How to cut through the AI bullshit

Hey, this is Peter here. This briefing, though, will be super practical, it is also super personal to me. Let me explain.

I am close to my 43rd birthday. I’ve been working in marketing for more than two decades now. I won’t bore you with my CV but I just wanted to tell you that I’ve seen a LOT.

I saw the baby internet first-hand and the great opportunities of “websites.” Then the dot-com bubble happened, and most went bankrupt without any use case. I started my pro career when web 2.0 became a thing. Social media promised so many things, including world peace (lol) and freedom of speech (lol!). Open the news today. It went well, right? As the CMO of one of those companies, I also witnessed the crypto boom and the blockchain economy. Yes, 95% of them still fail to find real use cases (most of them went off, anyone remember NFTs? Metaverse, anyone?).

Now we have AI here, the problem child. And the pattern is the very same: amazing opportunities, high promises, struggle to find use cases, slow adoption, etc. I can tell you right now that 95% of the AI tools you use today will cease to exist by next year.

The hype is real and we, marketers, are one of those who can be blamed for it. Yes, let’s face it. I am writing about this in a newsletter about AI. So, you get it, this is why this week’s briefing is a bit personal - I want to arm you with a machete to cut through the jungle of bullshit.

Because there is hope. 5% of companies will survive and thrive. Web 1.0 gave us Google and Amazon. Web 2.0 gave us Meta and Wikipedia. As technology advanced, we now have mobile technology with better capabilities than anything we had 20 years ago.

Now, I believe that AI will give us a slightly higher survival rate due to the commoditization of software. With AI, anyone can code a small app and a basic SaaS tool for a niche need. These will survive for sure.

But will these be the ones you should choose to manage your marketing?

If you are an agency, would you bet your reputation of amazing service to your clients on an AI tool run by a 20-year-old dude in a coffee shop who has zero customer service or helpdesk and is full of bugs?

If you are a brand, would you invest in a tool barely held together by a couple of AI-written strings of codes and three digital nomads just winning seed funding based on a single-page pitch deck from an AI investment VC?

I hope not.

These examples are amazing for those with a high risk tolerance or looking for laser-focused, affordable solutions. But they are terrible for those who want to scale with AI.

This was the goal behind creating a comprehensive AI vendor checklist for you. It helps keep you focused on the most important goal: a tool is only good enough if it helps you grow. It is always an investment in the future, even with a $50 monthly fee.

It is a comprehensive checklist. You don’t need to go through it all and tick out all the boxes. In the end, it is all up to you, of course. But even reading it through will help you be more focused on asking the right questions during those sales pitches—oh, sorry, product demos.

Remember the golden rule: you are buying and have every right to ask questions.

I’ve seen it so many times when marketers and platform specialists go on product demos, being desperate that they need help with x. Yes, you have a need, but competition is fierce, there are so many alternatives already to certain tools.

The right mindset is to go in, ask all your questions, and be relentlessly focused on promised outcomes during product demos. If you are desperate, you are an easy sell and you end up another line item on your “marketing tools budget” sheet, which has no purpose being there. Those $50s quickly add up!

So, scroll down and get the PDF. It is comprehensive but short. You can open it up during demos as a reminder. It is your machete to cut through the “AI promised land.”

Good luck hunting for new tools!

Peter

PS: Torsten & I are trying to create a list of tools we pre-vetted for you. As we restructure our Horizon 01 site, we will send you updates on this tool list shortly, so stay tuned!

Hit download and grab your copy. ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️