ARTISAN
ARTISAN

Times Square recently turned into ground zero for a fiery debate over AI and the future of work, after a striking billboard reading "Stop Hiring Humans" appeared high above the city's bustling streets. The ad, unveiled by San Francisco-based startup Artisan AI, was part of a campaign to promote their voice-powered virtual employee Ava, and it has since gone viral online, drawing both applause and outrage in equal measure.

The controversial campaign, according to Artisan's official blog, was a deliberate attempt to break away from what the company called "vanilla" messaging in the AI space. Earlier slogans like "Upskill with AI" reportedly failed to grab attention, prompting the team to go bold. CEO Jaspar Carmichael-Jack admitted the shock factor was intentional, stating that the aim was to start a conversation—not end one. "If we made the billboards as safe as everyone else's, nobody would care," he noted in the blog post.

The reaction on the streets and online has been intense. SFGate reported the campaign featured follow-up slogans like "Artisans won't ask for paid time off" and "Artisan's Zoom cameras will never 'not be working' today," poking fun at human work habits. The tone has been described as "dystopian," but Artisan insists the purpose was never to threaten human workers. Instead, the company claims the goal is to eliminate the kind of repetitive tasks people don't enjoy, making human work more meaningful.

Despite spending less than $50,000 on the billboard, Artisan's campaign has reportedly earned the company hundreds of millions of impressions across platforms like TikTok and Reddit. The New York Post reported that the stunt has even translated into business success, with Artisan claiming to have generated over $2 million in new annual revenue since the ad went live. Yet, the backlash hasn't been quiet either—critics have called the ad tone-deaf amid rising concerns over job losses due to automation. One user on Reddit summed up the mood bluntly: "Vandalism has never felt so justifiable."

Artisan's messaging has been careful to underline that the startup is still hiring humans. In fact, they've highlighted ongoing job openings for software engineers and designers, even as Ava continues to evolve. As per Forbes, the company recently raised $25 million to expand its AI workforce model, aiming to integrate AI into day-to-day operations without eliminating human oversight.

While reactions remain sharply divided, one thing is clear: Artisan AI has successfully inserted itself into the global conversation about where artificial intelligence is headed. Whether the world is ready for Ava or not, the message has landed—and people are paying attention.

AI