By: A Guest Writer who makes scripts do the dirty work and hopes you’ll also find them useful

I had these huge, repetitive tasks that needed to be done. 

With the advent of AI, I’ve moved them from “it can’t be done - that’s life” to “there has to be a way.”

And that shift has changed the way I work.

What is a script?

A script is basically a set of instructions that tells a program what to do. Scripts can be used in Adobe Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, After Effects, Excel, and plenty of other programs.

For years, I knew that scripting existed, and used whichever ones came built-in to the programs, but it was about it. As far as I knew, you needed to be a programmer to write scripts that would really work for you the way you need. 

AI has changed that.

A few examples

Scenario 1:

I had a huge project where I needed to make an individual collage from a set of images for 500 different folders. Every folder had a different number of images. The collages needed to look good, so I couldn’t simply dump the images onto a page and call it a day.

I had already designed a number of different parent pages, each with a different collage arrangement. The script needed to look at the images in each folder, figure out how many there were, choose the appropriate parent page, and place the images into the designated spaces. It also needed to add the beautifully designed title for each one.

That meant that instead of making 500 collages by hand, I could give the script the folders and let it work through them.

Scenario 2:

Another project involved doing the same repetitive formatting in InDesign multiple times a week. We needed to update 10 templates with the new information, export each one, and prepare the files for the next step. The information changed each time, but the process was essentially the same.

Doing it once wasn't a big deal. Doing it over and over again was.

Scenario 3:

There was an After Effects base file that was being updated every day with new text, footage, and animation.

Scenario 4:

I needed to place hundreds of PDFs that weren’t uniformly named in specific places on a huge wall mural, according to an arbitrary list.

Y'know, when you make a multi-page document, but need a way to name each page based on specific information from the page? 

Doing that with a script makes it a cinch. 

Plus, it allows you to export the document as separate page as pdf's, labeled with the page name, so, right away you have a neat folder "Donations_Khal_Mevakshei_Hashem" "Donations_Shiras_Hatorah", "Donations_YKJS" without needing to go into each one and renaming :) 

You're welcome.

These were all tasks that were technically possible. They were just so tedious that doing them manually seemed to be the only realistic option.

The Solution: AI-Assisted Scripting

After a bit of deep conversation with an AI agent, a great solution: AI-assisted scripting. 

You may have purchased scripts, or used the ones built-in to the programs. They’re really cool! But I never would have thought to write my own. What used to be accessible mainly to programmers (as far as I knew!) is now available to anyone willing to work through the process. 

A script is essentially a way to communicate with the programs, to do what’s needed within their infrastructure.

When people heard about the speed in which these projects were done, they [automatically :)] asked, “Oh, you did it with AI?”

And the answer is… No!

Well, kind of.

Adobe really did the hard work. The programs already had the ability to do these things. I just needed a way to tell them what I wanted.

How can you use it?

Step 1: Find your use cases

Start by taking a step back. Notice what’s taking you time. (Yep, that’s how all the AI articles start - but I mean, for real.)

Sometimes it takes an outsider to tell you. Ask a coworker or client. Maybe check your time-tracking app.

Step 2: Do your research

Start by chatting with the AI of your choice (any AI agent can do what's needed, given the right info). Discuss your current process.

You can wait to see what ideas it has instead of guiding it too strictly at first. Prompts like “Ask me 5 questions about the process” or “Audit my thinking” can help.

The more precisely you can explain the process, the better. Tell it what you start with, what you need at the end, what decisions you make along the way, and what should happen in unusual cases.

Step 3: Generate your script

Ask it to create a script for whichever program you’re addressing - whether it’s InDesign, After Effects, Illustrator, Excel…

Step 4: Test and repeat

Download the script and follow the instructions.

Usually, the scripts consist of a few dialogue boxes popping up. Each one requests specific information: give me the folder of images, give me the data sheet, enter the new data, etc.

And then you try it.

Sometimes it works beautifully. Sometimes it trips up.

If it trips up, you can go back to the AI chatbot and tell it exactly what happened. You can explain what you expected, what actually happened, and even copy the error message into the conversation. It can revise the script, and you try again.

והעקשן יצליח!

And one more thing.

If you’re worried about charging less because you’re no longer spending as many hours on a task, that’s a discussion for another time. But keep in mind that the more efficiently you can do your work, the more valuable that efficiency becomes.

P.S. If you want help thinking through a challenge like this, let me know! Email frocksinstock@gmail.com to be in touch with the author.

Article written by: A Guest Writer who makes scripts do the dirty work and hopes you’ll also find them useful