There is a saying that goes, “There is no educational value… to the second kick from a mule.”

I have a nickname (actually multiple), but my geek one is ‘Captain Typo'. That is because I am a terrible typist, and my brain works so much faster than my fingers. I use Grammarly to help me make some corrections while I compose my blogs. It not only fixes spelling errors but also offers suggestions on how to make my blogs clearer.

Every week, Grammarly sends a report of how you are doing. Over the last few weeks, my tone was getting more assertive and direct. I can attribute that to my criticism and outlook on AI and its impact on marketing.

If I were to give you my take on AI for marketing, I would write this:

“I believe AI is a useful tool for enhancing and creating marketing, but I do not feel that AI alone can replace people, especially when it comes to B2b marketing. I think it is helpful as a creative assistant, but it's not ready for primetime or totally going to replace people who market businesses to other people.”

Next, I asked AI to write a summary based on my last 10 blogs. Here is AI's take on my feelings about itself:

“I see AI as a powerful tool that can elevate marketing efforts, streamline processes, and generate fresh content faster than ever, but I’m not convinced it will replace the human experience, judgment, or relationship-building at the heart of successful B2B marketing. While I believe AI can enhance creativity, audience targeting, and even spark new approaches to content, I also remain cautious about over-reliance on automation, as it can add to the digital “noise” rather than build genuine connection and trust. Ultimately, I view AI as a valuable resource best used in harmony with human insight, empathy, and personal communication, helping marketers work smarter, not just faster.”

I don't know about you, but I like the concise one better. It's colorful and to the point. The second version (AI's take) is complete but overexplains and contains a lot of buzzwords.

I'd like to dig deeper in a two-part series that explains the why behind my feelings.

Time vs Costs

Although AI is cool, trendy, and can do great and creative things, I find it takes longer to use because you have to run multiple iterations to reach a desired result. Some may argue that I am not good at prompting, but I have played with multiple AI tools, and each has its own strengths and weaknesses.

I tried Opus Clips, the gold standard (at the time) of creating great mini teaser videos. I have worked with ElevenLabs to clone my voice to turn my blogs into audio, and I have used Firefly, Midjourney, DALL · E, and other image generators. All do a decent job, but in most cases, they take longer than just doing what I want the old-fashioned way.

I have been trying these software tools to see if I can enhance what I do for clients and, ultimately, save on marketing costs with AI. I had to pay for versions in order to try their full suite of options. I already pay for Adobe Creative Suite, but the costs have more than doubled for me, since I now have to subscribe rather than purchase a new version every two years.

I am going to outline my process, and then give you some samples of how and why it takes longer.

Look, if AI costs money and saves time, it's worth it. But when it actually takes longer because you have to constantly tweak or create multiple iterations to get close to your desired result, it's more like getting kicked by the mule a second time. You end up compromising your expectations for good enough outcomes that are taking longer to achieve.

In all fairness, there are certain things that AI can accomplish that do make things better, like creating graphics that don't exist.

My Process

The most basic thing that I do is create written content. That is because the original content can then be reimagined as a podcast, video, graphics, and more.

I have found that writing content can be enhanced by things like Grammarly and Perplexity. Grammarly can enhance writing with corrections and suggestions, but it can also make my colorful thoughts more gray and bland. Perplexity allows me to take my thoughts, run some statistical analysis, and create a starting point to rewrite from, but it tends to also overexplain and make the content more long-winded.

Once that content is written, I can read it into an audio program and create a podcast. I can ask AI to summarize the main points and turn them into teaser videos, graphics, or social media teaser text to get people interested in reading the full content.

I do it for myself so I can better understand what and how it will work better for clients. My main goal is to create content that gets people back to your website, where you manage the narrative, and have more control over interactions with people.

Image Creation

Normally, I use Adobe Creative Suite to build, modify, and create most of the graphics that aren't available through my Adobe Stock photo subscription. I pay $30 a month for the Stock photos and get 10 new ones per month. The cost of using stock is $3 each, but sometimes you can't find what you need. This blog is a perfect example.

I wanted to create an image of a mule kicking a person or a website. There was nothing, so I had to use multiple tools to try and create it.

My prompts included:

• Make an image of a business person being kicked by a mule's hind legs in a photorealistic view
• A photorealistic image of a website, with the mule with its front legs on the ground and with its back legs kicking the phone
• A photorealistic mule, whose front legs are on the ground and its back legs in the air, kicking a phone playing a podcast

No matter how hard I tried (I made 15 images that took over an hour), I was never able to get the mule to kick with its back or hind legs like a mule would buck, only its front.

Needless to say, I gave up and compromised with the image above and here.

Podcast & Audio

I have been an audio geek since I was a kid, so I have a very critical ear when it comes to speech. I can edit out ‘ums' and combine words together. I have produced thousands of audio projects, so I know how to direct a narrator and help them when they can't hear subtle problems.

I've listened to podcasts and audiobooks where I could hear from the get-go; it was AI. It is mechanically paced and lacks a depth of expression. A telltale sign is that almost every sentence ends with the same tone.

With over 1000 podcasts, I have a lot of my voice to sample. I uploaded over one hour of samples to ElevenLabs to create a clone of my voice.

I copied some text into their tool to hear the results, and I could hear how it pronounced ‘a' as a long a and not an ‘uh'. It had some quirks with the speed and timing of sentences. It was not natural to me.

Here are some quick samples:

BRIAN LIVE

 

BRIAN AI

While the AI version sounds more even in volume, it's a bit choppy and less expressive than the live version I just recorded.

I could play with my AI version more, but that was over an hour of tweaking, and I feel like I would have to tweak it one sentence at a time to make it sound more natural. Very time-consuming.

ElevenLabs has a beta version 3 coming out, so I am interested in trying that before I cancel, but it's not ready to save me time and money.

The main point is that I don't think I could digitize a client's voice and repurpose it in a way that speaks to a human the way I expect.

Closing Thought

While the hot topic of the day is creating content (writing, audio, & video) that works for AEO, I believe my content is designed to impress and educate a human. I find that more important than creating answers to questions being asked across multiple AI platforms.

Although AI has lots of promise in the near future, we are marketing in the NOW.

I could show you many more examples of video, audio, images, and more, but I think you get the point. I believe that it still makes sense to do as much as humanly possible to avoid having to spend too much time playing with AI, only to compromise with the message and delivery quality.

The second kick from the mule is that you not only pay for the tool, but then you pay with additional time to try to make it conform to your goals… which should be to get a human to consume, absorb, and then engage and act with your thought leadership content.

I hope to see you next week for part 2 of this series.

If you have questions or would like to discuss how we can help you achieve more successful marketing, CONTACT US (Click Here)

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Comment below and share your thoughts, ideas, or questions about business-to-business sales and marketing today! Do you have a sales or marketing communications strategy that works for you? What tips or techniques can you share that work for you and your business?

To learn more about this and other topics on B2b Sales & Marketing, visit our podcast website at The Bacon Podcast.