How could a robot help you do your job?

“One of the best things about our profession is that it’s almost impossible to automate any of it. What kind of world would it be where colours, fonts, images, layouts, words and the rest of it were simply churned out by machines using algorithms, formulas and code? Of course, we have rules and parameters we’re taught – programmed, if you like – to work within; but it’s our creativity, imagination and intuition that makes every piece of design unique and special. No robot will ever replace the human eye, hand and mind – or at least, not in my lifetime, I hope. Though, a robot me that I could send along to certain client meetings? Now we’re talking.”

“First of all, I think we need to embrace the fact that robots are taking over all our boring automation jobs (and doing them better than we do!), so we can focus on what humans do best – being creative. The industrial, 9am-5pm, ‘one office’ jobs are over, and I am already planning how I fit into the future of work (with and without robots). Therefore, the creative application and programming of bots to help us out is very useful. I would use a robot to do my accounting and book-keeping for sure. Collecting data and making coffee come at joint second place. When AI, however, is as mature as to be expected, who knows what will happen!”

“I’d like AI to take the slack with our artworking. Especially now that brands are required to be flexible and adaptive, which often means lots of logo variants. I once had to create around six hundred logo assets for a rebrand in the US. The process of stepping and repeating the same thing over and over is, in itself, robotic. Beyond artwork I am highly doubtful that AI will be able to create brands that are truly original and able to create emotional connections with consumers.”

“I’ve recently been watching sci-fi TV show Westworld, which shows in my answer to this question – I would create a super-real robot clone of myself. My robotic self would attend to all business except design. This would bring an end to those endless meetings and timesheets (now that would be a breakthrough!), leaving me with nothing but time to work with the designers. Of course, for this to work, the outside world would have to believe that there is just one Stuart Radford, meaning the robotic clone and I could never be seen together. Even more difficult to manage? The egos – ‘That was my idea.’ ‘No, it was mine!’”

Which part of your job would you like a robot to do? Let us know in the comments section below.