With A.I. just because you can, doesn't mean you should
In this week's example of 'Just because you can, it doesn't mean you should', LinkedIn have gone big on the BETA test for their AI powered community product. As a job seeker, I've been invited to join numerous groups of peers looking for jobs under certain titles, ostensibly to support each other as we checks notes compete for exactly the same roles.
The first one I saw go live was the Head of Marketing community, which I didn't actually sign up for but was auto-joined to anyway, and the (clearly AI-derived) prompts it came up with aren't worth the paper they're written on (see below).
Like many of the other unwitting guineapigs, I left the chat almost immediately. Communities are all well and good, but the absolute necessity if they're to work is the power of actual people.
People collaborating, people debating, people going out of their way to support other people for no reward. Trying to initiate a Noun community without Verb community is like trying to pick a lock with a fish finger.
During the Covid lockdowns, I joined a What'sApp community called Marketing Leaders. Now that's a community that works for the above reasons. I joined another, larger iteration called CMO Circle earlier this year, and both work because:-
A/ The founders put certain rules in place to ensure they didn't become sales farms or echo chambers and
B/ All members recognise and embrace the tenet that in a thriving community, you get out what you put in.
#LinkedIn has ignored these truisms for its community BETA test and as a result, they're destined to fail.
I'm hugely excited about the opportunities #AI brings to marketing and the wider world, but for the next couple of years at least, be prepared for many, many more examples of platforms running before they can walk. The wise ones would keep their AI powder dry, focus on benefit over function and avoid false dawns like this one.
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