What my Omega Speedmaster taught me about AI
The rise of AI in communications sparks fears of obsolescence—just like digital watches once did for traditional watchmakers. History shows us that innovation enhances human expertise rather than replacing it.
CONTENT DEVELOPMENTARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCENARRATIVE DEVELOPMENT
Steve Bowen
1/16/20253 min read


A couple of years ago I wrote a blog post on AI in communications, in which I contrasted two pieces of writing generated by a commercial AI site. Both used the same prompt with one difference – one piece was written to defend a proposition and one to contradict it.
What emerged were two articles either of which could, on the surface, easily have been written by a moderately informed human being. But both were riddled with factual errors and logical inconsistencies that the uniformed reader might not pick up on.
Since then content generation engines have improved exponentially. I recently ran the same exercise on ChatGPT and the results were much better – indeed, the piece that was supposed to challenge the proposition actually called out the common logical fallacies that the point of view involved. Which got me thinking, again, about whether I’m shortly going to be out of a job as a communications professional.
I’m old enough to remember the rise of digital watches. At the time these went mainstream in 1970s they were widely considered to be a death knell for the traditional watch-making industry. They were cheap, accurate, and packed with more features than a mechanical watch could ever match.
But you only have to look around a luxury shopping mall or an airport duty free lounge to know that mechanical watches have not died out. I own several. One of my favourites is an Omega Seamaster Mercury Edition, a purely manual timepiece that celebrates not just the first Omega in space but the precision and artistry that characterises the watchmaker’s craft. It’s a human watch in a digital world – but an enormous amount of technology goes into its design and manufacture.
The fear of new technology making exisiting roles obsolete is not new. Pocket calculators were going to make maths teachers redundant. Word processors were going to make clerical staff redundant. Spreadsheets were going to make accoiuntants redundant. The Internet was going to make journalists redundant. Social media was going to make in-person interactions redundant.
And in some respects they did. Maths classes are not taught the same way they were before everyone has a calculator in their pocket. Office professionals work very differently today than they did when I started my profesional career. Back then I had to book time on the single office computer every time I wanted to write a client report.
But the fact remains that we built these tools into our everyday lives and now can barely imagine life without them. Human ingenuity was enhanced, not replaced.
I’m starting to use AI a lot more than I did, now that the technology has refined. I use it for research, for technical support, for editing and streamlining, for brainstorming and ideation, for strategic planning. And, fair disclosure, I used it to help generate this post. I went through half a dozen drafts, refining and tweaking until I was happy with the flow.
Then I wrote it myself. If you don’t believe me, check the text.
AI helped refine the direction, gave me a couple of pithy phrases, but it couldn’t replicate the way I think and write. It doesn’t have access to my memories and experince. It helped me work faster and more efficiently. But it didn’t do the work.
Of course, I know that very many people don’t take the time to rewrite. They generate a text they are happy with and go with that. But there are dangers there.
Yes, AI can help with research, but you still need to fact check. Many of the examples and case studies that AI has generated for me don’t stand up to scrutiny. Some are inaccurate. Many are simply fictitious.
Yes, AI can draft personalised messages at scale, but you still have to refine and polish the language if you want to sound like an authentic human being.
Yes, AI can analyse data, but you still have to understand the data yourself if you are going to use it to form useful insights.
If history teaches us anything, it’s that disruptive technologies don’t eliminate people. On the contrary, they challenge and empower us to adapt, developing new skills and new capabilities. AI has become a valuable partner in my work, but I understand and respect its limitations. And, as those limitiations are overcome, I’ll find new ways to use it.
Just as traditional watchmakers incorporated modern technology without losing the qualities that make them uniquely desirable, so too communication professionals can work with AI without losing the human touch and empathy that makes us indispensable.
Author Profile


Steve Bowen is a chartered corporate communications professional with more than 25 years' international experience developing and implementing communications strategies.