By Aidin Vaziri,Staff WriterDec 12, 2024
Artisan’s provocative “Stop Hiring Humans” billboard campaign in San Francisco, promoting its AI sales agent Ava, ignited a fierce debate online while driving remarkable growth for the startup.Artisan
In San Francisco’s crowded tech scene, a new billboard campaign from AI company Artisan is turning heads and stirring controversy.
The billboards, which bear the provocative message “Stop Hiring Humans,” have ignited a fierce debate online while also driving remarkable growth for the startup.
The campaign, designed to promote Artisan’s AI-powered sales agent, Ava, features tongue-in-cheek slogans such as “Humans are So 2023” and “Hire Artisans, Not Humans.” Others boast, “Artisans Won’t Complain About Work-Life Balance” and “Artisans Won’t Come Into Work Hungover.”
“We wanted something that would stand out. Something provocative,” said Jaspar Carmichael-Jack, the 23-year-old CEO of Artisan.
“If we didn’t use this tagline, you and I wouldn’t be talking right now,” he added, acknowledging the deliberately polarizing nature of the campaign.
Jaspar Carmichael-Jack, the 23-year-old CEO of Artisan, is defending the company’s provocative “Stop Hiring Humans” billboard campaign in San Francisco. The campaign promoting Artisan’s AI sales agent Ava has ignited a fierce debate online while driving remarkable growth for the startup.Artisan
Carmichael-Jack founded Artisan in San Francisco in September 2023. The company’s core product, Ava, is an AI-driven tool designed to automate outbound sales. The software handles tasks like researching potential clients, sending emails and following up — all without human input.
According to Carmichael-Jack, Ava costs 96% less than hiring a human to do the same job.
The company’s goal with the campaign was clear: to make waves in a competitive AI market and establish Artisan’s brand as a leading innovator.
But Carmichael-Jack emphasizes that Artisan doesn’t actually want to eliminate human employees.
“We love humans,” he said, laughing. “I actually don’t think people should stop hiring humans. We’re hiring a lot of humans right now.”
The real goal, he said, is to automate tedious, repetitive tasks so humans can focus on more meaningful work.
“But you don’t go viral for saying that,” Carmichael-Jack said.
Artisan’s provocative “Stop Hiring Humans” billboard campaign in San Francisco, promoting its AI sales agent Ava, ignited a fierce debate online while driving remarkable growth for the startup.Artisan
“We knew that if we made the billboards as vanilla as everybody else’s, no one would care,” he added.
The reaction to the campaign, however, has been anything but vanilla. The first billboard went up near San Francisco International Airport, and within hours, the internet exploded. A tweet about the billboard quickly amassed thousands of likes, setting off a viral wave.
Reddit users shared images of the ads with captions like “Human-designed billboard wants people to stop hiring humans,” sparking heated discussions about the role of AI in the workplace.
While many in the tech community embraced the campaign, others were less enthused.
Some critics saw the billboards as a dystopian warning about the future of work, particularly in a city already grappling with high living costs and a growing housing crisis.
Artisan’s provocative “Stop Hiring Humans” billboard campaign in San Francisco, promoting its AI sales agent Ava, ignited a fierce debate online while driving remarkable growth for the startup.Artisan
Carmichael-Jack, however, remains unfazed by the backlash, noting that the negative reactions largely came from outside his target market.
“People who work in tech are not offended by the billboards,” he said.” The people who are offended are typically people who are so far removed from the tech space that they don’t realize that what we’re advertising isn’t even possible.”
Over the past two months, Artisan has experienced its highest growth ever, with more than $2 million in new annual recurring revenue and thousands of sales meetings booked, according to the CEO.
“When I meet people in San Francisco now, 70% of the time, they know about Artisan,” said Carmichael-Jack. Before the campaign, that figure was closer to 5%.
As for the future, the CEO hints at more balanced messaging, though he stands by the campaign’s success.
“We’ll probably tone it down a bit, but when something works, you double down,” he said.
Reach Aidin Vaziri: avaziri@sfchronicle.com
Dec 12, 2024
STAFF WRITER
Aidin Vaziri is a staff writer at The San Francisco Chronicle.