How Not To Let AI Waste Your Time (and subscription budget)

There are literally thousands of AI's popping up, which ones should you invest in? Check out these four red flags before even signing up for a free trial, which can ultimately waste your time.

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The Four Red Flags: How to Spot Useless AI Tools

🚩The “examples” on the site are actually not that great. We can *want* the tool to work so badly! It might be describing how it solves our problem perfectly… but when looking at the example images, business use cases or video examples, it’s seeming lackluster? It probably is. If they could show it off here, on their own website, they would be. Time to close out of the tab.

🚩Searching the phrase “Better than (insert tool name)” gives you far better tool results. Searching this can help you surface alternatives that may be even better-funded, well-researched or, at the very least, described more accurately on their website. Newer AI tools can tend to be vague on their sites, and as they build up use cases and features over time, their websites can become more robust.

🚩Redditors aren’t a fan. Redditors, specifically, tend to weigh in heavily on AI tools: what works and what doesn’t. If there’s not much documentation about a certain tool, that doesn’t mean that it’s not great. But if you’re finding Redditors with issues, or suggesting better alternatives, it’s probably time to turn your attention away - at least until the AI tool goes through further development. I’ve seen a decent AI tool go from “usable” to “absolutely stellar” (replacing several of my other tools in it’s wake) within a year and a half. It happens!

🚩Anything regarding images. That’s right. Is the AI creating an image for you? Skip it. It’s not there yet, plain and simple. The last thing you want is to scare away potential customers, clients or donors with subpar images. I do not use any AI image generation (yet). Maybe I’ll update this someday, but for now, it’s a no. Instead, source images on websites that treat their photographers fairly, like Unsplash. Need graphic design instead of a photograph? Canva can help. (Yes, Canva also has a GenAI image generator, but skip that in favor of actually crafting something from a template again, created by a fairly-treated artist.)

So, if you want to avoid embarrassing images, find better tool alternatives, and not get sucked into AI options that are more marketing magic than anything else, then even before you sign up for that 7-day free trial, run the tool through these quick 4 red flags. Happy hunting!