In an era defined both by the limitations and the expansion of artificial intelligence, human writers and translators exist at the same crossroads: that of apparently having to defend themselves against machines, define their value, and decide whether to go on. But this scarcity and fear is the opposite of my own mentality, which is not as counterintuitive as it might appear: an encroaching artificial intelligence, by serving as a standard of good-enough quality in lower sectors of the market, is doing the work of defining high-quality human services; artificial intelligence is the differentiator whereby human quality can shine the more brightly.
This makes artificial intelligence a kind of quality compass, resulting in a more vividly defined premium and luxury market for human services. In fact, artificial intelligence could even stand to be the foundation of a business—one that says, subtly or otherwise, “I am this, not that. A machine is not human, and I am not a machine. Allow me to demonstrate.” Using a negative comparison as the basis of a business is not always a good idea, of course, and knowing how to benefit from cutting-edge technology as a human service provider can be an important part of any value proposition. And yet this does have some theoretical validity, since the more important role in any given working partnership between humans and technology will always be that of the humans.
It would be up to the business owner or service provider to establish what those human differences are—or whether they exist at all. This would be defining the value of a human service as against that of a machine, and it is an individual responsibility, a business decision, a matter of definition and self-awareness. Especially for those potential clients uneducated in the area where you are supposed to be an expert service provider, this difference should be established and the higher-quality value of the expert human service provider, communicated.
That is not to say that all human services are high-end human services, or that high-end (or quality, for that matter) is synonymous with human. But I am convinced that human is requisite to high-end, a necessary but insufficient condition. The potential client should still be asking, after all this defining, “why use high-end human services in the first place?” And the answer is that it depends on your needs, how the service provider has defined those needs, and whether that definition falls under the umbrella of what you need.
As a client you might not know, of course, what you need—that is certainly a possibility. And this is one of many higher-quality human values in a service: the responsive give-and-take of communication, which should help you understand what you need. That kind of communication is the backbone of a perfectly tailored and personalized service.
What defines high-end human writing or translation services, in particular? That they are human, first of all, and accompanied second by all the variable qualities of a high-end human service: creativity, expertise, passion, engagement, collaboration, cultural nuance, reflection, and variety, to name a few. Clients choose high-end human services because their business needs dictate a higher standard of quality, engagement, passion—humanness, in a word. And they want that humanness from a human that can deliver while living up to that higher ideal. This is value of an expert human professional, whether assisted by technology or a team of 10,000 underlings.
No machine is as subtly responsive, creative, or exacting as a human expert, and there are fewer of these nowadays who are truly willing to develop themselves in the face of snowballing technical hype and cost-cutting corporate laziness. Whether in writing, translation, or any other creative field, human experts have never been more essential—albeit for a smaller and smaller number of clients who have a desire for those higher standards, at least in the language industry. And yet that shrinking market segment makes human experts all the more invaluable. And that is, perhaps, a damn good thing.
