I recently, accidentally, stumbled over a very interesting social experiment involving consumer sentiment towards the use of AI. When I began writing these articles, I simply used my professional headshot alongside my article content. Soon, I began adding themes that were very obviously edited / AI Generated such as dressing my headshot photo to look like a football player, or a weightlifter, or a chef… (if you want to look for yourself, all of my articles are archived on my website: PrimeFinancialCedarRapids.com).
More recently, the photos I used were less cartoonish and more “real-life”, although they were still AI-generated. When I went from cartoonish / silly to more life-like, I started to get a lot of questions about whether I write my own content or whether I use AI to write my articles.
Short answer: I always write my own articles.
Long answer: I have used AI to polish up some thoughts, but I have never felt that the tone of AI really sounds like me. So I decided early on it was easier to spit from my brain and be genuine than it was to be polished but fake… I only implement AI for my headshot alterations to make silly poses and themes, which is actually very fun! The kids even help me make some of my final decisions sometimes!
What I learned: Nobody questioned the use of AI when it was blatantly obvious that the photo was silly or meant to look altered. (i.e., my robot headshot above). Only when pictures began to look like they were replacing the “real Ashlea” did people speak up and give me a hard time about falling into the lazy trap of AI-generated content… And actually, I agree 100%… so much of what is AI-generated is lazy, wrong, or just plain slop. If you’ve played around with AI tools at all, you realize very quickly it absolutely has benefits, but it is nowhere near having the common sense of a human being.
This realization made me pause on how this sentiment towards AI has had such drastic impacts on the stock market. Many large companies that make up our most trusted market indices are hinged on the success of the future of AI and it is hard to tell if we are in the beginning, middle, or end stages of the “AI future”. Just a few years ago, we were only beginning to understand the concept of AI when ChatGPT was launched in 2022. Since then, there are many tools like Claude, Gemini, and Grok, that give anyone with an internet connection the ability to create their own summations of its use.
On a larger scale, corporations are exploring its use to enhance efficiencies and expedite production and profit. With the demand comes the need for energy, and with the need for energy comes a lot of infrastructure, and whenever there is a need for infrastructure, there is pushback on where that is going to go and who it is going to impact.
And that brings us to today.
There are data centers popping up in every corner of the world, public earnings reports coming out showing that AI use can absolutely have positive profit impacts, and two sides to every coin for those who approve or disapprove of the concept of change. In the fall of 2025, an article published by PEWresearch.org found that 50% of Americans are more concerned than they are excited about the use of AI and its potential impact. This concern percentage was up from 2021, when concern was only marked at 37%.
So, as I write this, I believe the future and potential of AI is bright, but I tend to agree with this: It’s only bright in the right time and place and with the right forms of infrastructure and energy sources to support it. From the day the first wheel was carved from stone back in our caveman era, there have been constant improvements to the tools we use to optimize humankind’s experiences. It will be interesting to see how the demand and concern for AI continue to dance with each other. Consumer sentiment has the power to move markets, so you better believe we will have our very close eyes on it all.
In the meantime, I believe the general public still craves authenticity and genuine effort. Human ingenuity and human connection are still where all the best ideas and concepts are found. Human connection is where I thrive as a financial advisor (and writer of past, present, and future articles). That’s a promise!
Ashlea (Kleitsch) Jones
Financial Advisor
Prime Capital Financial
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
primefinancialcedarrapids.com
(319) 269-7143
This information does not constitute legal advice. Prime Capital Financial and its associates do not provide legal advice. Individuals should consult with an attorney regarding the applicability of this information for their situations.
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Ashlea Jones