If we take away the incessant torrent of AI news, articles, panicked Reddit posts, trashy Tik Tok videos, and other slosh. What’s left? How do you actually use AI in your day to day?
Let’s start with a proud sample of one — me!
Last month I used AI to generate some voice overs for a marketing video and an AI avatar tool to put faces to the words. I wasn’t hiding it was AI generated though, it was part of it. I’d say it’s a pretty niche use case.
Last week I used AI to do deep research for a Request for Proposal for a client. I ain’t spending a week reviewing 140 websites about digital strategies and competitor analysis. I trust the AI to do it for me, even if it’s not 100% perfect. It saved a ton of time and all I had was to read the insights, write some human analysis as to what they mean, and stick them into a presentation.
This morning I used AI to give me ideas on how to make my oeufs en cocotte less runny when they come out the oven. Before that I generated some character names for my roleplaying game.
AI seems to have slipped into my day to day pretty seamlessly. I like it. It’s like having a slightly overeager information butler at my fingertips. I don’t Google thins as often anymore, as predicted by some report somewhere. I don’t spend too much time doing desk research. Is it bad? Absolutely not. Does it impact my creativity? Also no. It’s more of a brainstorming partner. I’m making all the decisions. I don’t think I ever saw it come up with a truly original idea. You’d need a human for that.
But hey, I wouldn’t call myself the typical user. I actually work with AI for a living, kinda. Let’s take another, more robust sample. Let’s ask some real people how they use AI and how it impacts them. Conveniently we did some interviews on just this topic back in March. Here’s what we came up with.
People use AI to write letters, plan holidays, and generate emails
Big insight (yes, sarcasm). Most peoples’ use cases kinda align with mine. AI has become a part of our lives in a completely expected and boring way. It removes the minutiae of having to do boring stuff.
AI can be your lawyer, wedding planner, can help write a complaint that actually gets heard. It opens up all sorts of opportunities. Listen to this. One participant was telling us about a legal battle they had with a company.
> When I was writing my email to the [company]. I did, like, so that it sounded legally sound. My housemate did put it through a ChatGPT type thing. So I think it’s almost like, interesting to think about the fact that it’s not only like companies who are using it, but, like, people themselves, I imagine, when they’re having complaints.
Isn’t it great? You have a lawyer in your pocket now! It’ll get a bunch of facts wrong, and hallucinate another bunch, but boy can it write a good complaint.
People use virtual assistants like Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant for tasks, reminders, checking weather, and controlling home devices
Aha! Got you! I never said we’ll be talking about generative AI, did I?
But seriously, this finding points at an interesting difference between how we—designers, researchers, etc., working in tech—think about AI and how Mrs. Smith from down the road thinks about it. Alexa is still the pinnacle of AI technology for many people.
Conclusion? Quite a few actually.
Firstly, you’ll probably need to explain generative AI to your gran when it comes to her Alexa.
Secondly, when it does, it’s going to be fantastic for older people. We already know that older folk sometimes use Alexa to alleviate loneliness. Imagine if it could talk like a human and provide some emotional support from time to time like ChatGPT does? For this generation the AI revolution won’t be about making hyper-realistic promo videos. It’ll be about a familiar voice becoming that little bit smarter. I quite look forward to this one.
People use AI to translate and learn languages
One participant used ChatGPT to surprise his Danish wife. His granddaughter used it to write a poem in the style of William Shakespeare for school and it gave him an idea to do something similar but in Danish. Isn’t it lovely?
AI is opening a whole new world of languages for us. There are already demos of real-time translation (similar to what Google Translate does), but the added value of learning the language is pretty neat.
Conclusions? There is something about making localisation easy, perhaps enriching simple translation with an element of learning is a neat idea. Ultimately though, AI is democratizing the connection and lowering the barrier to not just understanding but connecting with other across linguistic divides.
Some conclusions
So after sifting through the hype and looking at how we actually use it, what’s the real story here?
AI has clearly become a part of our lives in a very subtle and non-invasive way. This “Boring Revolution” is actually kinda nice. I’m sick and tired of the AI hype online. How it’s going to take our jobs and disrupt our very way of life… and other dramatic predictions.
Instead I’m coming to think of it as the great enabler. It’s not about sentient robots taking over or all designers losing their jobs. It’s about people gaining superpowers—like sifting through the noise and getting the information you’re actually searching for, or writing a near-perfect complaint letter, or feeling less lonely.
This is wonderfully “boring” in a world where disinformation and AI-slosh is taking over.
N.B.: hey, we’re all aware of the risks, but just in case you aren’t, this “boring” revolution is still very much open to bad actors. Disinformation can become quite insidious and hard to spot. Companies can learn to optimise their content to make sure they appear in AI search results. Marketing departments and bad state actors can manipulate the narrative. Imagine if ChatGPT tells your some fake news? But stop. Just stop. Let’s not think about that for now. Let us enjoy the fuzzy, cosy glow of the ‘boring’ revolution for just a minute longer.
