Artisan CEO Jaspar Carmichael-Jack defended the marketing campaign’s messaging in an interview with SFGate. “They’re considerably dystopian, however so is AI,” he instructed the outlet in a textual content message. “The way in which the world works is altering.” In one other message he wrote, “We wished one thing that may draw eyes—you do not draw eyes with boring messaging.”
So what does Artisan really do? Its essential product is an AI “gross sales agent” referred to as Ava that supposedly automates the work of discovering and messaging potential prospects. The corporate claims it really works with “no human enter” and prices 96% lower than hiring a human for a similar position. Though, given the present state of AI expertise, it is prudent to be skeptical of those claims.
Artisan additionally has plans to broaden its AI instruments past gross sales into areas like advertising and marketing, recruitment, finance, and design. Its gross sales agent seems to be its solely present product up to now.
In the meantime, the billboards stay seen all through San Francisco, quietly fueling existential dread in a metropolis that has already seen a substantial amount of pressure for the reason that pandemic. A few of the billboards characteristic extra messages, like “Rent Artisans, not people,” and one which performs on angst over distant work: “Artisan’s Zoom cameras won’t ever ‘not be working’ immediately.”