Ai Integration Tips, Fastflux.ai, Expectations and More
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Today I want to focus on a question that I’m asked often. What suggestions can you give us about integrating Ai into our business? Which of course opens up a great conversation including what is Ai integration? Or how is Ai used in a business setting?
Hopefully this newsletter helps provide some clarity.
- Tips: Open vs Closed Models
- Tools: Fastflux.ai
- Tips: It Starts by Looking In
- Tips: Expectations
- Tips: Learn from the Best
01 / TIPS
Open vs Closed Models
There is a big decision to be made in the early stages of Ai integration. What tools are we going to invest time into?
There are two main paths you can take. I think of them like cars.
- Open Models: Think Stable Diffusion and Flux. These are foundational models that you can host locally and access via your choice of interface. You have access to the engine and you can build a car around it. You choose how you want it to drive and how to drive it. You can tailor it to your needs. Long term costs are favorable. Possibilities are almost limitless. You just have to build it.
- Closed Models: Think Midjourney, ChatGPT, Krea, Vizcom, etc. Here, someone built a car already. It’s good at certain types of drives and it’s been designed to be easy to drive. It’s ready to just lease and drive away. It’s really great at driving the way it was designed to drive. If you want to drive it differently, it’s going to struggle.
So what do we suggest? For most people and organizations we have worked with, the closed model approach is going to be the best way to start. The reason is simple. Ai adoption is difficult.
Adoption success comes from eliminating friction. You need every advantage you can get here. Closed models lower the learning curve. They make it easy to start and experience Ai for yourself. They allow you to quickly put the hours in, and that alone tips the scales in the favor of closed models to start.
02 / TOOLS
Fastflux.ai
Building on the closed model point, I recently posted about a free online tool I found, FastFlux. Someone built a super simple car, powered by the very complex and strong Flux engine.
Give it a shot. It’s a free and extremely easy way to experience how text to image works. Nothing to sign up for, no account to make, just type away and play. Low risk, high reward.
03 / TIPS
It Starts by Looking In
Here’s a questionnaire to help start a conversation internally or with support from someone like us:
- People: What is the temperature in the room when it comes to Ai? Mostly hot, mostly cold, lukewarm? How’s the curiosity level?
- People: Are we an individual, a small team or a large organization? Are we in same room or working across the globe?
- Resources: How much are we willing to invest in terms of resources into Ai integration? How important is this to the organization?
- IT: What challenges will we run into with new tool integration? Is there flexibility there?
- Work: What types of projects do we work on? What portions of our work are low consequence and which are high consequence?
- Work: Do we do work for other clients or do we do work in-house for ourselves?
- Work: Is our work output 2D, 3D, Video? How much human oversight and revision will have to do post Ai?
- Legal: Is there more risk in falling behind on Ai, or getting caught up in potential future legal issues because of Ai?
- Tools: What are the list of our requirements for any new tools, ie team environment, high intent, local vs cloud, etc.
There are more of course, but these are the types of questions that will start giving you a good sense of how to evaluate and approach Ai.
04 / TIPS
Expectations
This is a big deal. People ask if Ai tools can do “X”. Can they do mixers, dryers, speakers, bikes, medical equipment, sporting goods, etc.
The question to ask is what do we want it to do exactly.
Do we want it to design the product for us? Do we want it to inspire us? Do we want it account for manufacturing?
Just because Ai tools don’t consider ergonomics, manufacturing and laws of physics, doesn’t mean they are not useful. It means they need to be used appropriately.
05 / TIPS
Learn from the Best
Of course I’m biased, but learning from individuals or teams that are dedicated to the space is a powerful way to cut through the bull crap. Find folks that do the type of work that you do and see how they can help.
One of those folks is my friend Greg at Superunknown.
Greg helps us out here at AIxC every month. He ups our game constantly and we get to experience his knowledge and approach on a weekly basis. The fact he’s on monthly retainer here should speak volumes as to how much I value his work.
Greg recently launched his Design x Ai workshop series in a new cohort format. The cohort workshops contain all the foundational and advanced Ai techniques taught in Superunknown's design team training & conference workshops at a pocketbook-friendly price for individuals (not orgs).
You get:
- 4 live, interactive workshops workshops with over 12 hours of live learning
- Created for all design subdomains
- Real-time demos of Ai methods & advanced techniques
- Participants receive the giant Superunknown Design x Ai Figma board packed with workshop assets, PDFs of content, and workshop recordings
- International designers welcomed!
- $400.00 - $500.00 per person, depending on your cohort size.
To learn more about the workshops or to be added to the list for upcoming cohorts, get in touch with Greg at greg@superunknown.design or bombard him with DMs over on his Linkedin.
That’s all I have for today. Hopefully this helps bring some clarity to what is admittedly a tough undertaking. It’s not easy to spearhead Ai integration.
Best of luck and feel free to reach out with any questions.
— Hector
p.s.
Hi, I'm Hector, a seasoned industrial designer, brand builder, and entrepreneur, with 22+ years of diverse experience.
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