There’s an ongoing global debate about the best way to use AI. I’m on record advocating for using AI to enhance humans as opposed to replacing them. That’s because I think not using AI puts every radio employee at a disadvantage to radio employees who are using AI. Plus, we’re so thin already any additional cuts to staffing would do more harm than good. But, how do we utilize AI tools for virtually every aspect of our jobs without slowly weakening our own skills? Here’s my thought on that.
I believe the trick to not losing skills or our cognitive abilities is to learn how to do everything we’re asking AI to do first and then hand that task over to AI. That way we can better manage the work AI does on our behalf. Plus, we’re capable of stepping back in and doing it ourselves if there’s a temporary AI outage or if a specific AI tool drastically increases their prices and we’re scrambling to find and learn another AI tool to replace it. Because both of those scenarios will happen and, if we skipped the step of learning it ourselves, we won’t be equipped to handle either of them. It’s similar to the Chic-fil-A philosophy of having owners work every job in the restaurant before managing it, only in this case we’re managing tech instead of personnel.
Yes, there are definitely going to be circumstances where we’re using AI tools to supplement areas where we’re weaker. IE if you struggle with writing using AI to write for you. In those cases we would still be wise to read through everything the AI writes for us. One, because AI makes mistakes that a human checking it is likely to catch. Two, so we can learn how to be better writers ourselves. When we do that we’re not really learning from a machine, we’re learning from the millions of human writers the AI was fed that taught it how to write.
One of the big advantages independent media has over traditional media is that they have no choice but to have a DIY approach. There’s no one to help or delegate to because there’s no staff. That’s part of the reason I encourage radio stations to partner with outside influencers and others who are creating content on their own in their markets. It’s in hope that their self-sufficient DIY attitude and willingness to take risks rubs off on our employees and that our structure and professionalism rubs off on them.
What do you think? What’s the key to using AI without letting it dumb you down? Comment below or email me at Andy@RadioStationConsultant.com.
Pic AI generated using Gemini.
Andy Meadows is the Chief Editor of Radio Update and the owner of Radio Station Consultant where he consults radio stations across the country on programming and digital.