Where does a strategist fit in with AI?
Pretty much anyone, anywhere has been “thinking a lot about AI lately,” and there are many, many smart people who have better takes than I could ever have. So that’s not what this article is about.
But last week, I received a request through my contact form from a potential client. To say he was the dream client was an understatement – smart, ready to invest in expertise, a list of everything he thought he might need. But he was also running a company in an industry to which I have absolutely no connection. Since launching this agency just over five years ago, I’ve had the immense pleasure of receiving near-constant referrals. My clients are great, they know great people, and those great people become more clients.
This guy? So far out of my network, I couldn’t have found him if I’d tried.
Which is exactly why I had to ask him: HOW?
ChatGPT. “I searched for copywriter Los Angeles,” he replied, “And you were one of four names that came up.”
How ChatGPT got me, the (once) anti-AI strategist, a job
A couple of years ago, I finally put in the time to SEO optimize my own site. I researched keywords; finessed my About page; wrote white papers on past projects; wrote, front-loaded, and published all the articles on this Journal on topics I thought might appeal to people in search of my services.
And then? Nothing much happened — a welcome reminder that if you want to grow an audience or really dig into the grit and grime of SEO, Squarespace’s native blogging platform probably ain’t it.
In all seriousness: And then, I got busy, working for more and more clients.
And then, wham! One day, this guy messages me out of the blue.
How, when, and why should a strategist use AI?
So damn it, yes, I’ve been thinking about AI a lot lately.
And using it, too. All while having numerous conversations — constantly, it feels like — with other freelance strategists, copywriters, and writers who are wondering if they’ll have jobs in the next few years.
Before sitting down to write this at 10:27am, I used AI in three different ways, starting with a client call at 8:00am.
So, how and when should someone use their own strategist versus AI?
If you’d asked me a year ago, I’d have had a completely different answer for you, but now my answer is: There’s no versus. You likely need them both.
When it makes us not only faster but also more attuned to our clients.
Deep breath before I say this: AI helps me do my job more efficiently and more successfully.*
*When I use it right.
On kickoff calls with clients, I use Otter.ai to record and create a transcript, one that I can revisit when I just know that my meticulously jotted yet inherently human notes have missed something.
When it helps us focus.
I use it, too, when I’m interviewing people for profiles for magazines or as “subject matter experts” when writing for brands. It captures and summarises their words in their voice, so that I can focus on the interview itself — the thinking, the responding, the follow-up questions. (As I type this, I can’t help but think about an interview I did years ago with a majorly cool woman, a household name, who I’d been dying to interview for months. My recorder — yes, a physical recorder — died halfway through. Thanksfully, she treated me with grace as I furiously typed everything she said for the next 20 minutes but the entire experience is now a black-out — I can’t imagine what questions I failed to ask.)
I also use it to help parse out brand voice notes, importing everything that a client has ever written, gathered from all corners of the internet, and asking ChatGPT or some other tool to call out patterns.
When we need alternative insights and critical feedback.
And I use it to check my work. To poke holes in my expertise, to help me better understand a marketing stack that’s not all that familiar to me, and to remind me what the current best practices are of XYZ — Hubspot, welcome funnels, even what to include in kickoff calls. Often, I poke holes back, asking it to clarify, to rethink, to rephrase.
So yeah, me and AI? It’s a love-hate thing. But I’ve long-since realized that it’s also another tool — one that can help or hurt depending on whether you use it well or sloppily. I think of all the tools that came before in my career. Learning to code (2009), content strategy techniques and tools (2011), SEO (2013), marketing reporting and list-building tools (2015-on).
Did I want to bring them into my creative life? Not exactly. Am I grateful I bothered to learn them now? Absolutely.
When should someone hire a strategist?
If you’re not a strategist but someone considering whether it’s necessary to hire one — first, wow thanks for reading. And the answer is probably now.
Now before you get so deep into the AI weeds that you create a whole mess of mediocrity. Call in a strategist to help you think — really think and think well — about what you need.
This is not about skipping the AI. Or about ballooning budgets. It’s about having an expert in their field help you figure out exactly what tools you need, AI included.
A great strategist won’t sell you on a massive project you don’t need. My definition of a great strategist is someone who’s willing to work with you so hard and well that they put themselves out of a job. (Of course, there’s a catch: If we help you that much, we’re counting on you working with us again when you launch your next big thing.)
I picked this life because I get to keep growing, learning, and moving. It’s a transient life full of uncertainty — AI included — but that’s the fun of it. Creativity is messy. It needs confines to keep it honest, at times. Other times it needs the boundaries to break them — shaking up an industry or project for the better by not trusting the tools.
After all, the art of strategy is making something out of what you have, even as the ground shifts beneath you. Sometimes, it means making your own rules, too.
If that sounds like what you need, my inbox is open.