I’m sure you’ve heard by now there’s this crazy-cool tool out there called generative AI. (Who’dathunk?) Turns out there’s not even just one… there are several to choose from!
Okay, all kidding aside, after just one more sarcastic AI platitude coming, and then I’m done: AI really is changing everything – including the way we work.
As my skills with leveraging AI have grown over the past couple of years, something odd has happened. I’ve found myself somtimes nostalgic for old ways of doing things. Occasionally, I’ll slip and go back to how I used to analyze data, do keyword research, and myriad other things.
Ultimately, AI is a siren in the water calling me back. Then I hear Wesley from the Princess Bride sneer, “to the pain!” For the uninitiated: Wesley uses ‘to the pain’ to describe consequences far worse than death. That’s how I’ve come to view the mere notion of falling behind on AI. Painful, but survivable as long as I catch myself in time.
Here are 6 things I feel nostalgia for now that AI is in the picture:
Data Analysis
I 🥰Excel. Loved that t-shirt from Microsoft. 5 out of 5 stars – no notes. Seriously, though, Excel was THE tool when I needed to really understand the performance of my campaigns. Pivot tables. Formulas, formulas, and more formulas. A given analysis could take an hour or more, but gosh darn it the task and deep thinking were satisfying. These days, I still spend time in Excel, but when I need to really understand something quickly, I lean heavily into AI.
Prompt: “Can you please review this document and tell me the top 5 keywords by conversion volume and the bottom 5 keywords by CPA?”
Business Research
Deep research on a given business can be done in minutes with AI. This could be researching a new client or seeking out a client’s competitors. I used to love jumping into this research in full-blown “manual mode,” endlessly searching for every scrap of data or useful information I could find. There was also something super-satisfying in packaging up that hard work. Of course, AI has now made all of this blazing fast.
Prompt: ”Can you please find the top 5 competitors of company ‘X’ and then provide the sources used for that assessment?”
Keyword & Audience Brainstorming
Damn, this one hits hard. I’ve been doing this digital advertising thing for nearly 20 years. I learned keyword research on day-1! Brainstorm some seed terms (alone or with your team). Pop into the Keyword Planner on Google, on Microsoft and see what kind of variations they pull up. Create a master list of keywords and get on with building your campaign.
Same goes for audience brainstorming. Talking with the client, understanding the business, creating personas as needed and building a plan. Sometimes white boards were involved! BAMMO! All of this could be done in a day or two.
While some of that is still true, AI tools can really simplify this process.
Prompt: “Can you please provide a list of keywords for product ‘X’ on website client.com?”
Copy Writing
I’ve always been a fan of writing, particularly the process of writing ad copy. Understand brand rules, land a benefit statement, and nail the call-to-action. Oh, and be sure you remember the tight character counts. It has always felt like a game of sorts to me. And I love to win. But this goes for writing longer form copy, too. Landing pages in particular.
Doing all of this with AI can be a simplified process when applied with diligence. AI copywriting still requires masterful human intervention to maintain authenticity and hit the right notes. With that intervention in mind, input supporting data (brand guidelines, a website or LP, etc.) and then hone your prompt to get the correct ad or content format you need. Viola! Now, don’t get me wrong. As stated before, you still have to review and edit the output from AI as the tools can very much make mistakes and/or make you come across like an AI fool.
Prompt: ”Can you please create 15 headlines of 30 characters and 4 descriptions of 90 characters based on this landing page (client.com/LP) and the attached brand guidelines?”
Editing
All that writing brings us to editing. Editing anything the old-fashioned way has been something I’ve enjoyed doing since I was a teenager (yes, I was co-editor of my high school newspaper). In my career, blogging has been my creative outlet in writing. Admittedly, I have mostly been my own editor – which I do not recommend!
AI is tremendous at finding subtle changes to help make any written piece of content more cohesive, readable, and free of grammar/spelling errors. What’s even cooler is that AI tools can learn your voice over time or by leveraging existing written content as part of your prompt.
Prompt: Can you please edit this article for readability and try to match the voice of the attached blog post?”
Notetaking
I’m a pen/paper nerd. I love the tactile sensation of writing. So, naturally I’ve been an avid note taker throughout my career. Now I have a fancy Remarkable tablet with digital ink – it’s amazing. As you can imagine, it has been a struggle for me to transition to letting some invisible AI ‘listener’ handle taking the notes.
But you know what? These tools do a better job than I ever could and they organize the big picture in a holistic manner. Sometimes the AI listener will draw connections that the human might miss! Still nostalgic for writing though… There are many options to try – Gemini for Google Meet, Otter.ai, Fireflies.ai, Fathom and Grain.
Prompt: none needed! Just set up your tool of choice and get started.
To sum things up, AI is awesome and tremendously useful. Blend the strengths of the skills built up over 20 years and don’t minimize the value of the human (in many cases, means YOU!). But as tools continue to emerge and evolve, I wrote this post, in part, to help remind myself of the guiding principles to deploy AI strategically to amplify my own strengths, fill skills gaps, & remove needless tasks. Given the conversations we’re having within AIMCLEAR and with industry friends around the world, it’s good for all of us to always revisit the core of what AI is and isn’t. It’s an unprecedented, powerful new tool that is transforming how we do our jobs. But it isn’t perfect. It’s new and evolving fast. But combining the power of the AI tools with our own creativity and insight, though, can certainly make for a helluva productive and fun day on the job!
