 Human vs AI
In a world that is increasingly AI driven, in our own use as an assistant or being bombarded by AI content, you can't help but wonder what's real and what's not. Your human-ness will be the driving factor in your success! I firmly believe that and advocate for it. Ways to Show Up and Be Human Let's review a few ways that really do make a difference.
No AI Shortcuts AI has its purposes, don't get me wrong. But don't AI prep all of your communications in posts, messages, or emails. Be real. Be YOU! Take just a few minutes to share the light inside you to help you ENGAGE with your clients! That is what folks are hiring—people want and need more Human in their lives right now. BE that human. BE YOU! How Have You Been Showing Up? Networking is especially challenging for the introverts of the world. There are many steps you can take to get out there in small doses or in friendly spaces. How have you been showing up? Attending events online or in person? Focusing more on messaging in the socials? Or is this on your 2026 goal list? Love to hear and grow together! Let's Chat or find me on LinkedIn!
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 How to Get AI Answers - Effectively
Everything is about AI these days. You can't turn around without an article or video about it. Unfortunately, much of the noise seems to be predicting doom and the awful results of the increasing AI. (Artificial Intelligence) I have plenty of my own questions about whether we truly need this level of tech assistance or impact in our lives. Sure, some advancements are already pretty cool, but the level the "tech bros" talk about or that you can see as the train at the end of the tunnel coming at you? I'm pretty sure none of us have asked for that level of AI "assistance." AI Bubbles There are very definitely the Users, the Non-Users, and the Ignore At All Costs bubbles at the moment. (NOTE: I am completely making these terms up for my own frame of reference)
Prompting Framework for Generative AI I caught Joe Pulizzi on a recent podcast of This Old Marketing referring to a framework he heard from Geoff Woods at a recent MAICON conference that he shared in a blog post. There are a few similar versions for prompting, but this is a useful reference if you're getting started with AI or looking for small ways to improve your results. CRIT = Context, Role, Interview, Task
Brilliant Use of AI! This is a great succinct way to work through better ways to prompt AI as a thought partner rather than using it as a "do this for me" tool. This reflects my typical use of AI with the addition of the Interview idea. This is also a far better human-first approach to using AI! With Gratitude My many thanks to Joe Pulizzi for sharing the thoughts and Geoff Woods for inspiring Joe! I just picked up Geoff's book The AI-Driven Leader on Audible as it inspired Joe's post. I'm looking forward to the read and sharing insights! How Will YOU Use AI? Are you an AI User, Non-User, or prefer to Ignore At All Costs? Hopefully the CRIT idea offers useful options to enable you to prompt better to be more effective in your use or even to help get you started! Love to hear how your AI journey is going - Let's Chat or message me on LinkedIn!  How to Get Started with AI
Artificial Intelligence (AI) made a big leap forward into the general public consciousness November 2022. AI has made rapid progress in its usefulness and skills. Humans have made progress in how to best interact with the tool that is AI. How Many REALLY Use AI? ChatGPT, one of the largest generative AI models in use at this time, has posted 800 million weekly active users since April 2025. ChatGPT is 1 of roughly 5 big AI platforms as of this writing. Many using AI use multiple platforms for their work or more specialized AI platforms focusing on the mode of output desired (audio, visual, or even video) bringing the number of AI users to at least 1 billion and climbing. What Would I Use AI For? AI is now "multimodal" - it can think and output in multiple formats. We're going to focus on these as a reference point knowing AI is also embedded in many products we routinely use - Alexa from Amazon, online/digital shopping, "smart" home devices and appliances, phones, social media platforms, and more.
Where Do I Start? Prompting - or how you query the system - is how you begin. The technology has been around long enough at this point that some consistent suggestions have developed for how to maximize your results with AI. You can find a variety of ideas here, here, and here. My personally favorite resource is Paul Roetzer with SmarterX and Marketing AI Institute. I've completed some of their AI Academy courses and love their clear formula for prompting that becomes second nature with use. Talk to AI - Yes, Seriously This is simply the easiest and best way to think of how to prompt or query your AI - "talk" to it as if you're instructing a smart intern. "Talking" can be literally if your device does voice mode or by text typing your prompt. It's a bit more robust than what we're used to in Google searches. Bearing that in mind, it does help to have a few cues in mind to get the most out of your prompting to reduce your time shaping the response you're after or throwing up your hands in frustration declaring, "It doesn't work!"
Still Stumped? The crazy thing is AI has advanced enough that we can ask it how to better phrase a prompt for our desired result - seriously! You may be good at prompting with text for a text output, but image or video details are not your specialty to use the above formatting. You can simply ask your AI tool to give you an example of a prompt you could use for whatever vague information you do have. It may take a couple of tries to shape the information you're after, but it beats being stuck or floundering needlessly! Copy/paste the recommended prompt, place that into a new chat, and you're on your way to now shape what you're after. You've Got This! My clients are often older. Major tech changes can be very intimidating. I'm here to assist you! I'm learning the stuff so you don't have to.
Have you been playing with AI? What do you think? Are you getting the hang of it or is it feeling a tad overwhelming? Let's Chat or message me on LinkedIn!  Artificial Intelligence Literacy for All
I can't recommend this organization highly enough. Paul Roetzer and his team do an amazing job educating the public at all levels of AI awareness about AI, its impact, current industry news and activity, ethics, and more. What Does He Have? Marketing AI's basic mission is to "help marketers and business leaders understand, pilot, and scale AI." They do this in a variety of ways, many of them free or low cost! The focus is on marketers.
SmarterX "is an AI research and education firm and parent company of AI Academy, The Artificial Intelligence Show [the podcast], and Marketing AI Institute." It's purpose is "to drive efficiencies, productivity, innovation, and growth in all areas of business, but focuses on marketing, sales, and service as the primary drivers of value creation."
AI Academy is a membership program providing courses and regular topical communication as AI rapidly changes. Their education, ethics, and business model encourages a human-centered approach to AI. AI will definitely be disruptive of jobs in the short-term, but the hope is opportunities are maximized to create new and different jobs around and with AI as well as capitalizing on advancements made thanks to insights and speed of AI. Certificates and badges are available with course completion. If you're just beginning to dabble with AI or you're looking for bigger steps into your use, Paul Roetzer and his resources can't be beat. I've read the book, subscribe to both newsletters, and the podcast is a weekly must-listen for me. Their information and insights are cutting edge current with real world human perspective. AI is only growing stronger and more present. I suggest it's a smart investment in your small business or nonprofit to be aware of its capabilities, limitations, and best way to partner with it to maximize your own time and presence. This resource is a great first step to learn more with many free resources and paid options when you're ready. Where do you find yourself in your AI journey? Is it a big part of your work or daily processes or more on the fringes? I'd love to hear how you're using it and compare notes - Let's Chat or find me on LinkedIn!  What Do You Want to Do More or Less of?
That's really the crux of the matter with Artificial Intelligence (AI), isn't it. How will AI actually be useful to each of us? We're urged to "Just play!" "Get comfortable with it so maybe you have a job in the future." (whaaaaaat?!) Benefits to Enterprise or Corporate Businesses These are seemingly fairly obvious. Changes are already happening. Rather than a Human First approach - what could we do with all of the existing human staff if each were equipped with this amazing tool to unlock discovery - we're instead faced with AI First mentality - how can we reduce staff and replace with AI capability to achieve status quo (but with greater profit margin) and maybe see improvements beyond what humans could do. The entire AI discussion really needs flipped. My thanks to Robert Rose of This Old Marketing podcast for initiating the thought in episode 484. Robert suggested rather than AI cutting jobs, why don't we keep jobs and instead expand reach, productivity, and creativity of the existing work force. Absolutely brilliant. AI Forward vs AI First Words matter. A number of corporations have recently posted news they're "AI First." A review of this Forbes article shares "AI First" places AI at the core of their corporate strategy. Companies such as Amazon, Duolingo, and Shopify recently said the quiet part out loud, initially with quite a bit of backlash, but more large corporations with the same message is dulling the response. Compare that with "AI Forward" as suggested by Paul Roetzer of Marketing AI Institute. AI Forward is more focused on ways to help humans maximize their use of AI as a partner. There are no delusions. Even with AI Forward, jobs will be impacted as less humans will seemingly be needed. But AI Forward aims to maximize the human factor and benefit rather than simply replace humans for the sake of saving money or higher profits. But What DO We Want AI to Do? AI is lovely when it conveniently works in the background to make our lives easier - restaurant or purchase suggestions based on our history, smoother phone use with connected applications, advances in science and research. But what do we want to do with all of this supposedly new-found free time thanks to the wonders of all that AI will do for us?
What Do You Want to Do MORE of Thanks to AI?
What Do You Want to do LESS of Thanks to AI?
AI is Here - Now What? None of us necessarily asked for it or had any concept to consider AI in our lives, but here we are. We're going to need to figure out how to make the best of it while hopefully limiting the worst of it. (cue old B-rated sci-fi movies with AI taking over the world and unstoppable!) It does behoove us to stay on top of advances. Play with models and features regularly. Use it where useful in your life and business without letting AI do everything for you. If you're not actively involved in the task you assign to AI or your intern (whoever you delegate to), you will not be able to cogently speak on the topic. It's Learning 101. But be aware. Be selective. Be Human. How are you using AI in your business? Love to hear your thoughts - Let's Chat by email or connect on LinkedIn!  Is a Website Useful for a Small Business?
(2 min read) I give this an emphatic YES! A website is your business's store front. It's your personal platform and active "calling card" for the world to see what you do and why you do it. It's a space to showcase your work (think Portfolio page or Blog pages). It's the perfect place to connect with your current and future clients, especially if you include a way to enable visitors to sign up for your newsletter! A website is owned territory, not "rented" land. Relying on social media for your marketing is dangerous as the platform holds all the cards and can cut you off at any time, for any reason. A website and newsletter list are yours forever. But AI - How Will I Be Found? Well, you won't be found without a website! Searches are different these days with far less "type a question in Google" and instead "have a chat in ChatGPT." AI is changing the landscape quickly - 6 months makes a difference. This is an article from 6 months ago but from a known source, Forbes. People are certainly still searching, but the queries and searches are different. How we respond to questions through our websites matters. Key words and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) are quickly becoming things of the past. Think FAQs Rather than Key Words It's time to change how we make our websites visible in AI searches. Put yourself in your customer's shoes. Play with how you would search for something that may be answered on your website! Think more in terms of the question rather than key words. Think more like a brief response than website links that may pop up in a search. As AI users ask their questions, best practice suggests they ask AI to cite sources in the response provided. That is how you will be found - do you answer the question on your website? Here is a rather extensive review of how to improve your content optimization for searchability. How Do I Get Started with a Website? This prior blog post should help with the basic how-to when creating your website. Let's Chat if you'd like assistance or to simply kick around ideas for how you'll get started. Who Should Have a Website? Anyone who owns a business, no matter the size. There are very affordable options available to create something that looks good, isn't hard to create with or update, and that you can learn to manage once it's created if you need a hand. One of my special talents is teaching clients how to update and do the work themselves if they'd like. Visit this blog post for a few website platforms I recommend for small businesses and solopreneurs. Let's DO This! If you don't have a website yet and would like a hand or ideas, I'm very happy to brainstorm with you! Let's Chat using your favorite method or message me on LinkedIn. I am your biggest fan and cheerleader! I would love to help you get your message to your ideal customer. I specialize in serving small to medium-sized nonprofits, fellow entrepreneurs, and non-fiction authors with tools that will help you ENGAGE your customer - Let's Chat!  Entrepreneurs in an AI World
(2 min read) This post is in follow-up to a recent blog post. I'm not sure I made my point clear at that time so will aim to improve in this edition. Considering Being an Entrepreneur I suggest there is no better time than now to begin your journey down this path!
"Constraints Breed Creativity" I'm not finding this quote attributed to any one person but it seems to be more of a general philosophy. I do like this concept related to it - Theory of Constraints by LeanProduction. How this relates to the current job market and entrepreneurs? If you're feeling the winds shifting at work, in your job or your career field, it's time to get creative in how you'll weather the storm. An entrepreneurial venture may be just the trick for you to supplement your current status or jump ship completely. You may decide you just don't have an entrepreneurial bone in you and need to consider retraining to a different career field or look at retirement. Both are very valid options we'll all be reviewing. I caution that "early retirement" is becoming harder for many to realize as savings have drained for many in recent economic years. We're living longer and generally healthier. However, when health takes a turn—boy, does it get expensive! Many need or want something to do to keep mind and body busy, even if a sizable income isn't critical. A "side gig" or entrepreneurial endeavor may be just the thing for you. The Time is GREAT to Become an Entrepreneur! Have courage. Take heart! You've got this! Consider this an opportunity rather than a loss. The weather may be stormy, but how will you ride the waves? If you'd like to chat ideas with someone about what being an entrepreneur entails, my door is always open - Let's Chat! Email me or message me on LinkedIn any time! If you need a hand getting plans into place - none of us are experts in all things - I'd be honored to be of assistance. I'm a whiz at supporting small to mid-sized nonprofits, fellow entrepreneurs, and nonfiction authors to make their dreams come true! I assist in developing/maintaining websites, social media management, email distribution, newsletter and PR material creation, proofreading and editing - a variety of services. I'm also a great listener and problem solver with over 35 years developing care plans and strategies for return to home and independence as a hospital physical therapist. Happy to chat strategy if useful - Let's Chat!  The Future is Here
(4 min read) The disruptions are beginning. We are on the cusp of another leap in acceptance and advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Reports are increasing of "enterprise" (large-scale) employers not hiring and letting AI use evolve among employees. Employees aren't necessarily being trained in ways to use AI, but are expected to "figure it out" and be productive in using it. Early Reports Paul Roetzer has shared recent podcasts of The Artificial Intelligence Show compiling news from AI developers about the increasing usefulness and "intelligence" of AI. Employers are staking a claim they simply will not hire until staff demonstrates a human need that AI is unable to fulfill. People are being urged to be prepared to be "AI Supervisors," overseeing AI tools or "agents" to ensure output is accurate and ready to share with a human-centered voice. Employers are proclaiming they are "AI First" more than "AI Forward." Refer to this May 6, 2025 blog post by Mike Kaput for specifics. Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic (home of Claude AI), was interviewed May 28, 2025 in Axios and it has gotten everyone's attention. He predicts AI will soon eliminate half of all entry level jobs within the next couple of years. (mic drop) He predicts US unemployment could reach 10-20% with the impact on white-collar jobs. So much for the benefit of that college degree. Where to from Here? There has to be a way to prepare ourselves and our children for this unsettled future. I have two college students nearing graduation. I recall when I was graduating college years ago the doom & gloom predictions about the job market, and that was before the advent of AI. That part isn't new. But we really seem to be on the precipice of new territory as much as the development of AI has been pushed. Human First Consider jobs or at least aspects of jobs you enjoy that require a human touch, interaction, or synthesis. Those will continue to need humans. A massage therapist and many in healthcare use hands to treat. AI currently is computer-based. The introduction of robots - machines who will do things - will add a different wrinkle not addressed in this post. Physical activities will remain human in the near-future. Become AI Educated Training abounds and is increasing in how to use AI tools, many free or very affordable. Find those. Invest in the time to get comfortable with AI tools and resources. Play and practice with various AI tools. Be curious. Explore. Be prepared to be a leader, supervisor, or synthesizer of AI tools and output, validating and verifying information generated. Become an Entrepreneur! As more "traditional" jobs go away, the opportunities will abound for non-traditional roles. This is an amazing time to start your own business and go in unexpected directions! Find unfilled needs and be the one to fill them. Take courses including webinars, read books, listen to podcasts - much is available for free. Different Way of Thinking It's all well and good to start thinking outside of the box and strive to blaze your own trails, but the entrepreneur role tends to be patchy, "gig" based, and project oriented. You pull many single or limited number projects together to create your income. Marketing is continual on top of the workload. There is "back shop" work to be done on any business to keep finances, taxes, and project planning (your calendar and your sanity!) in order. Plan on Challenges + Time Marketing and the business of your business are not intuitive. Most of us were not trained in such things, so there's a learning curve. Plan on a minimum of three years to start to see a return on proceeding down this path. That doesn't get the immediate bills paid when you're facing sudden job loss. Start building that emergency fund and nest egg to offset this transition. Work on educating yourself and do market analysis while you're working to build a "side job" that may well become your fully entrepreneurial job. AI Will Impact All Jobs There's really no way around it. AI will disrupt the job market - it's beginning already. None of us can plan on decades at the same job. Jobs, whether through an employer or on your own as an entrepreneur, are likely to be cobbled together - many part-time roles strung together. Creativity will become a must for how you position yourself - identify your skill set, quantify successes, and think broadly about job titles. Some current entrepreneurial roles will become absorbed by AI. However, many other opportunities await, perfect for those with an entrepreneurial spirit willing to put in time and effort, predominantly focusing on talking to people or partnering with others. SmarterX (Paul Roetzer) offers a number of tools to help you analyze jobs, tasks, and problems using ChatGPT. If you'd like someone to talk through ideas and talk strategy if you're considering an entrepreneurial adventure, I'd be thrilled to chat! Let's Chat by email or find me on LinkedIn and message me.  Which is Best?
(3 min read) As we wrap up our Human vs AI series on Read. Write. Engage, we'll look at how AI is doing to ENGAGE your audience. Our earlier editions focused on AI in (proof)Reading and Writing. My take on AI in proofreading - strongly on Team Human. AI in writing - AI does better, but I still lean heavily on Team Human. To ENGAGE your customer, there are useful AI tools available, but it all relies on human involvement and simply BEING human—interacting with other humans as a human. How Does AI "Engage" with Customers? To ENGAGE your customers, there are a myriad of tasks you do. Engaging is a composite of activities to ultimately connect with your customer.
What CAN AI Do? AI may be in template-based products you use. This includes Canva for logo, flyer, or newsletter designs. AI can be in template-based website hosts such as Wix, Squarespace, and WordPress. AI is embedded to help you get creative to improve your words, images, or overall design. AI is amazing at analytics. AI can help you be more precise in customer messaging by reviewing your donor or sales information. AI can review your sales data to help suggest products to your customer for you to personalize your emails. (CRM or Customer Relationship Management tools such as Hubspot) AI can help you review your Pinterest idea boards for your next event to nail your clear decorating favorites or logo design ideas. AI is useful in social media management to schedule posts, help you write the content, and capture the most catchy headline for your post or blog. AI can even help identify potential customers. You can use it to bring your customer personas to life. You can identify where your customers are - conventions to consider attending to network, appropriate businesses that fit your model, or potential contacts to cold email or connect on socials. ChatGPT and similar tools are great assistants for this. What CAN'T AI Do? AI does no good TALKING to your customers. That simply can't be replaced. It's up to YOU to TALK with your customers in person, in messages, on the phone, and in emails. AI is supposedly able to compose emails for you and can become seemingly adept at getting familiar with your writing voice if you use it frequently. It definitely needs oversight and a final review before hitting "send" and often needs some adjustments, but it can help you make the task easier. AI is supposedly useful on websites and phones with "chat bots" or "AI agents." They may help in a limited manner, but I've never met a useful chat bot yet. After about three questions, I'm ready to throw the phone or computer in search of a human, except now I'm frustrated, which isn't a great way to talk with someone, and it leaves a lousy impression of your brand. There is absolutely no replacing the benefit of human interaction at networking events, even if those events are online. AI simply can't do that. Team Human or Team AI AI can be a useful tool. It is no replacement for the human factor. Any use of AI should be to complement you as a human. The ongoing development of AI will push us to clarify and identify what IS important to us about each other and what the human factor is. What is the best way to ENGAGE your customers? Be human! YOU are the secret ingredient! Where do you use AI in your efforts to ENGAGE with your customer? Love to hear your thoughts! I provide a number of services for nonprofits, small businesses, entrepreneurs, and authors. I look forward to discussing ways to Engage your customers - Let's Chat!  Which Is Best?
(3 min read) As we continue our Human vs AI series at Read. Write. Engage, we'll take a look at how AI is doing in writing tasks. Last week, we considered AI as a proofreader where I'm still strongly on Team Human. In writing, AI is more useful. AI in Writing This is a task AI has been trained to do as one of its core functions. We can now ask AI to return information to us from a variety of "voices" or reference points and it does fairly well. We can provide prompts such as "You are an experienced marketer" or "Provide the information at a level of a 5th grader" and get reasonable suggestions. Paul Roetzer of the Marketing Artificial Intelligence Institute and SmarterX has created a JobsGPT using ChatGPT as its basis. Paul is a marketer by trade. He notes on the home page of JobsGPT that in Content Creation, "LLM can generate drafts for blog posts, social media content, and email campaigns. It can also assist with editing and optimizing content for SEO and engagement," saving 30-50% of your time. JobsGPT was introduced in this blog post dated August 13, 2024 for how dated the 30-50% reference may be. AI in Research This is another task AI has been trained to do and it does fairly well. For the benefits of AI, writing and research are two of its highest skills. Research is key for many writing tasks, be it writing an article, blog post, a term paper, or simply providing information to others. Many times it's useful to find details, further information on a topic, or corroborate (or refute) whatever point a writer is trying to make. We now have two tasks useful for AI in writing. Can I Write A Book with AI? I'd give that an emphatic no! Many editors - and readers - can tell the difference. It may not be noted immediately, but heavy AI use will get caught at some point, even years later. Many proofreaders and editors find themselves on the front line of identifying AI generated or plagiarized material in books. An ethical concern develops about reporting it to authors or publishers or even editing books with a high percentage of seemingly AI generated material. Former Harvard President Claudine Gay faced fierce consequences with questions of plagiarism that she strongly denied. The use of AI makes it more difficult to clearly define your words vs someone else's. It's fascinating to find that AI books are becoming more visible due to the volume of work produced daily, even attributed to legitimate authors who had nothing to do with the work! Amazon is trying to stem the tide (and confusion) by limiting self-published Kindle books to three per day. Do We Need Humans? Can I get a hearty "Heck yeah!" on this! Whatever writing AI provides, it needs shaped. All AI developers admit and recommend this. AI has been trained with an enormous volume of information to synthesize quickly in a general way to provide a generally satisfactory response suitable for a broad audience. Whatever information AI provides, humans need to shape it further with prompts or put their own writing to work. AI provides broad, general information. AI continues to need fact checked. "Hallucinations" occur where the AI may provide examples or websites that aren't even real yet look very real. AI tends to be eager to please and does its best to provide what it thinks you're looking for, whether it's real or not. Always ask AI for its sources, but even those need confirmed. AI cannot replicate your very special and individual voice and perspective on the world. AI is data and information, an aggregate of many, not feelings or experiences. Team Human or Team AI? I have to admit to a blend on this. Many humans using AI do find it useful to assist writing and research. Personally? I weigh more heavily on Team Human here.
Transparency and AI A discussion is always advisable to be clear the level of AI used to create a work and be sure all are agreeable. I see a Human© tag becoming likely in the future! In the realm of writing, are you on Team Human or Team AI? Love to hear your thoughts! I provide a number of services for nonprofits, small businesses, entrepreneurs, and authors. I look forward to discussing ways to Engage your customers - Let's Chat! |
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