We built the calculator. Then mourned the loss of arithmetic.
We lit the bulb. Then missed the glow of candles.
We wrote the dictionary. Then feared words would lose their soul.
We trained the algorithm. Then hated how much we liked the result.

We want our tools brilliant, just not too brilliant.
But this is what we do: we make, we fear, we adapt, we make again.
It’s the rhythm of progress. And it’s very, very human.

AI bruises the ego.
It blunts the rush of doing it the hard way.
It shifts the old sense of achievement.

But that’s not what stings for creatives.

What stings is the chorus from the sidelines.
“I can just get AI to do it.”
As if creativity were a button to press.
As if craft, taste, and judgment were cheap. Disposable.

AI doesn’t belittle the work.
But that attitude might.

And let’s be honest, there’s nothing that new here.

Back in 2016, I worked alongside a tech team who were ahead of their time. They trained Max, a machine learning tool that analysed subject lines and suggested better-performing options. AI, helping us write. No panic. Just progress.

Or take Adobe CC. Anyone who’s used 'Generative fill' knows what a life-changer it is. We didn’t fear it, we welcomed it. We’ve been collaborating with AI in quiet ways for years.

The real problem? We keep calling AI a tool.
It’s not. It’s an ally. A collaborator. A brilliant, unpredictable colleague with impossible speed and endless ideas.

The magic happens when we stop resisting and start guiding.
The agencies that make AI part of the team will pull ahead. The ones still debating it? Already behind.

Swallow the ego. Embrace the partner.

At least 20–40% of long-form posts now involve some level of AI generation or heavy AI drafting (especially since tools like ChatGPT, Jasper, and Copy.ai became mainstream)

This one included.