There’s been a massive shift in how content is created with the arrival of AI-powered large language models (LLMs). These tools have gone from churning out weird and inaccurate results just a few years ago to now being able to create video clips that are difficult to discern from actual video shot by camera.

So much of the hype in marketing over the past 20 years has been about content generation that this is where many “experts” have been focusing their efforts. In spite of all the talk about automating blog posts and sales pitches, LLMs offer more than just cranking out average writing.

I have been fortunate to work with Christopher Penn of Trust Insights, who has been following the impact of AI on business – and, before that, machine learning – for more than a decade now. While the state of technology is advancing at an impossible-to-digest pace, we now see some patterns in what’s happening, and this allows us to point out areas where these new tools can make it easier for you to do business.

Using AI to generate content is one of seven functional areas that Christopher identifies as the areas generative AI can be applied to (you can get the full story on the seven here). From working on a number of AI implementations he’s found that in spite of the popular excitement around using AI to generate content,  putting this technology to use for extraction is far more powerful and has proven to be the best place to start in terms of return on your effort. 

Nearly everyone who has been in business for more than a couple of years has accumulated data that could be used to gain some insight on generating new business. 

Given the speed of change, we are reluctant to recommend tools, but right now a good place to start is with a paid Google Business account which gives you access to NotebookLM.

NotebookLM allows you to upload your own resources, and then you will be able to ask it queries about your data to gain additional insight. Imagine being able to query customer surveys that up until now nothing is being done with, or piles of white papers and other research, data you know has useful information, but you never have the time to get to it.

A paid service like NotebookLM is also a good choice in terms of privacy and security. When giving any AI tool your data, take some time to look into how your data will be used. Confirm that your data is not being shared, sold, or being used to train the model. A general rule is that if you are using a paid service, it’s more likely that your data is secure than if you are using a “free” service. 

From there, we’ve found two steps that can help you get more out of AI. The first is to create an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP), a concise document that explains who your customer is. You can upload your ICP before you start asking the AI questions about your data, so that no matter what AI you are querying you will be able to focus it on the right kind of person. The other is to create a style guide for your company, a document that explains the characteristics of your brand, marketing, and any other items that make up your presence in the world. Just like the ICP, once you’ve created a style guide you can make sure that everything the AI generates looks and feels like it belongs with everything else around your brand.

If you’d like real-time feedback on ways to use AI in your business, be sure to join the discussion in the Mass Founders Network Slack forum so you can get the most timely information!

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