You’re (Probably) Using AI Wrong
You're (probably) using AI wrong. (This is my business-hot-take hook.)
Before I type more, I want to say: I'm typing this. Me, myself, with my own ten fingers. :)
A lot of people in marketing are using AI generatively: for instance, write me this blog post. Give me a social media caption for this content. Write a video script for my 15-second spot.
I'm not going to go into why I think this is mostly a miss and is creating stale, repetitive, fluffy content that your audience scrolls right past. Even with loading messaging frameworks, voice and tone guardrails, and brand strategy into these LLMs, they're still producing overly-long slop in most cases, and need a very heavy editor's hand (so one might as well type with one's own fingers, in my opinion).
What I'm using AI for is analysis and strategic thinking.
I've been challenged by Jasmine Bina's framework of AI as an extension of the human brain. While I think I'm a little too much of a Luddite to be as techno-optimist as she is about it, I do find her framework useful. We've extended our bodies in many ways: clothing, shoes, cars, eyeglasses, and more have all allowed our limited corporal capabilities to go further. LLMs are a great way to extend our brains.
When we use LLMs to write or generate for us, we're not really extending our brain so much as bypassing it: I'd like not to use my brain, thanks, please do this for me. I may not even fully read it (because it's boring...)
But when we use LLMs as strategic or analytical tools, we create a mirror to show us blind spots and a critical partner (if we prompt it to be—in its coded form, it is far too sycophantic to do this naturally) to help us sift through unstructured data: to see things in new ways. We can put data in conversation with other information and pull out actionable insights. As a brand strategist, this is an excellent tool and helps me see things I may otherwise miss from my own limited perspective.
A few examples of how I've used AI in this way recently:
As an executive partner to think through retainer structuring and pricing, creating a pro forma for 2026 with ideal clients and a workload that feels appropriate for my goals
As a data analyst to pull out key themes and sentiment from brand perception surveys for clients
As a critical partner for identifying blind spots in how I've structured proposals and project fees (when I prompt it correctly and give it the right data, it calls me out when I'm underestimating hourly commitment for projects, especially when I've loaded in past Harvest data to show it how much time things ACTUALLY take me and my team)
Anyway, I'm sure I'll spout off on this more in the future, but for now... my hot takes, fresh from the press, written by me.
