Innovating with AI

You've been watching the tech industry for years now – long enough to see lots of fads and gimmicks come and go. Through it all, you've learned how to identify serious industry changes (and dismiss nonsensical pipe dreams).

• Remember when we were all going to work in the virtual-reality metaverse?
  
  
• When banks were going to disappear and we'd all use the blockchain?
  
  
• How about when iPhone apps were going to make "websites" obsolete?
  
  

With all the wacky ideas floated by charismatic entrepreneurs, it's easy to become jaded – and assume that all of these new ideas are similarly unserious and bound to pass quickly.

But sometimes, big things really do happen.

I'm Rob Howard, a 20-year tech-industry veteran and the founder of Innovating with AI. I've been running tech companies since 1999, and I have a long history of sticking to "tried and true" methods of software development. I believe in creating stable, powerful software that is built to last.

But it’s unavoidable: Artificial intelligence has already changed everything about how we work.

Even some of the old adages we've lived by as founders, marketers and creatives have gone out the door with the advent of modern AI. We used to say: "Good, Fast or Cheap – you can only choose two." Now, we're seeing new software and AI output every day that breaks this rule. Rather than being impossible, "Good, Fast and Cheap" has become the new reality:

• Rapid realistic image generation.
  
  
• Nearly instant video and audio manipulation.
   
• Writing and coding in minutes what used to take hours.
  
  

Welcome to the age of AI.

Less than a year after the release of ChatGPT and Stable Diffusion, you can already see a small group of AI enthusiasts surging ahead in their career growth:

• They’re incorporating AI into everyday work, making them more efficient in their existing jobs and giving them new promotion and career-advanced opportunities.
  
  
• They’re launching AI-powered startups and small businesses, suddenly solving problems in ways that were impossible even 12 months ago.
  
  
• They’re setting themselves up as thought leaders for the AI-powered future – getting invited to teach, speak, and build by large companies and organizations. It’s every innovator’s dream.
  
  

These early AI adopters are already making money and expanding their careers – and this industry has only even existed for a matter of months!

What do these newly minted AI thought leaders know that you don’t?

What are the secrets to harnessing this new technology so you can be part of the future – not left behind in the past?

And how do you cut through the noise so you can focus on the skills that will really help you grow – instead of just chasing every bombastic news article or half-baked idea?

Not long ago, I stood exactly where you are today – on the precipice of the future, getting ready to dive in to the new AI industry, but unsure how to get started. 

Even though I’ve been a software developer for 20+ years, it was still hard to get my bearings when I first started working with these amazing new tools. I had built many successful startups and consulting businesses, and this was the biggest shift I’d seen since starting my career in the late ‘90s. Bigger than social media, bigger than crypto. More like “advent of the internet” or “first personal computer” level of change.

Because AI was so big and so new, it was way harder than usual to:

• Cut Through the Noise: There are so many articles and newsletters out there – but if you allow yourself to “drink from the firehose,” you’ll just be distracted forever. That’s not a path to growth and success – for that, you need focus.
  
  
• Find a Great Teacher: There just aren’t that many experts yet, and many of the ones that exist are not great communicators, because they’re doing linear algebra all day instead of talking to their fellow human beings. Most of the learning materials were either WAY too dense with advanced math or WAY too simplistic. At both extremes, it was hard to learn efficiently without a skilled teacher and experienced guide.
  
  
• Figure Out Where I Fit In: When I did learn the technological ropes, I was faced with a big, existential question: How do I turn my skills into AI-powered software that other people will actually want to use? Without a clear framework for what an AI business or tool should look like, I might just be stabbing in the dark – and I might end up missing the boat on this new industry.
  
  

Never before in my career did I need to figure out how to manage such a seismic shift in my industry so quickly. Even back in the ‘90s, when the internet was new, innovation was not moving nearly this fast. It seems like the kind of progress that took years in the era of Netscape takes just weeks in the era of ChatGPT.

Just a year ago, my career in digital marketing and software development was on auto-pilot. I knew the lay of the land, and I was an expert thanks to two decades of hands-on experience.

Now, a new and unavoidable disruption had arrived. Things were moving at lightning speed. I didn’t want to be left behind. But still, it was scary to jump into something so new:

• Can I Do the Math? What if my computer science skills just couldn’t keep up with the rapid progress in machine learning?
  
  
• Will My Peers, Clients and Customers Take Me Seriously? Could I really keep up with the handful of people who’ve been doing AI and machine learning in stealth mode for years? And if I’m not yet “one of them,” will I be laughed out the room?
  
  
• Will Big Tech Bulldoze Everything? Scrappy startups have always ruled the web – but it costs a lot to run AI datacenters, and big players like Microsoft, Google and Meta are all in. What if I get drowned out by these huge companies?
  
  

It felt like there was a lot of risk in venturing into this new world. Wouldn’t it be safer to just stick to the tried and true, and hope that I could hold out – maybe even retire – before AI changes everything? If I kept my head down and did good work, maybe I could avoid getting swept away by this wave of change.

But instead of waiting, I took a deep breath and dove in. Since late 2022, I’ve invested thousands of hours and tens of thousands of dollars in expanding my AI expertise and building my first AI tools – one of which I launched in less than two weeks!

Here’s what I discovered along the way:

• AI Can Be Accessible to Everyone: When you discover the right metaphors and strategies, you can explain AI and its newfound power to just about anyone – most importantly, the clients, bosses and decision-makers who you’ll need on board to help you grow your career.
  
  
• Plug-and-Play with No-Code Tools: You can start building AI workflows immediately, whether to prototype your own products or to add AI to your daily flow at work. Beyond just the “prompt playground,” you can integrate real AI into your real work without coding.
  
  
• Ripe for Fast Testing and Launches: Once I learned the ropes of AI and got a sense of where this new economy was headed, I was able to build and launch my first AI product in just two weeks – from idea to completion and first customers. AI not only directly speeds up the creative process, but it’s the perfect arena in which to rapidly experiment with new business ideas.
  
  
• An Undiscovered Frontier for Founders and Entrepreneurs: There’s so much new in AI, but the same fundamentals of creating a new product – and marketing it to the world as a founder or entrepreneur – still apply. And the founders who take an early leap into AI stand to benefit disproportionately, since it’s such a new area with so much untapped potential.
  
  

These are all huge realizations – and the crazy part is, homing in on just ONE of these would be enough to rapidly position yourself as a future leader in AI. You get any one of these right, and you are in line to reap the rewards of the AI-powered future. No need to go back to school, no need to struggle to learn Python – you can supercharge your existing passion, business or career with AI knowledge.

If you had to figure out even one of these big wins by yourself, how long would it take you? How much money would you spend – and how much frustrating trial-and-error would you endure?

You don’t have to answer that question, because I already have. I’ve spent the last year experimenting, failing, learning – and ultimately figuring out exactly how to future-proof my career for the age of artificial intelligence. That's hundreds of hours and tens of thousands of dollars that you don't have to spend doing it the hard way, like I did.

I've created the detailed guide that I would have wanted to shortcut my own journey. And I know that the right kind of student won’t use this guide just to make more money. They’re going to use this guide to do more good in the world, powered by their skyrocketing career.

When I successfully incorporated AI into my existing business and career – including launching new products, speeding up my workflows and offering AI services to my existing clients – it allowed me to do more of the things I’d always wanted to do, like...

• Use my skills to support great causes – like increasing the accessibility of the web for people with disabilities and vision impairment.
  
  
• Expand my client services so I can offer the best benefits, work-life balance and lifestyle to myself and my employees.
  
  
• Help my local community by investing tens of thousands of dollars in important (but underserved) neighborhood projects.
  
  
• Fund major non-profit initiatives, such as donating $10,000+ to help women and people of color attend career-changing tech conferences.
  
  
• Share my AI knowledge at schools, colleges and via free educational material so that everyone can start their journey in this new chapter of computing.
  
  

I want you to have the opportunity to make a bigger impact – for yourself and the people you care about. Whatever your vision of a better world looks like, the fact of the matter is that if you have a more successful career with more resources, you’re going to be able to create more of that.

That’s why I’m proud to share with you everything that I’ve learned, distilled into a powerful course called Innovating with AI.