Creative leader sheds light on AI’s role in writing and the art that only humans can weave

A Q&A with Jennifer Cloer

SCCMC: First, Kim, we’d love to learn more about you. Please introduce yourself!

Kim: I’m a writer, creative leader, and co-founder of Right On, a sustainability content strategy and marketing agency. It’s my job to set the vision for our agency’s creative work—including storytelling for clients such as Adobe, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Del Monte, and Tillamook.

I’m also an avid reader, slow-but-steady trail runner, mother of two soon-to-be college grads, and usually a pretty decent wife. I’ve transplanted myself from New Orleans, which I miss fiercely, to various amazing Western cities, including San Francisco, Tucson, and now Salt Lake City. I’ve been in SLC for more than two decades now, so I guess I like it here.

Kim Grob

SCCMC: When and why did you start your business, Right On? How has your business changed over the years?

Kim: I started Right On with my sister, Jen Jackson, 13 years ago. We began as a copywriting agency–which is, at least to me, a dreamy idea for an agency (all writers, all the time). It worked well for a while, but before long we realized we needed the support of strategists and project managers to do our best creative work. And for the same reason, we recently added design to our services as well.

Our biggest evolution happened last year when we repositioned our agency to focus on our corporate sustainability niche. We’d been working in sustainability communications for nearly a decade–so we decided it was time to make it official. We believe, as Sir David Attenborough has said, that “saving the planet is now a communications challenge.” Right On exists to help solve that challenge. 

SCCMC: With the rising role of AI in writing and content production, where do you see the opportunity for writers? 

Kim: The biggest opportunity I see for talented writers is that AI can’t do what we do. It can’t think and feel like humans do. It doesn’t have original ideas, and it hasn’t lived through all the wild, tough, and amazing things we humans have. While it has a valuable role to play in the creative process–like gathering and organizing information for content creators–it’s not a creator itself. That’s where the unique talents, experiences, and insights of human writers come in.

For these reasons, I believe that great writers who can tap into the humanity and emotion of an issue will be needed now more than ever. On the other hand, writers who have focused their careers on writing SEO blog posts on general topics will need to quickly re-skill or they’ll be replaced (and in many cases, already have been).

Like most of us, I’m still experimenting with the tools and learning how to get the most out of them. But one thing’s for sure, we won’t be writing content with AI at Right On. It seems weird to even have to state that, but as more news outlets and agencies attempt to write their content with AI (often with embarrassingly disastrous effects), we need our clients and our team to know how we will–and will not–use these tools. You can check out Right On’s AI principles and assertions here. 

“The biggest opportunity I see for talented writers is that AI can’t do what we do.”

SCCMC: Why is the art of writing still important?

Kim: It’s never been more important. Great writers make us feel something–they make us laugh, cry, or howl with rage. They make us think, “Yes, this is how life is.” They also allow us to empathize with lives that are so very different from our own. It’s through these experiences–whether reading a great novel or watching a powerful ad–that writers use their immense talents to shift something inside our minds, which then spreads to our hearts, and ultimately changes the way we move through the world.

SCCMC: What value do you think books and storytelling have in our society and culture?

Kim: It’s proven neuroscience. Our brains are wired to pay attention to stories, especially anomalies within stories–those unexpected turns that take the narrative in a surprising new direction. With the right mix of human struggle, conflict, and plot twists, great stories allow people to tune in to important ideas and messages, feel them deeply in their bones, and recall them better long after the narrative ends. Facts and data alone simply can’t do that. 

Think about the potential this has in our world today. With climate change and inequality posing clear threats to humanity, we need the world’s best storytellers and marketers (yes, marketers!) to bring all their powers to these challenges–so we can wake people up and get them thinking and acting differently.

We also need books in the hands of every person on the planet. Great literature, ideally, but really any book will do. It’s the regular act of reading that matters. A literate, educated society has the power to change their own lives, which in turn will allow them to change the lives of so many others. 

SCCMC: We host a popular Book Club and because we’re recognizing World Book Day, we’d love your book recs. Please dish!

Kim: I’m currently reading The Comfort of Crows, by New York Times writer Margaret Renkl. It’s a glorious and lyrical tribute to the animals and plants all around us–and to life itself. Another favorite from this year is Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These, which evokes deep and complex emotions all within a perfect short novel. And my recent surprise favorite was Freedom by Jonathan Franzen. I’d kind of avoided him after he refused for his novel to be in Oprah’s Book Club (what a snob!), but dang, he’s good. And this book lived up to the hype.