What's the Number One Way A.I. Has Changed Strategy?

A recent podcast with Dave Phung at GPT Strategic left me reflecting on perhaps the most important impact that A.I. has - and will have - on marketing:

Asking the right questions is now more important than knowing the right answers.

If AI can summarise any information (parking aside that this needs to be fact-checked), then the ability to write the best prompt/question is what is going to differentiate one strategy from the next. This is a seismic shift in the world of any consultant.

Let’s dig into why…

Thinking counterintuitively is key

Some businesses will build custom language models to truly stand out and perhaps this will be commonplace in the future. But in the meantime, it’s how the strategist searches on the likes of ChatGPT and Midjourney that will set one brand apart from the other. The smartest people will use the A.I. tools to find the commonalities of the category and then brief the creatives (or other collaborators) to stand out from whatever currently exists.

Beyond the obvious

If you ask obvious questions, you receive obvious answers. This is as true in A.I. as it is for life in general. Instead, write unexpected prompts like:

What are 10 misconceptions about XYZ product (or category)?

Act like Taylor Swift and give me 10 song titles for XYZ product (or category)

What are some dreams that people have about XYZ product (or category)?

Raising the bar

AI is in the process of making it easier for small and medium-sized brands to produce better marketing, helped by tools like wordtune, that re-works advertising copy. But, right now at least, it won’t replace the need for human creativity and insight, especially for the world’s biggest brands who operate in highly commoditised categories.

If everyone has access to the same tools, the tools themselves can’t be the point of difference.