MC.71: AI - A is for Augmentation, not Automatisation

Hey everyone,

You've likely seen those viral LinkedIn posts showcasing elaborate automation workflows in Make, Zapier, or other tools—promising to completely automate content creation, outbound marketing, and more. While these eye-catching demonstrations generate clicks, they raise important questions about AI's true role in our daily lives.

Despite our intuitive hope that AI might completely free us from mundane tasks, the reality is more nuanced. AI reaches its full potential not when it replaces humans entirely, but when it augments our capabilities through meaningful interaction and feedback loops.

From Creators to Curators

The evolution is clear: we're becoming less creators and more curators and editors. The greatest productivity gains come not from AI working for us, but from us working with AI in a collaborative partnership.

There's a somewhat naive notion that technology can entirely replace human involvement. In reality, even the most advanced AI solutions handle perhaps 90-95% of a process, leaving that crucial 5-10% where human judgment, creativity, and oversight add irreplaceable value.

The Bicycle for the Mind

As Steve Jobs famously described computers as "bicycles for the mind," we must remember that bicycles still require riders. The concept of augmentation is far more powerful and realistic than complete automation.

Full automation isn't the goal—the real question is determining automation's appropriate role in our workflows. Just as the internet shifted our skills from pure memorization to effective information seeking, AI is transforming our value from execution to evaluation and direction.

The New Skills Paradigm

Our evolving relationship with AI requires us to develop new competencies:

1. The ability to judge AI-generated outputs

2. Effectively guiding AI through clear instructions

3. Providing meaningful feedback to improve results

4. Selecting quality outputs and refining subpar ones

These skills create virtuous cycles that continuously enhance our creative and professional processes.

Embracing the Augmented Future

At Alter, we understand that the future belongs to those who master the art of human-AI collaboration. Our contextual AI assistant for macOS doesn't aim to replace your work—it enhances your natural workflow by understanding your context and augmenting your capabilities within the applications you already use.

The true revolution isn't about automation replacing humans; it's about augmentation empowering us to achieve more than either humans or AI could accomplish alone.

This newsletter was created with Alter—AI that enhances rather than replaces your best thinking.

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Until next Thursday 🎉