Halifax design agency owner shares how he uses artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) continues to change the way people do things, with its use increasing in the workplace, school and even on personal devices through platforms like ChatGPT.

One person working with and benefiting from AI is Doug Belding, the owner of Halifax-based design agency DLB Creative.

Belding says the main way he uses AI is to understand his clients’ problems and what they are trying to create.

“Then kind of going through what tools are available out there for AI and customizing a system together of those tools for them to help them execute (it) more efficiently.”

Belding says his clients also don’t always have time to stay up-to-date with the latest in AI, or see what is coming down the road.

“That’s something I do to make sure that if a tool isn’t working for them, that we thought it might efficiently, effectively, in the beginning, we can swap it out for something else,” he says.

Belding provided a recent example of a small boutique design firm he worked with that was struggling with custom illustrations and photos.

“We were going through what their brand was, and also what their clients tend to like. So from that point we’d go into a tool, so like Midjourney, and really kind of work how we could make those photos look realistic,” he says.

“But do things interesting as well, like chose the type of people that we want in there, what their backgrounds are, or what their ethnicities are, what they’re doing in those photos, and also, too, you can determine what the shots look like based on if you have an understanding of photography as well.”

A recent survey by Leger suggests Canadians have mixed feelings about AI and Belding says he can understand why some people are hesitant or fearful of the technology.

“It’s a disruption, things are changing, I think it’s very interesting, and with that change a lot of great things can come from it as well,” he says.

“AI’s been with us for a bit – you think of Alexa, you think of Netflix, or YouTube, the things you like or tend to watch that’ll give you more things like that, so you’re training that AI, as an example, to kind of give you what you want.”

Belding says AI is just one of many tools available for people to use, but they need to “work with it.”

“You almost have to date it a bit and speak to it how you want it to speak back to you. And it’s an ongoing relationship, it’s not something that you just do once and it comes back perfectly,” he says.

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AI can also be a timesaver for clients, Belding says, allowing them to build a repository of files so they don’t have to outsource them.

“If they needed it just for a quick back-and-forth with a client to get approval that takes away weeks of back-and-forth of like, once the client has time to see it they’ll say yes or no, and you could almost work succinctly together in a much smaller meeting and get to the end product much quicker.”

Overall, Belding believes AI can be a positive and helpful tool in the workplace.

“Right now, you see it in the medical field where it’s helping people, like physicians diagnose things faster, safety in vehicles, it’s helping farmers grow food, it really has a lot of applications,” he says.

Belding also offered tips for people wanting to be more informed when it comes to AI.

“I think being curious and then talking to people about it and asking about it,” he says. “There are a lot of tools out there, so it can feel very overwhelming for someone like myself who is very interested and in there, it is very overwhelming to know what’s out there, but really just don’t be shy about it, ask about it, play around with it, it’s available.”