In the last issue, I asked: Are you too dependent on AI? 

Because I’m seeing people hand over their writing, marketing, and even personal decisions to ChatGPT or Claude.

It’s like they’re unable to make a move without consulting an AI first.

But I don’t bring it up to suggest you should stop using AI.

In fact, some of the smartest creatives I know are using AI to do things they simply couldn’t do before.

They’re using what my favorite AI author, Ethan Mollick, calls their “human advantages.”

Here’s how he put it in a recent essay: 

You are not trying to compete with AI in producing outputs, that is a losing game. Instead, you want to use your human advantages as the basis of working with AI to do things that neither of you could do alone.

And I could not agree more. 

He defines your four “human advantages” as deep knowledge, wide knowledge, taste, and agency. Read about them in his essay here.

One client of mine, creative strategist and designer, Kate Purcell, is doing this so well, I had her come on the Marketing Mentor Podcast to tell me about it.

Here are a few ways she’s using AI to deliver things to clients she otherwise couldn't:

• Record and analyze client conversations, capture important details and make sure requests don’t get forgotten...
  
  
• Generate creative ideas that she can compare or combine with her own...
  
  
• Create custom illustrations in her own artistic styles by training an AI on her work...
  
  
• Quickly prototype website concepts and wireframes, so she can test ideas before spending time developing them...
  
  
• Easily find and fix errors in long, complex documents, such as 60-page reports...
  
  
• Generate stronger headline options when headline writing isn’t her strength (or even in the project scope)...
  
  
• Transform low-quality client photos into useful visual assets...
  
  
• Help write code for interactive web animations that clients couldn’t otherwise afford...

She also uses it in her business, to:

• Draft and customize proposals based on her template...
  
  
• Find and research prospective clients, then add them to her pipeline for outreach...
  
  
• Build and maintain a business profile that gives AI context about her business and goals, making the output better...
  
  
• Consolidate information and identify patterns in her marketing...

Isn’t that smart?

Listen to my conversation with Kate in episode #559 of the Marketing Mentor Podcast here.

Do you use AI to deliver things to clients you wouldn’t be able to otherwise? Share your ideas here.

I’ve filled the 2026 Simplest Marketing Plan (SMP) with AI ideas and prompts to help you overcome the obstacles to growing your business.

And you’ll find even more ways to combine AI with your “human advantages” in next year’s SMP, too. 

More about that very soon!

Before I go, a win from SMP+ member, Debra Bradley:

My win is a quiet one, but it feels good to me. It came from making myself stick to my 'five warm emails a week' commitment. Today I followed up with two clients about projects they had agreed to, but I hadn't heard from them for a while. And you know how that goes ... I start to think maybe they don't want to go ahead after all. But both people have confirmed the projects are still happening. (Phew!)

Excellent job pushing past doubts to keep getting your outreach done, Debra!

These are the small steps that lead to bigger wins later. Without them, you may indeed never hear from those hot prospects again - out of sight is out of mind!

So if you’re struggling to stay on track with your marketing, here’s my best advice:

• Keep your commitment to yourself, first and foremost…
  
  
• Keep up your weekly cadence, no matter what…
  
  
• Keep staying in touch, and…
  
  
• Keep ignoring those voices (aka head trash!) Hear them for what they are: not real!

And that is all for today. Thanks for reading.