AI Doesn't Replace Relationship-Building

If I can see the world through my client's eyes,
 then I can cell my client what my client buys!
Ed Foreman

by Skip Cohen

I've written about Ed Foreman in the past and shared the quote above. It goes a lot deeper than just putting yourself in their shoes.  You've got to literally work to see things the way your clients do, and that includes their perception of you. It's all about building trust. It's about listening more than talking. It's about putting your mind's eye into high gear and visualizing how they want their images to look, and why they've come to you in the first place. You've got to sense their concerns together with their expectations and create products unique to them and express their personality, lifestyle, and passion.

It's Marketing Monday, but it's also December 1st, and at this point in 2025, if you haven't ramped up your marketing efforts, there's not much for me to write about that hasn't already been shared in previous posts. But here's a topic we haven't talked about... AI and the fear some photographers seem to have that they'll be replaced, or they think it's going to be the answer to everything they need to run a successful business.

The fear of technology is nothing new...I was a kid when some photographers feared color entering the black-and-white-dominated craft. Photography was going to hell because B&W was threatened. Well, those photographers had families and their kids were grew up to be the generation that felt imaging was going to hell when digital arrived.

Does anybody remember Calumet being one of the largest retailers in photography in the late 80s? When Nikon announced the discontinuation of manual focus lenses, Calumet dropped the line and published the Nikon logo in a red circle with a bar across it. Within a year or less, the protest was over, and Nikon was back in their lineup!

Digital manipulation came next, along with an incredible uplift in what could be captured digitally. Cameras are incredible today, and so are our phones. Right now, most of us have phones that are capable of cinema-quality capture! 

Now we've got AI at the door, and I'm picking up on people thinking it's going to be the cure to everything, including their procrastination when it comes to building brand awareness through great customer service.

Photography is word of mouth business... It's also a tactile product - people still like to hold special images in their hands rather than on their phones and computers. Animation is another incredible asset, allowing us to bring still images to life. But nothing changes the important role the artist still plays.

Recently, I was interviewed by a leading AI company for a presentation they're doing. In summary, I said:

The truth is, combining AI with many of the old standards gives a business owner the perfect tools to expand reach and build more brand awareness. What I hate is the way so many businesses act like AI is the cure-all for their incompetence... all the old-school concepts of building relationships, integrity, trust, and exceeding client expectations are always in play.

AI will not replace relationship building and the personal touch. In fact, in a world of social media, email, and text messaging, your ability to actually reach out and touch your customers is more valued than ever! Your number one marketing tool is relationship building - so stop worrying about being replaced by AI or thinking that AI is the magic elixir to fix a failing business. It's time to start seeing the world through your clients' eyes!

...just my two cents.