02/07/2026
Exactly π―
Just a reminder about where I stand on AI and the reality of it. I just saw a post with the local farmer's market sharing a generic, ugly AI image with a sign that said "farmers market". WHY? For the love of all that is good and holy... why. I had to practically tie my arms behind my back to not comment and question it. Why not use imagery of all of the farmers and their products? Why not import a picture of the pavilion into PicMonkey and put some text on it (which is what I did here)? Why take the lazy, uninspired, generic route?
Same thing with where I get bees and equipment. They started using AI in videos and imagery. A lot of the imagery not even accurate. AI people speaking in the videos, trying to sell me stuff. I hid all posts and will likely start purchasing bee equipment somewhere else. When you have a business of that size and you're lazily utilizing AI for your marketing? That makes me wonder if that same laziness applies to other aspects of your business. It's a huge turnoff.
All day long I hide and even block accounts that are using AI. I recently chose not to renew a membership with a professional organization for small businesses because the owner of it has been pushing AI use, encouraging us to use it. No thank you- I have a brain and can plan my own day and write my own words!
How do you identify it? It's getting harder and harder. But in terms of marketing materials and graphics, it all looks the same. It's all got an uncanny cartoon vibe to it. Images are too slick, too perfect, too shiny. When small businesses start pumping out complex informational graphics complete with illustrations and branding/logo on it? You know 100% that is AI unless the business owner is a graphic designer or has easy access to one and a decent budget to be creating those graphics.
I'd rather see a small business market themselves in a more amateur, imperfect and human way- than ever using AI. I want to see REAL photos, real people, real words, real connections.
AI is putting people out of work. Illustrators, graphic designers, photographers, writers, editors... all sorts of creative people are losing work because businesses are deciding to create AI slop for their marketing instead of actually hiring a human being.