A Follow-Up on AI and Craft: Why I Think It Matters

Yesterday’s post was, admittedly, a bit pointed. It came from a place of frustration, of wanting to shake loose a conversation that I feel is being prematurely shut down within the craft community. It was, in part, a response to what I see as knee-jerk rejections of AI—reactions rooted in fear, in assumptions about what technology will do to craft rather than considering what it might do for craft.

So, let me clarify something: I’m not making the case that AI should replace creative writing or any other deeply personal form of artistic expression. That was never the point. What I am saying is that AI can be a tool, a means to an end—one that has the potential to help craftspeople be more effective in ways that deeply matter.

To explain why I think this, I need to zoom out a bit.

The Limits of the Current System

The reality for craftspeople today is that our options for making a living are painfully limited. The institutions meant to support artists and makers—whether they be grant organizations, museums, non-profits, or academic programs—do good work in some ways. They provide visibility, funding, and infrastructure that help some people some of the time. But the fact remains that the vast majority of artists and craftspeople struggle every day just to get by.

That should tell us something. It should tell us that whatever system is in place, it’s not enough.

Maybe it’s a matter of oversaturation—too many people funneled through MFA programs, too many craftspeople trying to sell work in a market that can’t support them all. Or maybe it’s something deeper, a fundamental mismatch between what institutions are structured to provide and what independent craftspeople actually need to make a sustainable living.

What I suspect is that we need to fundamentally rethink the systems of support for craftspeople and artists. And I don’t think that rethinking is going to come from within institutions themselves. The people running them aren’t living the day-to-day struggle of trying to build a life around craft. They have well-paying jobs within these systems; they don’t have the motivation—or perhaps even the perspective—to push for radical change.

That means the burden falls on us.

The Problem: No Time, No Space, No Resources

But here’s the thing: craftspeople don’t have time. Most of us are already working ourselves to the bone—balancing commissions, part-time jobs, teaching gigs, whatever it takes to cobble together a livelihood. The time and mental space needed to step back, to strategize, to experiment with new models of sustainability? That’s a luxury few can afford.

And that’s where AI comes in.

A Use Case: AI as a Collaborator, Not a Replacement

For the past few months, I’ve been using AI as a kind of thought partner—an external collaborator that helps me brainstorm, research, and refine ideas much faster than I could on my own. It has accelerated my thinking in ways that feel genuinely useful.

For example, I have been developing a new initiative (one that I’ll share more about later), and AI has been instrumental in helping me articulate my vision. Not because it’s writing my ideas for me, but because it’s helping me clarify, structure, and develop them at a pace that I never could have sustained otherwise.

This isn’t about replacing craft, or even about replacing human creativity. It’s about augmenting it. It’s about breaking down the barriers that keep so many makers from being able to fully explore the possibilities in front of them. It’s about giving independent craftspeople access to the kind of strategic thinking and research capacity that institutions have always had—and that we have, historically, been denied.

The Bigger Picture

I know that AI is a loaded topic, particularly in creative fields. But I think that outright rejection of these tools is a mistake. Instead of assuming they will only be used to exploit or replace human labor, I think we should be asking how we can wield them to forge new paths—paths that institutions either won’t or can’t build for us.

If nothing else, I want to start a conversation about this. Because if there’s one thing I know for sure, it’s that the current system isn’t working. And if we don’t start imagining new ways forward, no one else is going to do it for us.

P.S. Okay, okay, maybe that was all a bit much.

If that all felt too grand, here’s a down-and-dirty, real-world example of why AI can help craftspeople right now: If your website is giving you trouble—buttons need relabeling, some new functionality seems out of reach, your web service provider isn’t suited for a fix, or your theme is out of date—just ChatGPT that shit. Problem solved in five minutes. What used to take me hours, if not feel outright impossible, is now fixed instantly. Use the tools at hand. They might just save you a headache or two.