So I’ve been wanting to write about this for a while, mainly because I’ve been using AI far more recently than I was, say, twelve months ago. It’s definitely come a long way, and the accuracy is so much better now. There’s a lot less slop.
That’s particularly true when it comes to code. Well, let’s face it, I don’t really code any more. I’m literally an overseer.
To keep my agents from going wild, I’ve set up a strict workflow. For every task I create, the agent has to create a branch, do the development work and submit a pull request. Then I go in and inspect it. My role has fundamentally changed, but I suspect that’s the case across the board for anyone who’s properly embraced AI.
Looking back a year or eighteen months, I was diving into all of this with heaps of enthusiasm. My workflow has completely transformed since then, and I use AI for significantly more tasks. The snag is that it’s stripped away my creativity, and I really miss that side of things.
The trade-off, of course, is that I’m far more productive now. That’s a massive practical shift, but mentally I’m finding it quite conflicting. I feel myself becoming less creative. Yes, AI is a tool that can ramp up output, but my creativity is in the nitpicking tweaks, the “what if I try this?” process and that genuine sense of discovery. What AI gives me is “productive creativity”, if you can even call it that.
I’m not convinced that’s a healthy place to be long-term. I feel like pulling back on my reliance on AI when it comes to creative work. The direct impact will be a drop in raw productivity, but for the sake of my mental stimulus, I think it’s a price worth paying.
Where AI has genuinely benefited me is on the production side. Two or three years ago, I started my YouTube channel with a heavy focus on user- and developer-centric content. As I’ve scaled up and tried to improve the production value, the editing process was becoming a massive manual slog.
I’ve leveraged AI to speed all of that up. For instance, I use a custom script that takes my edits, strips out all the “ums”, “ahs” and dead spaces, grabs my last good line, and essentially edits the sequence for me. I’ve also built automation for syncing audio to paper edits and dropping in motion graphics. To be honest, I used to really enjoy doing motion graphics, but they take a serious amount of time. AI has simply stepped in to keep the assembly line moving.
It’s the same story with WordPress development. I have dedicated agents configured specifically for plugin development. As I mentioned, for any task I set, the agent branches the code and opens a PR for me to test. I’m just orchestrating and overseeing the codebase rather than writing it line by line. I reckon I speak for the majority of developers who have embraced AI here.
So, in terms of productivity? Brilliant. But the knock-on effect on personal creativity is real.
There is an old adage that sometimes you’ve just got to get the job done, and that’s precisely where AI slots in. But I have plenty of creative outlets outside of tech: cooking, painting, drawing, playing music, design work and writing. It’s embarrassingly easy to get AI to spit out a block of text, but that doesn’t compare to dumping your actual thoughts onto paper and wrestling with the edit. That is what gets the heart pumping and tickles the brain. Prompting a box to generate mediocre content isn’t great for SEO, and it certainly isn’t doing your creative sanity any favours.
I’ll probably revisit this in another twelve months to see where things stand. Knowing me, I’ll probably get lazy and lean into AI even more. But I’m hoping I can hold onto a bit of genuine creativity along the way.
Are you in the same boat, or is it just me? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
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