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This is your go-to podcast for all things marketing, branding, and customer experience. We’re bringing you honest and fun conversations with bite-sized insights. Hosted by BrightSign’s CMO Brian Rowley and Head of Integrated Marketing Laura Smith, you’ll hear from industry pros, creatives, and innovators about what’s actually working in today’s evolving, digital-first world. No fluff — just real insights on how brands are connecting with audiences and driving growth. Tune in for fresh ideas, big thinking, and all the tips you need to take your marketing game to the next level.
By looking at it as an engine to drive your deeper thinking versus an engine to create a lot of output, that I think is the way that we can help keep our unique creative perspective.
Laura Smith:Welcome to Prose and Comms: Engagement, Unplugged. I'm Laura Smith.
Brian Rowley:And I'm Brian Rowley.
Laura Smith:So today, we're gonna dive in to the topic of AI, an AI beyond the hype, how it's quietly changing the way we work. We'll chat about how AI is shaping marketing, messaging, customer experience, and also the mistakes teams are making along the way when they're using it. And we'll take a look at the future as well, where AI is just a part of the tools we use every day, doing the things we might not even notice.
Brian Rowley:Before we jump into topic, I think we should kick things off with maybe a round of marketing wins and fails. And in the spirit of today's discussion, we'll focus it on the topic of AI. So Laura, from your perspective, what's an AI win that you can share with us that you've had lately?
Laura Smith:I would say the most success I'm finding with it is part of like my everyday job from, you know, kind of more of the the day to day somewhat tactics, if you will. I would say things like helping with podcast prep. So, like, what we're doing right here. Right? It's like we have a topic, we have a discussion, we have a person we wanna bring in.
Laura Smith:So I have some thought starters and ways in which I think I want the conversation or areas to kinda dive into, but then I have AI help shape that and understand the person and, like, the guest's background and experiences and points of view as well well as it now knows mine and yours, Brian. So it's been a really good tool to almost just get me, you know, hyped up and ready to get into that discussion with a little bit more detail or just thought starters. So I would say that's one way. Another way quickly would be just around like, a lot of we we we are communicators. Right, Brian?
Laura Smith:Like, as a marketer, we're communicators. So sometimes we're just creating a message. It could be an email. It could be a written something, memo, whatever. But I'm drafting it myself, and I'm writing it the way I've always written it.
Laura Smith:But then if I drop it in, it's just looking at different ways to different angles almost to basically tell that message. So it's not like I'm using it for, like, creating, like, you know, some genius ideas. It's really just helping me either synthesize or more simply state something that maybe I was more verbose over, for instance. So those are two, like, somewhat tactical but helpful ways that I've been using AI in the day to day.
Brian Rowley:Yeah. I think it I think foundationally, it's really good. And I think those are some of the foundational elements. But I do the same thing when I'm when I'm writing something out or a message and that I'll write it. And then I'll just ask it to clean it up, like add a different maybe perspective or a tone or something like that to it.
Brian Rowley:And I think it does a really good job of that.
Laura Smith:And I feel like that's kind of table stakes. Right? So I I think today's discussion will go further than that, but I would say those are the easy wins. Let's hope. If we don't, then I don't know.
Laura Smith:Who invited this guest? But for for Brian, let's move on to the fails though. Okay? So that's like some of the easy wins. Like, what is AI really, you know, where you failed using it and you felt like it wasn't the outcome you were looking for?
Brian Rowley:Well, I don't know that it necessarily is always AI's fault, but I will tell you that, like, when when I've used it to try to grab or create imagery, I sometimes struggle there. And I know there's plenty of tools that are out there, but for the average individual, like pulling some of it, you and I, we've done things before where we've asked for something and, you know, the person that's presented has like four fingers, not five. So we tend to see some of that challenge in some of it. And then I think the other thing along those same lines of using it from a creative aspect is sort of even just the confusion or concerns that we have in regards to who actually has rights to the imagery, right? That we're creating.
Brian Rowley:So I think there's some things that are there that I don't know that they're necessarily fails. I think they're definitely things that make it not the go to for a lot of the things that we have and areas that I would say that just have created sort of us to step back and just pause for a
Laura Smith:second. Okay. Today Oh, let's talk to the expert.
Brian Rowley:Let's bring in the expert. So today actually, we're actually going beyond prompts that Laura and I have talked about and diving into the world of AI and marketing strategy. We actually have a guest who's been helping teams truly infuse AI into their workflows to make work actually smarter. And he brings sort of this deep experience in B2B marketing and strategy and using AI to shape messaging and anticipate customers' needs in ways that are actually practical as well as forward looking. And he's firsthand, he's seen both wins and pitfalls of applying AI and marketing.
Brian Rowley:And he also has insights into how could you actually evolve your AI strategy over the next few years. So a huge welcome to our guest today, Brad Hintze. Brad, welcome.
Brad Hintze:Hello. I'm so excited to be here with both of you today.
Brian Rowley:We'll check-in with you at the end of this and just make sure that it's still the case,
Brad Hintze:but sure.
Brian Rowley:It sounds good to start off.
Laura Smith:I mean, we set you up
Brad Hintze:as the
Laura Smith:experts to fill up You on that,
Brad Hintze:raised the bar pretty high, as an intro.
Laura Smith:Well, let's dive in then, Brad. So right now, as we're talking about, many people think of AI as a chatbot or a content generator. Mhmm. How do you see it evolving beyond that into something that's seamlessly embedded into our everyday lives?
Brad Hintze:Yeah. I think that the chatbot is certainly the great, well, I think the way I've been approaching it is the, ChatGPT interface is just an interface for this intelligence for us to get something out that we need. Right? And it has certainly unlocked so much creativity, for how we might be able to leverage this technology. But I think that we have an opportunity to continue to push that forward, particularly within, marketing and the way that we engage with our end customers.
Brad Hintze:Some of those exciting things I think that we're starting to feel now is, you know, for us, you know, at Crestron, we're we're working on a room builder. Right? How can you, present the technology that you offer with an interface that, enables people to just say, hey, this is what I'm looking for and just riff on ideas and then automatically connect that back with a recommendation. And so, I think that enable to in order to do that, the chat box is a fine interface to start, but are there new ways that you can take that same technology, in the same LLM to extract their thinking and then present it outward, but in a very solution focused way. And so where you have a generalized chatbot with ChatGPT, let's apply it in very specific ways.
Brad Hintze:Right? Let's solve a specific problem. I think these are some of the new and exciting ways that we're starting to think about applying the technology. But today, I mean, there's still you know, we're we're kinda focused around, you know, what can you get, how can you extract value just from the interface that we're seeing.
Brian Rowley:So Brad, let's So you mentioned Room Builder as an example of ways in which, but what are some of the other ways that you're using it today? Because when we were chatting about this episode, you actually compared AI's evolution to like the early days of internet and mobile. And so I'm just curious, like, what are some of the lessons that you've learned from that? And maybe just give us a couple of examples beyond like room builder. I mean, I think that's a really cool example of how it's being used at Crestron.
Brian Rowley:But I'd love to just even dig in a little bit further and understand maybe a couple of other things and ways that you're using it.
Brad Hintze:Well, I think that you know, early on in my career, I was, starting my career in software, web two o. It was right at that time frame where the internet bubble had burst and then people went underground and they just started working on stuff. And in the meantime, mobile came out. And what that sparked was in between the the mass adoption of the Internet and Web two o, people understood we can apply this technology to all kinds of new ways of of doing things. And at the time, you would not have been able to fully articulate the many ways that we use the Internet today.
Brad Hintze:Right? And it is it you know, we went from an online brochure to now it is so seamless. There's no more page refreshes. Right? Some some of us are older.
Brad Hintze:We remember those. Or even when it was like Facebook and you go, next page, next page, next page. Right? It was terrible. And then you get into this infinite scroll and, you know, all these these little minor user interface changes really made the whole experience more interactive.
Brad Hintze:But you go further than that and now you can log on to a site and you can control your home. You can see where your car is. Right? You can see all of these things that are fully integrated. Now some supervisionary people may have been able to articulate that back then, but we really truly got to this point through iterative development.
Brad Hintze:Right? Trying and applying and and using the technology in new ways and starting to uncover and unlock that new value. The same thing will happen with with AI. Right? And today, the chat box with ChatGPT and when you interact with it and when it changes, when you start to get value out of it, you get super excited.
Brad Hintze:But that's only the the beginning. Right? And we will, and it's up to us as marketing leaders and, you know, for those that have an influence on product strategy, It's up to us to find ways to iteratively evolve the application of this technology to unlock new value. And we may not know what that endpoint looks like today, but it's up to us to try what we have, use it and then ask and then challenge it and ask those that are developing these products like, you make it do this? Can we do this?
Brad Hintze:Right? And start to iteratively build on that. And I think room builders an example of that. I think support agents are another example of that. But even within a marketing team, we use it a lot.
Brad Hintze:There's very straightforward things. How do you simplify the briefing in a new project? Right? How do you simplify, preparing for a launch by training it around what are the typical launch levers that you do? What's the typical tone and voice that you like to have, you know, within your brand.
Brad Hintze:And we're doing that today, but imagine if you could take that same concept of training them, you know, getting it ready, but then just have it deeply embedded in your project management cycle. Right? So that you can just kick off all of those levers without needing to go back and forth. Right? It is really just right there.
Brad Hintze:But it's up to us to kinda think about what we would like and then voice it and then share it. But you can only get there if you're actually using what you have today.
Laura Smith:Yeah. Because AI, like what you're talking about is, like, you're driving more efficiencies with that. Right? Because you're not starting from scratch. You're kind of learning, you're bill iterating, you're building.
Laura Smith:But how do we make sure it's like the it's like the the question every marketer is asked or every marketer deals with? But how like, because it's what how do you make sure that the creativity and the human aspect of some of that communication or that, like, brief building, you know, those kind of activities, which do require some of that, how do we make sure it doesn't go at the expense of that? Like, how do you balance the efficiency with the creativity as a marketer?
Brad Hintze:Well, I think that one of the things that we have done internally is that, you know, the AI output is not the end. That's one thing. And that if you think about it as kind of the your first draft. Right? But the other thing that I have tried to get started within the group is use the AI tool as a coach, not as something that's doing the work.
Brad Hintze:And so, you know, if I can get the team so that they run their output through ChatGPT as a check to make sure that they're thorough, that it's well done. You know, all of these things really prompt them to think through all of the details before they send it to me for review, then it helps them it helps stimulate thinking for them too. And so by looking at it as an engine to drive your deeper thinking versus an engine to create a lot of output, that I think is the way that we we can help keep our unique creative perspective and not outsource all of that to the to the tools, rather use those as a way to extract that thinking out of you. Right? And, and so I think that's that's one of the ways that we have found works for us, at least at this stage.
Brad Hintze:And a year from now, that might look different. Right? But at least at this stage of the way that we're starting to embrace it, that's one where I have felt like we've actually gotten better work, better creative work, not because the AI tool did it, but because it took a lot of that work off of us and it pushed us and challenged us to think and answer these other questions. And I think that resulted in a much more creative work actually.
Brian Rowley:Yeah, I think the leadership element to that is actually really important because I think we all know that these types of big changes that take place and the way in which people work and influencing that does have to begin with support from leadership and guidance in the ways in which the tools work and don't work. And I especially love the comment that we made in the tieback that you made to the internet and mobile, because let's be honest, right? People didn't adopt that overnight. Like controlling your home through a mobile device didn't happen overnight. And engaging with the internet and the benefits of that didn't happen.
Brian Rowley:The one thing I would say though, and I think is an important piece here is as we move now, I think the expectations around AI are moving a million times faster than the adoption of the internet or even mobile, right? Like it is, what are you doing today? How are you doing that? So I guess from the perspective of leadership, how is your team reacting to that? Are they receptive to it?
Brian Rowley:Is it a, hey guys, this is it. You're doing it no matter what. Like talk to us a little bit about that from your stance on how you positioned it in order to make them get to the point they're at today.
Brad Hintze:Yeah, it's really interesting because I have several different groups that are looking at ways to apply the technology. And it really comes down to personal and individual comfort level, not really necessarily function. Right? Because, for instance, within the creative team, there are some members that are resistant and mostly asking the question, what does this mean for me? But there are other members of the same team that are totally embracing it.
Brad Hintze:They're pushing it and they're trying new things and they're using it as a way to explore their creative skill set. Right? We have the same thing on our training team. And the training team, they have to produce a lot of video. They have to produce a lot of content.
Brad Hintze:The the leadership there is fully on board, really excited about it. But then some of the others that are responsible for producing the content are asking that question, well, does that mean for me? And so what we have, tried to do and it and we've seen some positive results is engage them in a conversation and say, here's a tool. This is what I was thinking, but why don't you give it a shot and see if you think this is useful for you or not? And so what we try to do is try to bring a project or a specific kind of scoped work to them and say, let's try this tool with it.
Brad Hintze:Does this help you here? Right? And really just have an engaging conversation around a specific thing rather than your whole job has been upset by this this whole tool. Right? So that's been one way that we have, have tried to bring that in.
Brad Hintze:But before that, though, honestly, we've also had to wrestle with real IT and legal challenges too. And I don't know if we want to get into that part of a discussion, but that's been a factor, in the in the whole journey as well.
Laura Smith:Yeah. So it's not like you're making it mandated, which I I mean, I like the approach. Because at some point, it's gonna probably be mandated. Right? Like, is these are tools we have, and this is what you need to use.
Laura Smith:The comfort level has to get there. So I appreciate your transition or you're really kind of that that coaching. You're you're you and your leaders are doing to push people along the way because I think even in our everyday lives, Brian, like, we're all kinda using tools, but we're not, I would say, systematic in it. And so I feel like what you've got going on, what you're building is it it does seem like it's more systematic, and it's it's part of, you know, this tool is used for this, and this is how we're using it. Whereas right now, we're just, you know, a lot of you know, we're a team a marketing team just in the name of our group of seven experimenting it Yep.
Laura Smith:In many different ways, probably different tools.
Brian Rowley:So Yep.
Laura Smith:I like that formalization without so yet getting into this like, this is how you have to To
Brad Hintze:be clear, it's still an ambition. Right? Because as we know, as marketers, it's always, it's always a process to build these systems and and tools. One of the other interesting observations as we were trying to get a little bit more formalized around some of these things, one of the reactions from individual team members was almost a sigh of relief in that they were using tools on their own anyway. Yeah.
Brad Hintze:And, you know, a lot of there were so many of them that were just intrepid, entrepreneurial within their little group, and they were out experimenting on their own and they had already been getting benefit, they they just weren't talking about it. And so, for those members that were already using it, getting this more formalized approach and this more formalized acceptance of those tools was a relief to them. Right? Because then they didn't feel like they had to like keep it on the side or you know what I mean? Then they could really fully leverage it and and that was great.
Brad Hintze:But it it is a process. It's a process for everyone and one of the things that we're starting to do, we want to scale out is more lunch and learns just kind of fireside chat for sharing best practices internally around how they're using tools and inspiring each other as well.
Brian Rowley:That's a great idea. Because I think the other thing too is, you always have that group of early adopters, right? Or people that are like change agents within a business that are gonna jump on to things. But the thing that I love about your approach is try it, see if it works for you. I think the reality of it is, and I truly do believe this, anybody, especially those that are in creative roles that aren't using it for one form or another are going to fall behind because the amount of time that it can save just to do even some of the basic foundational work is tremendous.
Brian Rowley:And no organization is going to say, no, I'd rather you spend eight hours on that versus the hour that you could spend it on it. Right? That's that's never gonna happen. That's just not the world we live in.
Brad Hintze:No, that's right. That's exactly right.
Laura Smith:I guess as you're seeing this within your own organization, but I'm sure you're talking to other companies as well, where are you seeing the most common mistakes or misconceptions about how they're using it as they're starting to experiment? Like, where has it gone kind of sideways?
Brad Hintze:Well, I think that the the biggest challenges that we've had, actually are just those that just do it without a lot of thinking. Right? And just assuming that if I just prompt it and I can just take whatever that is out whatever it outputs and and use that wholesale. And, you know, you you always see those sideways glances when somebody sends an email that is clearly drafted by AI with no sense of personal voice. Right?
Brad Hintze:No sense of clarity, you know, all those things. And so that's one of the things that we have have seen in terms of the the pitfall. But the other big one that has been a hindrance for us is actually making sure that we're wrestling with the issues related to privacy, security, and legal questions.
Brian Rowley:Yeah.
Brad Hintze:And they're and they're they're very real questions that you have to wrestle with, and it takes work. It takes work. You have to partner with the the legal team, to make sure that you both understand what you need, what the boundaries are, you know, and and it's new for them as well as it is for the team. And so you have to have a close partnership in order to navigate and get around that. And there are some interesting challenges that are have not yet been answered.
Brad Hintze:You know, for instance, we wanted to use an AI platform for our training videos. A core tenant of that platform or core offering is these avatars. Right? And that, you know, they will, you know, generate a video as if somebody's speaking to you, for training content or whatever. But the avatars are based on three d scans from real people.
Brad Hintze:And then you get into biometrics questions. Right? Who owns those biometrics? You know, in in that terms of service, the people that gave those rights can revoke them at any time. What does that mean for your content?
Brad Hintze:And so that has actually been something that has slowed us because we have to wrestle with these things. These are unanswered legal questions and so that's one of the biggest pitfalls that we've run into is some people run too quickly without answering those questions and then we have to to pull back. So that's, you know, aside from just the individual prompt stuff and not really being thoughtful about it, it has been, you know, how do we navigate those those challenges.
Laura Smith:Because I think some I think you just run and gone. You think, okay, I've got these things exist. Let's go use them. How do we use them? And there's pressure coming from all, you know, all angles because we, you know, we all try to be more efficient, and how do we better use our, that that, like, deeper thinking, as you said.
Laura Smith:Mhmm. But, yeah, like, I mean, I'm assuming some companies are just taking some risks. Some companies are smaller. Some companies are bigger, but it is like we have to talk about this all the time. Was like, oh, we just use it a different way.
Laura Smith:Is that okay? You know? And it feels like a little scary sometimes.
Brian Rowley:Well, and be more mindful of where it's gonna end up because Laura, you and I have done this, right? Like, it's also one thing if you're using something to your point, like, there's there's all different levels of risk, but if it's internal versus external and if you're using it to promote a campaign or things like that, at some point, the image that is being presented was actually from something. Right? That's how AI generates. So so you've got it you do.
Brian Rowley:I I agree with you. And and it's so funny because we literally just had this conversation many times last week in regards to some of the work that we're doing.
Brad Hintze:Right, yep. Yeah, and look, many people don't have answers, right? Even the biggest because this is part of the process of figuring that out. But at the same time, you know, finding ways to push that boundary and to be interesting and creative and take those being willing to take those risks. Right?
Brad Hintze:And that's where the partnership with the legal team, the partnership with the rest of the executive team to say, this is what we would like to do, here are the risks, are we willing to do it because we want to do this, right? And we've seen some of the major brands out there that have done fully AI generated commercials. Mhmm. Mhmm. Right?
Brad Hintze:And Mhmm. There are copyright questions for them, but clearly they're okay wrestling with that. Right? Okay. Maybe I lose copyright access to that after the fact.
Brad Hintze:Maybe that that's okay. Right? But at least they're seen as a forward looking brand as well. But you can't make those decisions on your own. That's where the partnership with the the rest of the leadership team is valuable.
Brad Hintze:But I think depending on who you are and your brand, you should try and find interesting ways to push some of those boundaries.
Laura Smith:Yeah. But on that note, Brad, just one thing to kind of dig in on a little bit as a yes. Okay. Maybe your internal teams are okay with the copyright whatever. But you think about like the j crew saga where, you know, consumers are the ones pointing at you know?
Laura Smith:So it's like, okay. Maybe internally, you're okay with that approach. Yep. But it's now as marketers, how do we when do we care that people know that we used AI? And clearly, like, was a lot of emotion coming out of that campaign where people are like, no.
Laura Smith:Like, why are you doing that? You're this is not the same type of
Laura Smith:Internally, they might have been okay, but externally, we have to worry about that even more so.
Brad Hintze:I think that that's a very real consideration and particularly as we use it to, you know, certainly imagery, but any other content too. Right? It was it was interesting. We we gave to our sales team these follow-up email pitches. Right?
Brad Hintze:And one of the sales guys just, you know, in an offhand comment, like, what is this AI slot? Right? And it wasn't. It was it was well well written, but you can some people can approach a piece of content and they'll do it in a very skeptical way. Right?
Brad Hintze:And say, like, what is this garbage? Right? And and now you're just doing this all this AI stuff. And I think it puts new pressures on all of us as marketers. And we have to understand that there is this polarization that's happening out among our among our consumers.
Brad Hintze:Some people will embrace AI and what gets produced by AI, and others will look at that and will say, what is that garbage? I clearly don't matter enough to you that you would put in the hard work to do real creative. Right? And so then that really impacts your brand as well. And so it's a new kind of brand consideration that we, you know, we all have dealt with in other arenas, but it's a whole new one in terms of everything that we produce
Brian Rowley:and publish out there now. Yep, Lauren, we just did a podcast that we released earlier this week and we referred to it as sort of lazy storytelling and those people that just literally jump into AI and they take whatever it gives you and don't think through all the implications of it downstream and all the different ways that you're actually using it. And I think that's going to be dangerous. I really and truly do for brands, not necessarily because there's any copyright restrictions or there's any of that, but it's just the brand perception impact that I think will happen is gonna be huge. I have an interesting though.
Brian Rowley:So from your perspective, is there any one change that you actually think AI will sort of bring to either marketing or businesses that people aren't talking enough about today?
Brad Hintze:That's a that's a really good question. And I think that back to the the point earlier, I don't know that we know quite yet because in some ways we have to sit with this technology, we have to use it, and we will find our find our way there. Right? The reality is is that, look, AI techniques, if you think of AI as a big umbrella, machine learning is one of those things. Mhmm.
Brad Hintze:We have been living with it and leveraging that for a long time already. And so we're already learning how to get some of the the value out of that. I think that, you know, back to the concept of the chat box as a user interface, that is enabled by, you know, the LLMs being able to interpret what you're putting into the box, go do the work, and then bring it back to you in a way that you can understand. I think that, using that as an interface to all kinds of art systems and our daily life. Right?
Brad Hintze:How do you unlock that kind of natural language interaction with any level of technology is one that I think will get applied in really, really interesting ways that maybe we're not thinking about right now. I think, you know, we talk about that is as, for instance, how do we bake that into our product for the way you manage Crestron products? Right? Because if you can put that tool in the hands of an AV or an IT pro, that makes them more efficient. Right?
Brad Hintze:But that's the same thing. If you can add this interface so that people can just describe what they want and they get something out of it. If it's a salesperson, they're on the road, they're going in to do a presentation, and you could say, this is the customer, right, or they pull from Salesforce and have all that data already. This is what I want to say and have it create pull together the PowerPoint that's well tuned. But that was enabled because they have that natural language interaction back and forth, you know, right within their sale sales enablement tool.
Brad Hintze:Right? Or even if a customer right? Because so many of our joint customers actually, have to sell up to their boss too. What if they were able to go to our site and say, hey. I need to make a pitch to my boss.
Brad Hintze:Help me help me create this thing. Right? But that's really just an interface to get what they want into the system and get some kind of an output. And so applying that, right, making that kind of an interface into all these things, I think is one thing that people aren't talking about. We're stumbling into it.
Brad Hintze:People are overtly building it too. But I think that's another one that will end up being very transformative, as it gets applied in a lot of other places.
Laura Smith:I think the one thing too is interesting that, you know, that we all kind of share, a common place for is that, you know, we're talking about AI all the time because technology, right, from the technology, what we you know, our solutions, our products, what services, like, that's like a thing. But then as marketers, it's like, I think sometimes we think of it as, like, different, but it's really not. Right? We're all trying to get to the same end customer, consumer kind of experience. And I think sometimes, though and, like, you you maybe think of this because of you were talking about all the different departments.
Laura Smith:Because it's not just like AI doesn't sit in our engineers' world only. I mean, they're doing it using it in one way. Marketing is using it a different way. Finance can be using it a different way. So I think it's about, like, almost thinking about the organizational adoption of it.
Laura Smith:Is almost this, you know, it's AI is a thing. So there's multiple purposes. How does each one of these audiences kind of benefit? Well,
Brad Hintze:yeah. I think that part of that is we need to move it away from that AI broad umbrella discussion and just starts talking about it in very specific ways. Right? Back to the room builder example. We I know we have customers that need to understand our technology, be inspired by what it could do for them.
Brad Hintze:Can we apply AI to solve that one problem? Right? And I think that, that is as we help the rest of the organization think about it, getting specific, but even within marketing, right, talk about specific functions, talk about specific projects, talk about specific activities, and then ask that question. How could we apply AI to make it more creative, make it more efficient, make it more thorough, more complete, right? And I think you'll unlock some new new ideas, but I think that's across the board.
Brad Hintze:You have to start applying it to specific things. Move it away from the general and down to the specific.
Brian Rowley:It's everywhere. And we'll continue to be.
Laura Smith:Right. But it started, like, mean, whatever. Like, we started really talking about it. It was purely in the technology space, you know, like, what in how does technology get smarter? But so now it's just everything.
Laura Smith:We're all living and breathing it. So, yes, it is everywhere. And and that's why it matters to everybody and why I think the adoption internally is is super important. But okay. That's we've had so much fun with you so far, Brad, but we are entering into the real fun right now Oh, no.
Laura Smith:Where you're going into the hot seat. Let's just make it obvious. No need to drop hints. Setting up the hot seat for the guest of honor mister hintsie. Hot seat hot seat hot seat.
Laura Smith:I love that Joey. Joey, producer Joey. Good stock. Good stock. Okay.
Brian Rowley:AI disclaimer. Thanks, Joey. If it wasn't obvious.
Laura Smith:Okay. So for today's hot seat, we're gonna ask you, Brad, for some hot takes. So we're gonna give you a few scenarios, and we want you to tell us if you think AI would be useful in these situations. So what kind of AI or not. Okay?
Laura Smith:So I'm gonna start out. So copy. So marketing emails, campaign copy. Do you feel like you need AI for that or can that just be done without the technology?
Brad Hintze:I think AI has a use there
Brian Rowley:for sure. K. Let's say you wanna predict what your customers will do next. Do you use AI or intuition?
Brad Hintze:I think that you use AI to build a at least a framework for how you can think about it and make sure your intuition is correct. But you actually can use it as a tool, but then ultimately, you you can lean on your experience as well. So it I think it's AI plus intuition.
Laura Smith:Okay. Creative brainstorming. You're stuck on a campaign idea. Do you turn to AI for inspiration?
Brad Hintze:Yes. Because it is very good at that, there are no bad ideas kind of brainstorming that will hopefully spark that creativity for you.
Brian Rowley:Alright. Let's switch to reporting and analytics. It's a really fun topic. Yeah. Really fun one.
Brian Rowley:But you have a pile of marketing data that you're trying to make sense of. AI or manual analysis?
Brad Hintze:AI, but only if you understand the structure of the data well enough that you're able to confirm that the AI output is accurate.
Brian Rowley:I think that's a big piece to it. I think that's a huge component.
Laura Smith:Was gonna there's so many caveats in that response.
Brad Hintze:Yeah. Well, it's because it's because I lived it yesterday.
Brian Rowley:I do tell.
Laura Smith:Open wound.
Brad Hintze:I know. I was just trying to do some audience segmentation work yesterday and I put in some data and I asked it to segment it and the numbers were so wildly off. Right? But I knew it was off only because I was familiar with the data. Yeah.
Brad Hintze:And I kept I put I challenged it, I worked on it and, you know, I massaged it and it got to where I wanted to. And so in the end, it was super helpful, but I could not have gotten the right answer if I didn't know what I already knew about it anyway.
Laura Smith:I love the real life example. That was we'll bring you back to yesterday. Reaction
Brad Hintze:I wish the rest
Brian Rowley:of the people listening could have seen his reaction because it was like we hit a nerve for sure too.
Brad Hintze:Oh my gosh. Yeah. No kidding.
Laura Smith:Okay. Last one, trend spotting. So if you wanna spot the next big marketing trend before anyone else, are you going to AI, using your gut instinct, or something else?
Brad Hintze:I I go to AI to validate and to add other examples, but trends are really you know, it depends on the trends, of course. Some of it is a matter of taste. Some of it is a matter of looking at signals that you are exposed to that AI may not be. Right? And at the end of the day, you're applying your own domain knowledge and expertise.
Brad Hintze:And you could say, hey, I think this is such a trend, and then I turned to AI to validate whether or not other people are doing it, whether this is happening. Right? And I actually, I did this two days ago. We're preparing a launch video. I wanted to change the style, and so I put I found some other styles I like, and then I said, hey, are there other brands doing something like this?
Brad Hintze:Right? So it was a validation of a shift of trend, but it it took me acknowledging or spotting those things on my own first. So yeah, I think that's what we're here for. That's what we have the experience for. And so that's how I've approached it, at least at this point.
Brian Rowley:Well, Brad, we're actually out of time, but we have actually really enjoyed having you be a part of this conversation. You've brought a great perspective to this topic. It's obviously one that we all hear a lot about. And, you know, I don't think there's enough conversations that we could have about this right now because I think to your point earlier, everybody's learning. So thank you very much for being here.
Brian Rowley:We really do appreciate it.
Laura Smith:Thanks Brad.
Brad Hintze:Yeah, thank you. Thank you both for having me. This is really fun.
Brian Rowley:Interesting here. I mean, we learned a lot, right? Like, as you look at some of the things that we continually hear about when it comes to AI is it's obviously a very valuable tool, but there's still the, you know, the instincts that we have of the knowledge that we've had over the years as marketers, right? Play a really important part in leveraging a lot of the data that we have. I think, the idea that if there's businesses that are out there that think that different members of their team aren't using it, probably it would be worth it to pull those teams together and be more open about like the way in which people are using it.
Brian Rowley:Because I think you'll be more productive if people can leverage some of the best practices and different things versus having people do it sort of in their own private worlds. Right. And just waiting for that acknowledgement from the bigger business to be able to say, yeah, it's okay. Just let's talk about how you're using it. I think those are big things, but this is a really good conversation.
Brian Rowley:I love this topic. I do think that it's an untouched topic because I think there's so many different aspects and so many different things to consider around AI that I think the more we have these types of discussions, the more we all learn.
Laura Smith:Yeah. I feel like I wanna just sit in Brad's marketing organization for, like, a week because it seems like they they're they're doing it better than we are or at least more systematic. So I just wanna like, I think we could learn a lot from that, Brian. Right? Like, how do we make sure there's more formality around some of it?
Laura Smith:So because we know our team's using it. We know it's helping us, but I love that bit of formality, and structure that I think even our small team or organization could benefit from. And the one thing I did write down that, like, I loved the perspective of is use it as a coach. Yes. You know?
Laura Smith:And so I think that is a good way for people, like, to reiterate that to our own teams, people we work with, like, use it as a coach. It's not the output. It's not you know, it's so I just I just think it's it's a good way to look at it because some people just think it's the answer. So let it be your coach and learn from it, and help guide you in the right direction. So Agreed.
Laura Smith:Yep. Great conversation. Definitely wanna dig in more with Brad offline, and I'm sure we'll have many more AI conversations in the future. So thanks everyone for listening. And most importantly, if you liked what you heard today, be sure to follow us.
Laura Smith:And if you wanna hear more from Brad Hintze, you can find him on LinkedIn.