Among the huge, flattering reaction to the new Intercom brand and website that we launched this week, something unexpected:
Over on Twitter, virtually everyone assumed by default that the paintings and illustrations we used were AI-generated. Some even wondered what prompts we might have used to create them.
No prompts! These are real paintings that we commissioned real-life human artists to create.
First off, it’s interesting that we’ve apparently crossed some invisible cultural rubicon: the default assumption is that imagery is AI-generated. Human-created art is now the subversive choice. I honestly hadn't expected that! And that difference appears to be meaningful to people, judging by the reactions to my now-viral tweet about this: https://lnkd.in/eKNtRaqX
Others also asked why we didn’t just use Midjourney this stuff.
To be clear, we actually did use Midjourney early on, generating sketches to quickly explore many different ideas for subject matter. They were then part of the brief that we provided to each artist. But we knew all along that we wanted the idiosyncratic styles and qualities of some artists that we really admired.
(I say “we” as if I actually personally did ANY of this, and not the team of great designers whose work I’m representing here.)
But I also think this approach we took to creating these images serves as a nice little case study in working with AI. We used AI to quickly explore a big set of disposable ideas, and get ourselves conceptually aligned. This felt like the right mix of control and serendipity, and helped us to create (I think) a better brief for each artist, who can bring their unique qualities and creativity. Humans and AI working together, combining their best capabilities.
Finally, this is also what we’re trying to do with Intercom, and our vision for AI-first Customer Service. It’s not about replacing humans, it’s about removing drudge work so that humans can do their core job better. I find that many people at Intercom share this optimistic view of technology, and a desire to bring it about—and I think that’s also what’s landing with people about what this brand is trying to say.
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