# Will this AI company’s pivot away from ‘stop hiring humans’ work? > Source: > Published: 2026-08-13 13:00:00+00:00 Few companies have managed to rile up the internet like Artisan. Earlier this year, [the brand went megaviral for its widespread advertising campaign encouraging businesses to “stop hiring humans.”](https://www.fastcompany.com/91539104/artisan-ai-asks-companies-to-replace-human-workers-its-strategy-is-working-well-ad-campaign-stop-hiring-humans) Instead, it offered up its [AI](https://www.fastcompany.com/section/artificial-intelligence) agent, Ava, to take over low-level sales roles. Now, Artisan is pulling a 180 on its signature tagline. Its product hasn’t changed at all. It still wants you to put Ava in charge of tasks previously handled by humans. But instead of framing Ava as a replacement for your employees, it’s selling her as a way to let your existing staff “be more human.” Artisan has apparently flipped the switch from ragebait to hopecore, but is it too little, too late for a brand that successfully angered a lot of people with its last campaign? To announce Artisan’s new era, its founder and CEO, Jaspar Carmichael-Jack, posted an [AI-generated promo video to X](https://x.com/jasparcjack/status/2087223282613579777) and [LinkedIn](https://lnkd.in/p/ekpjKhjq). It opened with news clips demonstrating the company’s legendarily bad reputation. These included a manufactured, and hyperbolic, soundbite calling it “the most hated company in San Francisco.” From there, the video highlights epic moments in human history—inventing space travel, exploring the planet, crafting classical music, and more—all leading up to a bland office, where workers toil away at computers. Busywork is a waste of human potential, Artisan argues with a little help from Ava herself, serving as narrator: “They built me to do the work you shouldn’t be doing,” Ava says. “So you humans can go back to what you do best: being human.” The video concludes with an apology tour, as Artisan’s previous “stop [hiring](https://www.fastcompany.com/section/hiring) humans” billboards are plastered over with messages including, “Don’t stop hiring humans” and “I’m not taking your job.” In the posts’ captions, Carmichael-Jack explained that while Artisan’s viral tagline garnered billions of impressions for the brand, “The point was never fewer humans. It was to stop wasting them on work that was never human to begin with.” Artisan’s new tagline is much more in line with public sentiment toward artificial intelligence; [more than half of Americans (53%)](https://www.reuters.com/business/world-at-work/half-americans-fear-ai-could-put-someone-their-household-out-work-reutersipsos-2026-06-10/) say they’re afraid AI will put them or someone in their household out of work. But as the company acknowledges in its new promo, it’s got a mountain of negative PR to overcome if it wants to change its antihuman reputation. Earlier this week, Artisan again went viral, this time not for its controversial slogan, but for its office setup (perhaps an indicator of a slow news week in the Bay Area). A picture of the company’s San Francisco office showed a row of six computer monitors lined up against a window, [prompting a post](https://x.com/creatine_cycle/status/2086626310517121352?s=20) reading, “I think we might need to nuke SF.” That post has garnered 8.7 million views. When commenters pointed out that the office in question was Artisan’s, the original poster [returned to lament](https://x.com/creatine_cycle/status/2086670736979370159), “it’s the ‘stop hiring humans’ kids.” “Yep send the nukes,” they added, earning another 3.1 million views and 31,000 likes. But Carmichael-Jack is apparently taking the vitriol in stride. “In other news, 7 million people wanted to nuke our office yesterday,” he wrote in response to the viral hate posts. “But as a pro-human company, we’re actually on their side now,” he added with a smiley face.