Patrick Stafford

Like most tech professionals, content designers are extremely interested in how AI might affect their work and employment prospects in the future.

Patrick Stafford and his colleagues at the UX Content Collective recently conducted research to explore the impact of AI on the future of the profession, as well as the attitudes and opinions of content designers about new AI tools and practices.

We talked about:

his work as the co-founder and CEO of the UX Content Collective
the high-level findings of his recent research on the impacts of AI on content design
the coincidental timing of the release of GPT-3 and the wave of layoffs in content design and other tech professions
his take on the current content design job market, that it's now a more typical market
comparisons of the job market in 2016-18, 2019-21, and and from 2022 through now
the decline in corporate training budgets recently
his take on working "with" AI as well as "for" AI products
the emerging critical role of content designers in ensuring the ethical use of AI
his observation that most of the new AI jobs being created are being staffed from within companies, not by hiring outside talent
the growing importance stated in many job postings of being familiar with AI tools
the main benefit of AI for content designers: the ability to scale
the important role of content designers applying best practices and design sensibility to gen AI output
how the UX Content Collective curriculum has evolved in response to the arrival of AI
the surprising finding in their research that 80% of people either feel the same or more hopeful about the industry after the introduction of LLMs and AI
the upcoming revival of his podcast Writers of Silicon Valley

Patrick's bio
Patrick Stafford is the CEO and cofounder of the UX Writers Collective. He is a former Lead Digital Copywriter for MYOB, the largest accounting software provider in Australia, and has consulted with several businesses on UX content strategy.
Connect with Patrick online

LinkedIn
UX Content Collective
The Future of AI and Content Design research report
Writers of Silicon Valley podcast (reboot coming soon)

Video
Here’s the video version of our conversation:

https://youtu.be/ijMMmsWQZKo

Podcast intro transcript
This is the Content and AI podcast, episode number 26. The arrival of GPT-3 and the explosion of interest in generative AI caught many in the content-design profession by surprise. Arriving as it did around the same time that mass layoffs hit the tech industry compounded the anxiety around this new tech. Patrick Stafford and his colleagues at the UX Content Collective recently conducted research to explore the true impact of AI on the profession, as well as the attitudes and opinions of content designers about new AI tools.
Interview transcript
Larry:
Hi everyone. Welcome to episode number 26 of the Content and AI podcast. I'm really happy, today, to welcome to the show, Patrick Stafford. Patrick is the co-founder and CEO at the UX Content Collective, which you hope you've heard of. Anyhow, welcome Patrick. Tell the folks a little bit more about what you're up to these days.

Patrick:
Thanks, Larry. I'm really glad to be talking to you today. It's always a pleasure to speak to you. So yes, as Larry said, I'm the co-founder and CEO of the UX Content Collective. We started in 2019, and we offer a range of courses and workshops related to UX content. So that could be from a broad beginning in UX writing fundamentals to more specialist skills like content ops or even things like systems thinking, which is a workshop we have coming up, and a range of different courses in writing skills and accessibility, localization, a variety of different skills that content designers or content adjacent professionals may get something out of. So that's what we're doing and of course we have a very big interest in AI at the minut...