, “it can also shave hours off the workdays of higher level employees, taking routine tasks off of their plates and leaving creatives to do what they do best—idea generation.” Not only will that help to boost productivity and revenue for both
you and your company, it will also help to make you look like a total rock star at your job. With AI increasingly being onboarded into the workforce, we’re seeing high-profile uses not only in the tech space, but also in e-commerce, marketing, advertising, and digital media. Here’s a look at how some of AC Lion’s top digital companies are using AI as part of the creative process—and how you can be a part of it:

Conde Nast: The mass media company uses IBM Watson artificial intelligence to create social campaigns for its brands by analyzing data to discover influencers for potential brand ambassadors. This cuts down on your time scouring social media, so you can spend more time tweeting funny memes and GIFs and honing your Instagram aesthetic.

SoundCloud: Dubbed “the YouTube of audio,” SoundCloud uses machine learning for its “The Upload” feature, which provides listeners new music suggestions for what they might like to listen to next, based on their listening history. This way, you can spend more time attracting new artists to SoundCloud, rather than curating playlists for users.

Mack Weldon: The men’s clothing startup, best known for its underwear, uses an auto-replenish feature that lets users sign up to have more product automatically delivered to them. This way, you can spend more time developing new leads and clientele, rather than refilling orders for your current client base.

As a creative, you understand the importance of having time to drum up ideas and explore new concepts (that’s what you’re really there do, after all), and some forward-thinking companies just get that more than others. Want to work alongside robots at a company that lets you put your creative mind to good use? Send us your resume and let the recruiters at AC Lion help connect you with your dream job—and your new robot co-workers.