How To Effectively Use A.I. As A Strategist

Regardless of what you think about AI, the worst thing you can do is ignore it. As the fastest adopted technology in history, it’s here to stay. So rather than worrying about whether its going to steal our jobs, we’ve been experimenting with how it can help us deliver better and faster results.

At AFFINITY, we believe our role as strategists is firmly secure- for now, and into the future! Currently, AI can’t deliver the kind of deep thinking and make the strategic connections needed to solve business problems, but it’s a fantastic starting point.

IF YOU WANT BETTER ANSWERS, ASK BETTER QUESTIONS.

One of the best skills a strategist can develop is asking the right questions to get to the nub of an issue. The same applies to AI. Crafting specific prompts will deliver much more relevant output. Here’s how we’re crafting prompts at AFFINITY:

• • Provide context: This allows AI to deliver a relevant response that is focused on marketing:
    Eg. “As a marketing professional, I want to understand the key issues around <topic>”.

• • Frame your response: You don’t want your content to sound generic, so guiding it to respond in a certain way
    will deliver more effective results.
    Eg. “Provide a comprehensive response.” “Respond like an expert…” 

• • Ask multi-layered questions: Strategists need to be across the bigger picture. If you’re using AI to quickly access information about an industry’s pain point, layer the question to include solutions as well. This allows you to get more from a single response, and it will give you a snapshot of the strategy you need to create.
    Eg.“Give me 5 ideas, and 5 solutions”.  

USE AI TO KEEP ON TOP OF YOUR READING LIST.

Every few weeks there’s a new book or an article that someone highly recommends. To be honest, there’s never enough time to read them all! AI is a great tool for capturing the key messages of a book and if you guide your questions the right way, it can also deliver practical suggestions to action.

Our AI prompt
“Distill the framework and most important messages from the book “The Illusion of Choice: 16 1/2 psychological biases that influence what we buy” into a summary that can help my company grow revenue”

In the example above, we added “can help my company make more money” to access practical examples of revenue generation.

Here’s an example of the response:
“Anchoring Bias: People tend to rely heavily on the first piece of information they receive when making a decision. So, present your product’s best feature first.”  

AI CAN DELIVER QUICK DEEP-DIVES INTO AN INDUSTRY.

For pitches you often need to build deep knowledge quickly. AI is a great research tool that can help you understand an industry’s challenges and give you a fast starting point to tackle key issues. Again, multi-layered and focused questions will deliver the best results.

Our AI prompt:
For the <automotive> industry, out the top 10 customer pain points, 5 solutions for each pain point, and 3 business ideas for each solution. 

FOR THE BEST RESULTS, APPLY STRATEGIC THINKING BEFORE AND AFTER YOUR PROMPT.

The best way to use AI, is to apply strategic thinking before and after the response. In addition to crafting a specific prompt, you also need to analyse the answers, identify which information is useful and then fill in the gaps.

REVIEW OPTIONS

It’s worth trying a few different prompts and generating alternative responses. This will give you a wider range of options to play with, so you can start creating a comprehensive strategy based on the best outcomes or a combination of different answers.

COMPLEMENT AI WITH LOCAL MARKET INSIGHTS

AI is great for covering the core issues, but it’s not always 100% on the money for your market, client and specific business challenges. Complementing the output with local market data will give you a much firmer foundation to produce relevant insights.

We love how AI is helping us springboard our strategy development. However it’s also reminded us that this technology, like and tool, is only as a good as the person using it. Nothing beats the natural intelligence of one of our bright spark’s brains.