Artisan Ads: Dystopian Present

In the heart of the Bay Area—a hub for technological innovation—a new wave of rage bait advertising has sparked heated conversations about the role of humans in the workforce. Artisan, a company selling AI Business Development Representatives (BDRs), has plastered billboards across the city with clickbait messaging:

• "Artisans Won't Complain About Work-Life Balance"

• "STOP HIRING HUMANS"

• “Humans Are So 2023”
• “Artisans Won’t Come Into Work Hungover”
• “Hire Artisans, Not Humans”
• "The Era of AI Employees Is Here”

These ads were designed to upset us and fuel Artisan's growth from our outrage. Artisan laughed all the way to the bank on this enormously effective campaign that "turned critics into unwitting marketing allies." Yet, they unintentionally reveal a troubling juxtaposition—one that underscores the reality of a workforce in transition and the human costs of such a dystopian present.

The Image of a Dystopian Present

In one striking advertisement, the text reads, "Artisans Won’t Complain About Work-Life Balance." "The Era of AI Employees Is Here." Beneath it, a human reality plays out: a homeless individual sits on the ground, isolated, and forgotten. The dissonance could not be clearer—a message promoting the replacement of humans by AI in a city already grappling with housing crises, wealth disparities, and job displacement.

A human, juxtaposed against an ad that promotes AI employees as tireless, complaint-free, and low-maintenance, exposes a deliberate disregard for humanity—a dystopian present where humans are discarded in favor of machines to fuel profits, reflecting an elitist attitude that prioritizes efficiency over empathy.

Stop Hiring Humans = We Lose OUR Livelihoods

Another Artisan ad reads, "Stop Hiring Humans." The message is direct, unapologetic, and unsettling. It’s a reflection of what some call the efficiency obsession—the drive to maximize productivity and minimize costs, at the expense of workers’ livelihoods.

With AI tools like Artisan’s BDRs taking over roles traditionally held by humans, the question emerges: what happens to those workers? The advertising boldly sidesteps this question, focusing solely on the convenience and bottom-line benefits of AI employees.

While Artisan laughs at the effectiveness of their controversial advertising, millions of people are crying because they are laid off and can't provide for their families

AI Empire vs AI for Everyone

Artisan, backed by the Silicon Valley elite, is like the empire in a sci-fi dystopia—powerful, relentless, and disconnected from the lives it disrupts. Their $11.5M seed funding, led by prominent investors like Oliver Jung, HubSpot Ventures, and Y Combinator, signals that this AI-first narrative is gaining momentum. The backing includes a veritable who’s who of venture capital—Sequoia Capital Scouts, Soma Capital, and Day One Ventures, among others. With this level of investment, Artisan’s ads are not just a marketing play; they are a deliberate statement about the future of work.

Since launching Ava, Artisan’s flagship AI BDR, the company has crossed $1 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) and onboarded hundreds of customers. Their millions in venture capital and rapid traction serve a single purpose: replacing humans with machines because they can. But just because they can doesn’t mean you should. This isn’t innovation; it’s annihilation of livelihoods.

At Hire Humans, we're calling you to join the resistance. With no golden parachutes or VC-backed war chests, Hire Humans fights to build a future where AI empowers humanity—not replaces it. Without capital injections from Silicon Valley or a multimillion-dollar marketing budget, Hire Humans is bootstrapping its way to changing the hiring game. While Artisan gains traction by pushing a narrative of AI replacement, Hire Humans struggles to be heard despite championing a future where the job market isn't spray and pray in a numbers game and job matches aren’t won by the best liar, but by the best fit—making ideal matches.

AI for everyone means AI agents act on your behalf to help you find a job or your next great hire—enhancing and helping humans—not replacing you.

The Human Cost of Bleeding Edge Efficiency

Artisan’s messaging taps into a corporate desire for efficiency, but it risks devaluing what makes businesses—and society—truly thrive: human connection. Roles like BDRs are more than just a collection of tasks; they require emotional intelligence, rapport building, and an understanding of human behavior—skills that even the most advanced AI cannot replicate.

By promoting AI as the ultimate replacement for humans, Artisan’s ads inadvertently dehumanize the very essence of work. And as the homeless individual pictured beneath the ad reminds us, this trajectory comes with human costs that cannot be ignored:

• The total number of people experiencing homelessness in San Francisco increased by 7% from 2022 to 2024, from 7,754 to 8,323 people.*
• The tech layoff wave is still going strong in 2024. Following significant workforce reductions in 2022 and 2023, this year has more than 130,000 job cuts across 457 companies.*

Hire Humans stands in stark contrast: where Artisan removes humans from the process, we use AI to elevate you. We empower human recruiters, hiring managers, and job seekers to focus on building relationships, driving creativity, and solving complex problems. We believe in leveraging AI not to replace people, but to help them grow their careers and organizations with incredible fit—enhancing efficiency—but prioritizing empathy.

A Call for Augmentation

The rise of AI is inevitable—it's been advancing for decades—but Artisan's ads represent a dystopian present where greedy corporations build systems simply because they can, ignoring the human suffering it causes. Humanities must shout that just because something can be done doesn’t mean it should be done... it shouldn’t. The way forward is not replacement, but augmentation, enhancement, and partnership—a vision Hire Humans proudly champions.

Hire Humans is the antithesis of Artisan. While Artisan replaces human workers with AI-driven avatars, Hire Humans uses AI to augment and empower people. Where Artisan sees efficiency, Hire Humans sees empathy. Where Artisan unwittingly promotes cost-cutting at the expense of humanity, Hire Humans intentionally prioritizes meaningful connections and sustainable growth.

The Artisan ads serve as a wake-up call. They remind us that while AI can improve efficiency, the human cost of unchecked automation is too high. We must strive for a workforce where technology enhances human potential rather than replacing it.

You Decide the Direction

You choose the future of work: AI replaces you or AI enhances you.

You choose the future of AI: AI for the elite or AI for everyone.

You choose the future of the economy: the haves and the have nots or a large and thriving middle class.

As we navigate this era of AI, we must ensure that humans remain at the center of the equation—not as obstacles to efficiency, but as the heart of innovation, empathy, and progress.

They say "STOP HIRING HUMANS".

We say Hire Humans.

Take the pledge to Hire Humans: https://hirehumans.ai/pledge