Clever Counsel #26 - Thoughts on AI
My husband works for a $81B global brand. The company is currently putting all 67,000 employees (including the frontline) through a series of trainings on using AI. He's coming home and sharing what he’s learning with me - all excited about the possibilities for how AI can make work and life easier.
I’m running a fast-growing global startup. As a founder, my time is extremely limited. I’m using AI tools on a daily basis to speed things up, optimize my systems, and sharpen my thinking. I’m highly curious about how I can leverage the rapid progression of AI to shape the future of my business.
Your prospective clients are actively exploring the capabilities of AI. They're learning how to use it.
Are you?
Sometimes it seems like we consultants are in an endless loop - an echo chamber - asking the same questions over and over about AI.
🔸 Will AI take our jobs?
🔸 Is AI stealing our creative work?
🔸 How can we spot AI-generated content?
🔸 Won’t AI displace human authenticity?
🔸 What will AI do to society in the years to come?
🔸 Should AI be regulated? If so, how?
🔸 When will AI be indistinguishable from reality?
🔸 What are the moral and ethical issues around AI?
Some of these questions are worthy of discourse. It’s perfectly reasonable to have these conversations among friends, or at the dinner table, or with our elected representatives, or in our private social media feeds.
But I want to specifically address how we consultants should be approaching AI. In our businesses, with clients, and in our public-facing content.
Going 20 rounds on these same tired topics is not the way forward.
Why?
Because we all want to bring in clients.
And these conversations do not reflect how those clients are thinking about AI.
Senior consultants are engaged by executives to fill in gaps in thinking and bandwidth. We’re brought in to train, coach, counsel, evaluate, assess, reimagine, innovate. We explore and execute new ideas that make businesses run better.
When execs are caught in the day-to-day shuffle of leading their teams and delivering on KPIs, they can’t always find the time to come up with innovative, game-changing solutions. And even if they had the time, it’s tough to see the forest through the trees. They look outside their organizations for insightful perspective, new ways of getting things done, and guidance on emerging trends.
They look to us.
I urge you to set aside your fears, anxieties and emotions around the rise of AI - at least in professional spaces. They won’t help you achieve new heights of client acquisition in 2025.
Here are the questions you should be asking and exploring about AI:
🔸 What AI tools currently exist, how do they work, and when does it make sense to use them?
🔸 How are my prospective clients already using AI? What kinds of uses may be on the horizon for them?
🔸 What are my prospective clients most curious to learn about AI?
🔸 How can I leverage AI to wow my existing clients?
🔸 How can I deliver my client work faster using AI? How can I get more of my time back?
🔸 What revolutionary creative offerings can I imagine with AI?
🔸 How can I show my target audiences I’m on the cutting edge?
🔸 How can I prove to prospects I’m the right person to guide them on AI?
🔸 How can I speed up my prospecting using AI?
🔸 How can I sharpen my marketing materials using AI?
🔸 What possibilities does AI open up for my business and life?
