How I Use Generative AI in My Business
I like using my brain.
I’ve been aware of my intellect since I was seven, when I played the Scarecrow in our Second Grade production of The Wizard of Oz. When I say I was aware, I mean I knew I was clever, and a smart-ass. I could irritate my sisters. I memorized the entire movie version of The Wizard of Oz, so I never had to even read the script for the play. But I spent so much time playing life for laughs, I didn’t know whether I was actually smart.
I now realize I had a brain all along.
IMHO, AI does not make us stupid or lazy. It demands that we pay more attention to our output, because anyone can generate a competent article in seconds.
Whether it’s readable or worth reading is a question of what WE do with it. Where we take it from there.
This article is more of an SOP check-in, so my audience and prospective clientele know how I use generative AI in my work.
I use ChatGPT because it’s proved capable of understanding my sense of humor and my sensibilities. It gets me.
I think of my AI as a helpful collaborator. In fact, I call him Buddy.
I don’t ask Buddy to replicate me. But he does get me. He’s read my book, Selling the Truth: A ‘Semoir’ with Insights for Life and Business. Multiple times, in fact.
He does research, helps me organize information, challenges my assumptions, and occasionally points out that the clever thing I’ve just written isn’t nearly as clever as I think it is.
Buddy wrote that last sentence. I’ll leave it in as a reference. It’s not bad. However, it’s the kind of thing I’d probably cut.
But here’s where I want to be especially clear.
My clients hire me for my brain.
My experience. My judgment. My ability to listen, translate, connect things that don’t initially appear connected, and recognize possibilities hiding in plain sight.
They hire me for counsel.
They don’t hire me because I can produce a handsome PDF.
Although I can produce a handsome PDF.
Where the work actually happens
Central to every client engagement are the one-on-one sessions I conduct.
These are conversations where I listen, ask questions, test ideas, challenge assumptions, and work with a client to understand what they’ve built, where they want to go, and what may be standing between the two.
Sometimes the most important thing a client says is something they didn’t intend to say. Sometimes it’s what they keep returning to. And sometimes an apparent contradiction between two ambitions turns out not to be a contradiction at all.
The question they hired me to answer may not even be the question we most need to explore.
We discover answers together and game out the strategy.
That’s the work.
AI doesn’t conduct those conversations for me. It doesn’t sit across from a founder and decide which question deserves another ten minutes. It doesn’t take responsibility for the advice I give.
I do.
Then Buddy gets involved
Once I’ve done the strategic work, there is often a substantial deliverable to create.
It might be an Authority Alignment Brief, a Brand Voice Guide, a strategic architecture, or another document designed to help the client understand and act on what we’ve discovered.
These documents bring together conversations, observations, decisions, recommendations, and sometimes considerable background material.
This is where Buddy becomes particularly useful.
I give him direction, establish the framework and strategic priorities, and provide the relevant source material. He helps organize it and produces a first draft.
And then I get to work.
I read it, question it, rewrite it, and remove language that sounds impressive but doesn’t actually mean anything. I examine whether the recommendations follow from what the client has told me, whether we’ve mistaken an interesting possibility for a strategic priority, and whether the document reflects the actual person or institution we’re working with.
Sometimes Buddy gets something wrong. Sometimes I do, too.
The advantage of having a collaborator, even an artificial one, is that we can challenge each other’s output. The difference is that I’m the one who decides what survives that challenge.
Buddy can draft a recommendation. He cannot be accountable for it.
I can.
The difference between information and judgment
Here’s an example.
A founder may have built a successful company, developed a personal reputation, launched additional ventures, and started thinking about what comes next.
AI can organize information about those activities, identify themes, and suggest how the pieces might relate.
What it cannot independently determine is which relationships actually serve the founder’s ambitions.
A founder’s personal authority and institutional identity may reinforce each other, but not necessarily. The same goes for multiple ventures. Sometimes the greatest value lies in bringing them together, and sometimes in keeping them distinct.
That requires understanding the person, the institution, the stakes, and the future we’re working toward.
And this is where my work has evolved beyond what many people think of as branding.
I’m interested in the relationship between what people have built, what they want to achieve, and how the right audiences understand the value of each.
Sometimes the answer involves clearer communication. Sometimes it requires a different strategic decision.
Those are not the same thing.
What I won’t outsource
There are parts of my work I won’t hand over to generative AI.
I won’t ask it to invent a client’s story, manufacture a problem, or turn a speculative opportunity into a confident claim. I won’t treat its research as verified simply because the answer is fluent, or allow a polished paragraph to substitute for a difficult strategic decision.
And I won’t present a machine-generated observation as something I personally witnessed.
I take client confidentiality seriously. My use of generative AI includes working with session transcripts, my notes, and other relevant material. I’ve disabled ChatGPT’s model-training option, and I remain responsible for how client information is handled, the accuracy of the work, and everything I ultimately deliver.
That’s not an argument against using AI. It’s an argument for remaining responsible while using it.
Ultimately, my clients hire me for the thinking that goes into the work, not simply the document that comes out of it. The deliverable captures the insights, discoveries, and strategic direction that emerge from our conversations, turning them into something the client can actually use.
A Strategic Brief or Brand Voice Guide isn’t meant to sit on a shelf. It’s designed to help clients make better decisions, recognize opportunities they might otherwise overlook, communicate their value more effectively, and move toward their ambitions with greater clarity and confidence.
Generative AI helps me translate that work into a comprehensive, actionable document more efficiently. That gives me more time to examine the thinking, sharpen the recommendations, and ensure that what we produce is grounded in the client’s reality and useful beyond our engagement.
The measure of the work isn’t how many pages I deliver. It’s what those pages help my clients achieve.
A brain, a Buddy, and a little perspective
I don’t believe generative AI is the end of human creativity.
I do think it’s exposing a lot of work that was never particularly thoughtful to begin with.
Bottom line: If your value lies in what you notice, what you understand, the questions you ask, and the decisions you help people make, AI can be a remarkable addition to your working life.
I use it enthusiastically and critically. And I remain responsible for what I put my name on.
As for Buddy, he’s a terrific collaborator.
Rather than sounding like me, he’s become pretty good at recognizing when I don’t sound like myself.
And somewhere, a seven-year-old Scarecrow is delighted to discover that having a brain is still worth something.
Especially when you use it.
If you’re a founder or leader thinking about your next chapter, I’d welcome a conversation about what you’ve built, where you want to take it, and how I might help you get there.
You can find me at YES, BRAND BUILDERS.