2023 was WordHound’s 5th trip around the sun. That’s 2,920,000,000 miles travelled! And it’s been an exciting (read: sometimes alarming) rollercoaster of tech innovation, hasn’t it?
We’ve had AI writers improving every 5 minutes. Designers have watched AI create images in seconds that would have taken them hours, if not days of work. Web developers are seeing AI coding assistants pop up on more and more platforms.
It’s been hard to keep up.
So, what’s the plan for 2024? No one knows what’s coming next, but whatever it is, these are the strategies that we’re taking with us into the new year.
Targeted effort
We think the best strategy is, well… strategy. While AI writers are pumping out hundreds of thousands of vague and generic words, us humans need to take the time to understand who we’re talking to & what they need to know, and write exactly for them.
Embrace the (useful) tech
We’re not against AI in the slightest; we just don’t think it should be relied upon for writing whole articles. In fact, we’ve been using it to great effect when creating content plans and article outlines. So our second strategy is to keep an open mind about new tools, test them out, and adopt them if they improve our processes, and help our human writers get to grips with what’s needed for a project. Those same humans – writers and editors – are also on hand to wrestle some soul and/or pizazz into your own AI-generated content, if you’re finding it a bit feeble.
Collaboration
When you want the best results for your business, two (or more) brains are better than one. We don’t pretend to know everything, so we love working with experts. SEO consultants – give us your keyword recommendations. Social media marketers – tell us your strategies and we’ll build ours to complement them.
Sustainability
Alaskan forest fires aren’t front-page news right now, but the world isn’t getting any cooler. Now, more than ever, lack of systemic change is giving us the environmental collywobbles. We’re working with sustainable web developers and doing what we can to keep web-related emissions down. While we keep signing petitions and hoping for miracles, the best plan we have right now is to keep planting more trees. Watch our Ecologi forest grow here.
Flexibility
The quest for heels-on-the-floor during downward dog continues, but equally, giving our clients the space to work in the way that’s best for them is important to us. Also, sometimes their ideas are better, so we adopt them. One request though, if you don’t mind: please stick to Google Docs for change requests – multiple versions of files (or even handwritten notes -shudder-) make us cry and stamp our feet.
Having a life
What’s the point of planting all those trees if you never go outside to look at them? There are several good things about trees; for a start, they’re usually further away than your screen*, and therefore good for your eyes. We will continue to visit the Outside Lands as often as possible in 2024, because they’re nice and green and fresh and that’s the only reason we need.
Whatever 2024 has in store, at WordHound we’ll be continuing to blend human creativity with whatever smart new tools turn up next. We’re staying anchored to the things we care about the most, collaborating with people we think are cool, and taking many, many more photos of the most photogenic member of the WordHound team.
*it does rather depend where you stand
