This is my second entry in my interview series. I’ve decided on a rather unique interview for this one, because it hits on the current trend in A.I. and how it’s eliminating jobs. My first interview was with a young woman (Mercedes) who was working as a case manager. It gave people a good insight into the world of social services. This interview will be more focused on corporate work, in particular those roles that are being outsourced or elinimated due to A.I.
Just recently a major company has come out and said that A.I. would replace a huge number of jobs. So, in keeping with that theme I thought it would be a good idea to interview someone who has experience with A.I. outsourcing by employers.
But before I even get into the topic of A.I. outsourcing, I think it’d be good to define just exactly what that is.
A.I. is any automated, computer-created process that is generated using artificial intelligence. In the world of content marketing and copywriting, it’s also used for customer support roles in ever increasing numbers.
For the most part, the average person would not be able to tell the difference between a computer generated customer support agent or a website that was created using A.I. copywriting. For instance, many small healthcare clinics have outsourced their entire copywriting and blog producing teams to A.I. firms.
Now, let’s jump into the interview with Jane and she can
How Did You Get Your Job in Marketing?
My sister works in Human Resources. She got a job for a pretty large firm after graduating college and has been there ever since. She was always telling me whenever they had a job opening, but I was busy freelancing at the time and never needed a full time role. But once the companies I worked for started cutting the work I told her to let me know as soon as one opened and she did. It was pretty easy I wouldn’t have ever applied for the role since I didn’t have the experience, but she got me in.
What About Your Freelance Writing Work?
That all started to dry up over a year back. What happened was that a lot of the content agencies started to hire A.I. editors. The pieces that writers would write were now being composed by A.I. engines. They then just hired a bunch of people to edit them to make sure they sounded like real speech. I looked into some of those jobs, the editor jobs, but most of them were paying minimum wage without benefits. Some companies even sent those jobs to the Philippines and Honduras where they are paying ridiculously low amounts. One editor told me that they are offering like $2hr to do A.I. copy review.
Why Did They Fire Writers?
Some came out and said that they were moving all work to A.I. engines, others didn’t say anything. Some small clients asked if I could match prices and when I heard what they were paying I almost gagged. When a client who runs a chain of dental practices or a non-profit organization asks for a dozen blog posts for 50 bucks, you know it’s a race to the bottom.
The content agencies, which are what a lot of these online marketing firms are, are basically pumping out A.I. word salad for the lowest rate. They cut all their writers and most of their editors and either hire college kids or outsource the rest. So they can afford to charge their clients less.
How Was Your Interview Process For The Marketing Firm?
Well, it’s not really a marketing firm. It’s a not for profit that does a lot of outreach, most of it local but quite a bit goes national.
It was great, because I was actually able to get to speak with someone! Before I got into freelance writing and copywriting, I worked for a firm in person. You know, desk and coworkers, the whole thing. I had sent out like a minimum of 100 resumes and countless job postings where no one ever responded. It’s incredible. So I was really hesitant to go through that again.
But my sister worked for the organization and she just told me when the boss could meet me. They handle a lot of large outreaches, so it’s less A.I. driven because real companies want a variety of services. The online agencies are basically fluff, which is why they can outsource all their jobs and send the writing to an A.I. engine.
Most of my work now is more data tracking, a lot of spreadsheet work, and some classical market based analysis.
Did You Use a Recruiter?
I was thinking of using one, but my sister was able to introduce me right away, so I never got the chance. I can see why people would use a recruiter though, because it’s so hard to connect with a company unless you have a friend or someone working in the place. No one responds to emails or calls anymore. So yeah, I would totally have used a recruiter if I needed one.
Here's a good article that discusses how recrutiers can help you find work.
Some Revelant News Articles : A.I. Related Job News
Since this is such an important topic, and one that is constanyl evolying, what I want to do is have a few links revelent to the discussion.
Here's a good brief article that covers some of the jobs ChatGPT (a form of AI) is involved with.
This article has a more positive spin on the use of AI in the workplace.
This piece discusses IBM and how they are invovled in the use of AI in their workplace hiring tendencies.
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