by Nate Patton, Blink Account Executive
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is often portrayed as complex or intimidating, yet at its core, it’s simply machines simulating human-like intelligence. AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok (and more) function by learning from data, recognizing patterns, making decisions, and generating content at scale and speed. AI isn’t indifferent from any other “revolutionary” technology; it allows us to perform the same functions we always have, like information processing, ideation, and decision-making, but it allows us to do so much faster. Whether it’s narrow AI focused on one task or generative AI producing text, visuals, or code, the key to utilizing AI to its fullest capacity is to focus on how it extends human capabilities, not how it replaces them.
“With great power comes great responsibility,” and much like that, powerful technologies demand responsible usage. While there are some baseless worries regarding AI, its usage does raise some valid concerns. One area typically called into question are the privacy concerns associated with AI, as it often relies on large, often personal, datasets. Bias is another issue that should be considered. If AI learns from skewed data, it has the propensity to perpetuate inequity and inequality. AI also raises some flags around copyrights. AI-generated content lives in a gray area as it often draws from or emulates copyrighted material. Experts suggest that AI outputs may blur lines of authorship and accountability.
Concerns about overdependence are real issues that will need to be closely monitored. A recent McKinsey report found that while organizations using generative AI report productivity gains, only 17% say it has measurably impacted enterprise-level earnings (McKinsey & Company). Balancing innovation with ethical guardrails like transparency, attribution, verification, and policies is essential for trustworthy use. Businesses will always want improvements to productivity and expect to always get more with less, but not at the expense of getting lower-quality outputs.
Nearly eight in ten companies now report using AI in at least one business area—up from 55% in 2023 to 78% in 2024 (Hostinger). Among individual tools, ChatGPT offers versatile language processing for writing, coding, and brainstorming, whereas Claude excels at handling nuanced, long-form content. Visual professionals increasingly rely on Midjourney to generate original images, while Jasper empowers marketers to scale brand content. For research, Perplexity stands out by providing AI-driven results with proper sourcing—helping professionals narrow from curiosity to confidence.
Contrary to the fear that AI will displace creatives, it serves as a collaborator that accelerates ideation and iteration. While AI is certainly a tool that can help businesses learn more and be more nimble in areas they haven’t previously been able to support, humans still add the critical context, tone, and intention behind great marketing and creative work.
Kai‑Fu Lee, a leading innovator in AI, captured this dynamic perfectly: “The real promise of AI is not automation — it’s augmentation, helping humans to think and create in ways we’ve never imagined” (Forbes, Medium). In practice, designers use AI to quickly generate mockups, while writers use it for first-draft prompts—then iterate with intuition, experience, and empathy.
AI isn’t just for enterprises and teams, it’s also reshaping how individuals work. According to a Talker Research survey with ActiveCampaign, 77% of users say AI improves their confidence in work, and 75% believe it helps them compete with larger organizations (New York Post). Utilizing AI as a daily tool in employees’ toolbelts is evening the playing field for small and mid-size business. It allows teams to automate report summaries, draft strategy outlines, and generate campaign ideas, freeing up time for more strategic thinking and better, high-impact creative work.
At Blink, we treat AI as an everyday teammate. We regularly use it to create concept art and video while preserving creative fidelity. AI streamlines production workflows and enables faster delivery without sacrificing quality. Most importantly, it allows our teams to spend less time executing routine tasks and more time thinking strategically. Or as one team member put it: “Where I would have previously spent one hour thinking strategically about the project and three hours putting it into an email and a PowerPoint, I’m now able to spend three and a half hours thinking strategically and half an hour working on the email and PowerPoint.”
AI’s true payoff lies in efficiency. Our favorite use cases include auto-generating meeting summaries, email drafts, keyword research, and content outlines. For example, some firms report saving up to 7.5 hours weekly per employee using tools like Microsoft Copilot to handle admin tasks (The Australian). Over time, these micro‑efficiencies cascade into major gains by saving time, sharpening focus, and enabling deeper ideas.
As search evolves, so must our SEO strategies. Google’s AI Overviews now summarize answers directly in SERPs, reducing traffic to traditional web pages . In this environment, content must be experience-rich with unique case studies, expert insights, and on-point storytelling. SEO specialists need to structure content strategically for AI understanding, while demonstrating trustworthiness and topical authority.
The internet is shifting from portals we search to assistants that guide. As personalized, AI-generated content becomes more common, websites will morph into interactive, predictive experiences. Recommendations will become anticipatory, not reactive. Advertising creativity will be hyper-personalized and dynamic. Artificial intelligence is growing up quickly and it will reshape how we find, connect, and consume online.
AI can’t replicate emotional nuance, contextual insight, or human judgment. It doesn’t genuinely understand culture, values, or ethics, and while it can simulate empathy and humor, it doesn’t truly feel them. AI also struggles with strategic decision-making or big-picture vision. Remaining realistic about these limitations helps us use AI thoughtfully, working on finding ways for it to augment our employees’ strengths rather than outsourcing them.
AI is fast, powerful, and here to stay. But you don’t need to overhaul your operations overnight. Start small by finding a repetitive task that eats up a lot of your time, those are typically the perfect tasks for AI to help you solve for. Pilot thoughtfully to ensure that you’re utilizing AI in a way that augments your current efforts. Measure carefully so you don’t see a drop in quality at the expense of saving time. Commit to continued learning and responsible usage.
Want to learn more about how we use AI at Blink? Contact us!
by Nate Patton, Blink Account Executive
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is often portrayed as complex or intimidating, yet at its core, it’s simply machines simulating human-like intelligence. AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok (and more) function by learning from data, recognizing patterns, making decisions, and generating content at scale and speed. AI isn’t indifferent from any other “revolutionary” technology; it allows us to perform the same functions we always have, like information processing, ideation, and decision-making, but it allows us to do so much faster. Whether it’s narrow AI focused on one task or generative AI producing text, visuals, or code, the key to utilizing AI to its fullest capacity is to focus on how it extends human capabilities, not how it replaces them.
“With great power comes great responsibility,” and much like that, powerful technologies demand responsible usage. While there are some baseless worries regarding AI, its usage does raise some valid concerns. One area typically called into question are the privacy concerns associated with AI, as it often relies on large, often personal, datasets. Bias is another issue that should be considered. If AI learns from skewed data, it has the propensity to perpetuate inequity and inequality. AI also raises some flags around copyrights. AI-generated content lives in a gray area as it often draws from or emulates copyrighted material. Experts suggest that AI outputs may blur lines of authorship and accountability.
Concerns about overdependence are real issues that will need to be closely monitored. A recent McKinsey report found that while organizations using generative AI report productivity gains, only 17% say it has measurably impacted enterprise-level earnings (McKinsey & Company). Balancing innovation with ethical guardrails like transparency, attribution, verification, and policies is essential for trustworthy use. Businesses will always want improvements to productivity and expect to always get more with less, but not at the expense of getting lower-quality outputs.
Nearly eight in ten companies now report using AI in at least one business area—up from 55% in 2023 to 78% in 2024 (Hostinger). Among individual tools, ChatGPT offers versatile language processing for writing, coding, and brainstorming, whereas Claude excels at handling nuanced, long-form content. Visual professionals increasingly rely on Midjourney to generate original images, while Jasper empowers marketers to scale brand content. For research, Perplexity stands out by providing AI-driven results with proper sourcing—helping professionals narrow from curiosity to confidence.
Contrary to the fear that AI will displace creatives, it serves as a collaborator that accelerates ideation and iteration. While AI is certainly a tool that can help businesses learn more and be more nimble in areas they haven’t previously been able to support, humans still add the critical context, tone, and intention behind great marketing and creative work.
Kai‑Fu Lee, a leading innovator in AI, captured this dynamic perfectly: “The real promise of AI is not automation — it’s augmentation, helping humans to think and create in ways we’ve never imagined” (Forbes, Medium). In practice, designers use AI to quickly generate mockups, while writers use it for first-draft prompts—then iterate with intuition, experience, and empathy.
AI isn’t just for enterprises and teams, it’s also reshaping how individuals work. According to a Talker Research survey with ActiveCampaign, 77% of users say AI improves their confidence in work, and 75% believe it helps them compete with larger organizations (New York Post). Utilizing AI as a daily tool in employees’ toolbelts is evening the playing field for small and mid-size business. It allows teams to automate report summaries, draft strategy outlines, and generate campaign ideas, freeing up time for more strategic thinking and better, high-impact creative work.
At Blink, we treat AI as an everyday teammate. We regularly use it to create concept art and video while preserving creative fidelity. AI streamlines production workflows and enables faster delivery without sacrificing quality. Most importantly, it allows our teams to spend less time executing routine tasks and more time thinking strategically. Or as one team member put it: “Where I would have previously spent one hour thinking strategically about the project and three hours putting it into an email and a PowerPoint, I’m now able to spend three and a half hours thinking strategically and half an hour working on the email and PowerPoint.”
AI’s true payoff lies in efficiency. Our favorite use cases include auto-generating meeting summaries, email drafts, keyword research, and content outlines. For example, some firms report saving up to 7.5 hours weekly per employee using tools like Microsoft Copilot to handle admin tasks (The Australian). Over time, these micro‑efficiencies cascade into major gains by saving time, sharpening focus, and enabling deeper ideas.
As search evolves, so must our SEO strategies. Google’s AI Overviews now summarize answers directly in SERPs, reducing traffic to traditional web pages . In this environment, content must be experience-rich with unique case studies, expert insights, and on-point storytelling. SEO specialists need to structure content strategically for AI understanding, while demonstrating trustworthiness and topical authority.
The internet is shifting from portals we search to assistants that guide. As personalized, AI-generated content becomes more common, websites will morph into interactive, predictive experiences. Recommendations will become anticipatory, not reactive. Advertising creativity will be hyper-personalized and dynamic. Artificial intelligence is growing up quickly and it will reshape how we find, connect, and consume online.
AI can’t replicate emotional nuance, contextual insight, or human judgment. It doesn’t genuinely understand culture, values, or ethics, and while it can simulate empathy and humor, it doesn’t truly feel them. AI also struggles with strategic decision-making or big-picture vision. Remaining realistic about these limitations helps us use AI thoughtfully, working on finding ways for it to augment our employees’ strengths rather than outsourcing them.
AI is fast, powerful, and here to stay. But you don’t need to overhaul your operations overnight. Start small by finding a repetitive task that eats up a lot of your time, those are typically the perfect tasks for AI to help you solve for. Pilot thoughtfully to ensure that you’re utilizing AI in a way that augments your current efforts. Measure carefully so you don’t see a drop in quality at the expense of saving time. Commit to continued learning and responsible usage.
Want to learn more about how we use AI at Blink? Contact us!