AI has made content creation easier than ever. It has also made sounding like everyone else easier than ever.
In this episode of SaaS Half Full, host Lindsey Groepper sat down with Andrew Wheeler, CEO of Skyword, to talk through what he calls the “blandification” of brand messaging and why companies must scale a distinct point of view rather than just increasing output.
When every brand uses the same tools
It’s easy to point the finger at AI, but the real problem is that most companies are using the same generic LLMs, all trained on the same internet to generate the same message. When LLMs go to cite a source or surface a category leader, they can’t tell those brands apart either. As a result, brands are blending together for buyers and becoming invisible in AI answers, too.
Marketers need to be thinking differently.
“What do we [the company] believe that competitors don’t? What are we willing to say that others avoid? What expertise do we genuinely own?”— Andrew Wheeler
Andrew draws a direct parallel to early SEO, when marketers stuffed keywords into metadata and hidden page text to game the algorithm. It worked… until it didn’t. The same trap is playing out now. Brands are mass-producing AI content under the assumption that more output means more visibility — in search, in LLM answers, in buyer awareness. But when every company is doing the same thing with the same tools, producing more only makes a brand harder to distinguish, not easier to find.
The sameness test
Here’s a quick gut check Andrew uses with clients: Swap your logo for a competitor’s logo on your content. Can you tell the difference? If the answer is no — or even maybe — then your problem is in plain sight.
He’s also noticed the telltale patterns showing up everywhere:
- Listicles built around “three leadership lessons”
- Openers that start with “in today’s fast-paced world”
- The construction we’ve all seen a hundred times — it’s not X, it’s Y
Andrew’s take: It’s not that people hate AI-generated content. They do hate generic content, and LinkedIn is already demoting posts that exhibit exactly these patterns.
Where AI belongs (and where it doesn’t)
At Skyword, AI supports ideation, planning, editing, optimization, and derivative creation. While it can simulate tone and pattern language, it can’t replicate lived expertise or genuine consequence.
“Simulated empathy and lived empathy are so different. AI can predict comforting language, but it still doesn’t understand consequence.” — Andrew Wheeler
That’s why the heart of the piece must come from humans. In practice, this means pairing writers with internal subject matter experts and customer-facing leaders. The spokespeople don’t need to write; they just need to be the source. Once that human-authored core piece exists, AI can safely scale it into channel-specific derivatives.
The guardrails are simple: no new facts, no fabricated quotes, and zero deviation from the original source. That’s how you gain AI’s efficiency without risking brand drift.
Brands that rely on AI-generated content to scale their way into category leadership are misreading how LLM authority actually works. AI systems aren’t going to do it for you — the brands becoming trusted voices in their categories have a distinct, consistent, credible point of view. Higher volume isn’t a shortcut for that process.
AI doesn’t owe your brand authority. That part was always yours to build. We’re in a market where every competitor has access to the same tools, so your proprietary ideas and data will be what actually sets you apart.
Episode Transcript
This has been generated by AI and optimized by a human.
[00:00:00] Andrew Wheeler: the problem is that most companies are using the same tools, the same LLMs, the same models trained on the same internet, generating the same messaging. And so that leads you to that blandification, right?
[00:00:15] in a way, brands are becoming statistically average. in a world flooded with content, authority will only come from distinct perspective, not just producing more of the same on the same tools with the same messaging.
[00:00:31] Lindsey Groepper: Hi, and welcome back to SaaS Half Full, the only show serving B2B SaaS marketers. I’m Lindsey Groepper, EVP at PANBlast, and I will be both your host and bartender today. I had a great conversation with Andrew Wheeler, who is the CEO of Skyword, also a PANBlast client, which we love, and we are talking about how AI has commoditized content and this idea of it causing the blandification of brand messaging.
[00:00:59] So if you’d [00:01:00] care to, grab a drink and join me as I speak with Andrew
[00:01:03] Lindsey Groepper: Hey Andrew, welcome to SaaS Half Full
[00:01:06] Andrew Wheeler: Hi there. Thank you for having me.
[00:01:08] Lindsey Groepper: I’m excited that you’re joining me.
[00:01:16] Before I hit record, we were just talking about the joys of the week between school ending, summer camp starting, and having kids at home, which is indeed driving us to drink. So you mixed up a cocktail kit that we sent you. What are you joining me with today?
[00:01:26] Andrew Wheeler: Right now I am sipping on a smoked old fashioned
[00:01:29] Lindsey Groepper: That is incredible because for those of you that, uh, are in different time zones, we happen to be sitting at 10:52 AM on a Wednesday morning. So we could be considered having a problem, but you know what? We deserve it, Andrew. Cheers. Thank you for joining me. I have a classic vodka soda, which is a really go-to drink for me, so nothing out of the ordinary and, and fancy like yours, but thank you for sticking true to the process
[00:01:54] Andrew Wheeler: Of course. It helps that it’s the week in between school and camp
[00:01:58] Lindsey Groepper: Yes, it does. [00:02:00] And I know you have strict instructions for no one to bother you in your office during the time that we have. my youngest is at camp, fortunately, a part-time camp today, so he will not be interrupting us, that’s for sure. but we have the honor of having Skyword as a PANBlast client.
[00:02:17] We appreciate that, have loved working with you all. and definitely, s- like, your views on what we’re gonna talk about today and our views tend to match.
[00:02:35] Um, I was just lamenting on LinkedIn how personally I’m just getting a tad annoyed with how much people are over-indexing on going all in on AI visibility at the expense of many other things that we know to be tried and true that speak to the human buyers.
[00:02:43] so I, I want to get into this, and the topic that we’re talking about today is really how difficult it is now for companies to not appear commoditized when they are working with specifically AI-generated content, whether that is AI-generated from the [00:03:00] start or that is AI then slicing and dicing original content.
[00:03:04] but the issue that we’re now seeing is that all, everyone’s stories starting to sound the same. and so I wanna unpack this a bit for our, our audience today and get your take on that.
[00:03:14] But before we do, want to give our listeners an understanding of who you are, Andrew, a little bit of your background.
[00:03:19] Um, obviously the CEO of Skyword, but, tell us about that journey a little bit, where, what did you grow up doing? were you always in marketing? Were you more professional services? Just kind of what brought you to working in, AI marketing tech now?
[00:03:33] Andrew Wheeler: Yeah, always marketing. spent my entire career in digital marketing, search, paid social, paid social tech, and now nearly 13 years at Skyword with the last six, to your comment, as CEO. I’m a glutton, what can I say?
[00:03:51] Lindsey Groepper: Same. This is all I’ve known, uh, since I was 23, I think. So also [00:04:00] been working, um, and specifically in PR, so I too am a glutton
[00:04:04] Andrew Wheeler: I think I started as a search analyst back in 2002 timeframe, uh, back when there were many more search engines that people paid attention to than what ultimately became the Google, Yahoo, Microsoft wars
[00:04:18] Lindsey Groepper: Yeah. and then as CEO of Skyword, if you could just give us a quick elevator of why Skyword exists for those who may not know
[00:04:26] Andrew Wheeler: Yeah, absolutely. Skyword exists to help, enterprise brands build authority through content. that matters even more now because AI has made it so much harder, in some ways and so much easier in other ways. AI, has made content creation easier, but differentiation much harder. and so we’re here to help companies win.
[00:04:49] And I think the companies winning right now are the ones that are not producing the most content, but the ones that are leveraging AI to scale [00:05:00] differentiated, clear points of view
[00:05:02] Lindsey Groepper: Yeah. Uh, I just recently yesterday heard someone call it, that AI is causing the blandification of content, and I was like, “That tracks.” Yeah.
[00:05:13] Andrew Wheeler: I love the, I love the creation of terminology, right? For AI slop being the phrase of the year to now blandification
[00:05:19] Lindsey Groepper: Blandification. Uh, we have a colleague, um, oh, you know Jake. Jake has, uh, referred to it as an Ouroboros, which I didn’t know what that was, but it’s a, it’s a snake eating its own tail in a circle.
[00:05:32] Andrew Wheeler: Yeah, that’s a great
[00:05:33] Lindsey Groepper: it’s a… I know. Once he explained it to me, I was like, “Okay, that makes sense.” AI is feeding itself, which is then, you know, creating engines, and so it, it, that made sense to me too.
[00:05:44] but Andrew, I’m curious, I’m gonna go, like, really high level and then we’ll dive in.
[00:05:47] Like, just what do you make of this generative AI, AI visibility, discoverability era that we are in right now, and the chaos that it’s causing, the, it’s upending what marketing teams are doing. It, it feels, there’s a lot of, to me, feels similar to, like, the early days of SEO.
[00:06:10] Um, so just how d- how do you feel about it all? do you anticipate that this is all, everyone’s just finally gonna, like, calm the hell down, um, that it’s all gonna kind of right itself? What are your thoughts?
[00:06:22] Andrew Wheeler: Yeah. And th- this is the fun part for me, right? ‘Cause I just gave you my background. So I started in the search era where this was all peaking, right? People were stuffing keywords into metadata and in white text hidden on the page. So it’s really, it’s really fun to be right back to the future. Um, you know, my opinion is it’s, it’s not AI that’s killing, uh, you know, brand authority or brand visibility.
[00:06:46] It’s the sameness, right? That blandification, that, um, what, what was the snake?
[00:06:52] Lindsey Groepper: Auror Boris.
[00:06:55] Andrew Wheeler: Ouroboros. Okay. Uh, you’re gonna have to remind me of that a few times ’cause I wanna use it. But in [00:07:00] any case, I think the problem is that most companies are using the same tools, the same LLMs, the same models trained on the same internet, generating the same messaging. And so that leads you to that blandification, right?
[00:07:15] in a way, brands are becoming statistically average. in a world flooded with content, authority will only come from distinct perspective, not just producing more of the same on the same tools with the same messaging. So I think that’s, that’s, uh, that’s the problem. and I think there’s a lot of brands that are trying to test those waters to figure out if they should just approach today’s era the way that search was approached back when, right?
[00:07:43] Like identify the keywords, create content optimized for those keywords, show up in search. That was the answer until it wasn’t. and now it’s what are the prompts that folks are using and how do we create content that supports it so that we become the answer? And it’s just [00:08:00] while it looks similar, it’s operating much differently, than how search did decades ago.
[00:08:08] Lindsey Groepper: Yeah. Yeah, it does feel very reminiscent. I liked your term saying back to the future, because as a, you know, as a PR agency, it’s, you know, it’s a tad annoying and ironic that it’s now taking the bot saying like, “Authority matters, credibility compounds, earned media’s important.” It’s like, ah, no sh*t, we’ve been saying this for, you know, since the beginning of time.
[00:08:30] but here we are, right? work with a lot of different types of, of companies.
[00:08:34] What do you see the biggest consequence, business consequence of this like AI-driven sameness?
[00:08:42] Andrew Wheeler: Business consequence, I don’t know if it– if we’re there yet, meaning I don’t– I think we’re– it’s still so early that folks that are going all in on AI that are, in my opinion, going about it the wrong way and just leveraging tools to scale content production and [00:09:00] create more, I don’t know if it’s fully caught up yet that they’re producing more of the same and it’s not driving any- anything for the brand from a meaningful business outcome perspective.
[00:09:11] you know, I’m sure there are some, but I feel like it’s still, it’s still happening. but absolutely no doubt in my mind it will peak. Folks will catch on to that. There’s so much change specifically at the top. I mean, I don’t wanna, I don’t wanna quote, uh, inaccurately, but the CMO tenure is even less than it has been, you know, in years past.
[00:09:32] I think at one point it was eight months. It’s gotta be less than that now. And so as AI tools and things are being tested and a new CMO comes in, it takes a minute to catch up and see, oh my God, what are we doing? stop the presses. the good news is we’re starting to see it happen. We’re talking to brands where they’ve been doing some of that.
[00:09:50] They have a new CMO. They wanna look at it the right way. They want to understand how they can win in a category versus create more, which is the [00:10:00] exact right approach
[00:10:01] Lindsey Groepper: Yeah. I mean, there’s a reason that the, I don’t know what the percentage is, but the meteoric rise of fractional CMOs. nobody wants these jobs. I don’t blame them. for those of you listening, like, we, we feel you, we hear you. It– Your job sucks right now. it was hard before the advent of AI viz and now,I feel like y’all are being asked to throw out every playbook and rewrite them.
[00:10:26] and what Adrien and I said is to feel like things will, will calm down as we learn more.
[00:10:32] Do you feel like by and large that it’s not the intention of like most of the companies that you’re working with, they’re not intentionally saying, “We’re good.
[00:10:41] We trust AI to, to manage all of our content.” it’s really more they, they just don’t even know or don’t even recognize it. Like the intention is good, but the execution is bad?
[00:10:51] Andrew Wheeler: I think so. Yeah, I don’t think anyone, is purposely going at it like that. I do think that, I mean, I’m– you’ve seen it, right? It, it, a lot of the [00:11:00] output can look really, really good, be really impressive. What’s hard to see unless you know that brand is, In fact, I’ll talk about it, I’m sure it’ll come up, but that, that sameness test, right?
[00:11:12] If I were to put your logo with that content and another brand’s logo, would you be able to tell what is yours and what is theirs? Like just how, how similar, if not the same, is that content? And I don’t know if, if brands always see that at the surface level. what’s happening though, what we’re seeing is sort of in parallel to marketing or communications pursuing these AI solutions, there’s a compliance team that has been formed, an AI team that’s been formed, and they’re, they’re trying to identify what those parameters and sort of what those constraints should look like to protect the brand from hallucinations,any inaccurate citations, because it happens more than folks think.
[00:11:57] Folks will reference it ’cause they read about it and they think it [00:12:00] happens all the time. you know, I don’t think it happens all the time, but it’s certainly there and it blends right in. You wouldn’t know the difference. last week, I forget what I was doing and I pr- I prompted, one of the LLMs and I read it and I said, “Wow, I wonder who this guy is that was quoted.”
[00:12:15] He was absolutely not real. I had to dig in, but yeah, he, he was not a real person. So it, it’s absolutely happening and that’s why I think these AI groups that are forming within the companies have a lot of work to do to make sure the rest of the organization is up to speed and leveraging a lot of the great tools that are popping up, but leverage them in a smart and secure way for the brand.
[00:12:40] Lindsey Groepper: Yeah. And that example you gave of, you know, put logo A against logo B and, and their content, and does it say the same thing? The issue that I see too is that if there– if, if all that being commoditized, and again, it’s good… It’s not that it’s written poorly, it’s just the same. But if the only then thing you have to compete on is price, [00:13:00] if you’ve all now worked a system that you all sound the same and the only differentiator is price, why would a prospect buy your solution at a higher price if you are all positioned the same as pretty much everybody else in the category?
[00:13:14] So that becomes certainly detrimental to the business. you have any specific examples that you can share of, um, I can’t remember if you said this, a sameness test. Is that– I don’t know if that’s the language that you used. But do you have any examples that you can think of where you worked with a client where you were able to, like, really point out, like, “I know you think this is, like, good content, but here’s what we’ve uncovered to show to you why this is a problem”?
[00:13:39] Andrew Wheeler: Yeah.
[00:13:39] there’s this aspect of when a, a brand stops sounding human. I think we’ve, we’ve talked about that. I think right now there’s a incredibly mixed bag of people that will respond to that. There are some folks that are completely turned off the minute they feel like it was written by AI, doesn’t set, they’re done.
[00:13:58] They won’t read further. [00:14:00] There’s another whole group of folks that are like: I don’t care as long as it solves something for me or answers a question. What do I care if it was created with AI? That’s probably not 50/50 and I don’t want, again, I don’t want to miss, misquote, misrepresent, but it’s some mix, right?
[00:14:15] Lindsey Groepper: Where do you fall?
[00:14:17] Andrew Wheeler: I fall somewhere in the middle. I will not stop reading just ’cause it was written by AI. I will stop reading though if I get far enough along where it just feels like, filler and sameness of words. So eventually I will stop, but not immediately ’cause I think there’s plenty of opportunities to get value from AI, generated.
[00:14:38] But there’s a specific way that at least we believe you use it. we won’t use AI here at Skyword to create original content. We will use AI in all other facets, right? Ideation and planning and analyzing where a brand is against its competitors, and optimization and editing and derivative creation, and the list goes [00:15:00] on.
[00:15:00] But the one thing I’m not saying is, you know, creation. We won’t use it there. We use humans. there, there’s only so much that I think the AI can do in terms of, of replicating what humans, and storytellers and subject matter experts can actually do. so when you talk about real world examples, you know, I feel like today you could go to LinkedIn or you can go to the LLMs directly and you see some similarities over and over.
[00:15:28] you see here are three leadership lessons or in today’s fast-paced world. and the one that’s been popping up for me and now my brain is like programmed to look for is it’s not X, it’s Y
[00:15:42] Lindsey Groepper: Yes, that’s it for me.
[00:15:44] Andrew Wheeler: It’s crazy how
[00:15:46] Lindsey Groepper: And I’m like, for a little piece I’m like, maybe. And then it’ll end with that. I’m like, no, no. Okay, I thought you might be written by a person until the last line of yes, it’s not the X, it’s the Y. It’s like,
[00:15:58] Andrew Wheeler: So AI r- AI [00:16:00] ruined the em dash for me, and now it’s ruined the it’s not X, it’s Y thing for
[00:16:03] Lindsey Groepper: Yes. Yes
[00:16:05] Andrew Wheeler: but you know, I think you’re seeing, and I know I’m kind of going off on a parallel here from your original question, but I mean, even LinkedIn has recently come out and talked about demoting low-value AI content like that, that has those components.
[00:16:20] I don’t think people hate AI-generated content. I think they hate generic content, that has, some sort of absence of, of humanity, uh, to be extreme.
[00:16:32] Lindsey Groepper: What is crazy to me now is that AI originally, all of the tools was in theory designed to help us all write better and faster. And now we’ve come to a point where now we’re all intentionally writing worse to show that it wasn’t written by AI. So people are purposely misspelling words. they’re writing in like all lowercase. I mean, I like comment on one of my colleague’s posts. I was like, “Is [00:17:00] this what we’re doing now, writing in all lowercase?” And she was like, “I’m a human.” Like it– But I’m like, now it’s like, and someone who grew up, you know, with like writing in comms, the little red squiggly line indicated a spelling error, and now that indicates humanity.
[00:17:14] And I’m like, w- so now we’re like writing worse as a result of AI to show that it wasn’t written by AI. And it’s like, what are we doing?
[00:17:23] Andrew Wheeler: you’re absolutely right. I mean, I find myself doing it for, for when and if I’m leveraging, you know, the tools to support or augment something I’m doing and an em dash is introduced, regardless of whether or not it’s used correctly and it makes sense and I should keep it there, I want to take it out.
[00:17:37] I don’t want somebody to potentially, think that my entire post or response or email, whatever it is, was written by AI. so you’re right. It’s, it’s definitely a, a funny time, an interesting time.
[00:17:49] Lindsey Groepper: so what are you recommending to clients, uh, that they– or how they alter their content, like one, two, three things, that they can do to ensure [00:18:00] that the brand does sound human and differentiates? I mean, we’ve talked about things like not to do, overly use of em dashes that don’t include the it’s not this, it’s that.
[00:18:09] but are there other specific things that, that you’re suggesting for these marketing leaders to ensure their content does sound human or come across human?
[00:18:19] Andrew Wheeler: I think with respect to how we’re talking to CMOs and other, other marketing leaders, we’re really breaking down, and we’ll start, we’ll start simple. the thing that you’ve heard over and over, right? Don’t focus on more, focus on authoritative, authentic, content.
[00:18:36] and then I would break it down into sort of three, three buckets. First, advising them to define a very strong point of view before even looking to AI, before even opening up a GPT or, or Claude or Gemini. think of AI as a, as a multiplier or an augmentation or optimization. because if your [00:19:00] strategy, if that point of view is generic, a.k.a.
[00:19:01] coming from AI, AI will only help you scale generic faster, and you don’t want that, and we don’t want that as consumers potentially interacting with your brand. second to that, put real experts at your content, um, meaning SMEs, practitioners, customer-facing leaders, folks that you already have within your organization.
[00:19:24] I think we’re a long way from, you know, years ago we would hear, “But they’re not writers, they’re not writers.” They don’t need to be writers. we can pair those folks up with writers. We can pair those folks up with content creators to extract that expertise. so that second bucket is really about making sure you’re, you’re leveraging the experts that live within your universe, and of course, we can always bring in outside experts as well.
[00:19:48] you know, we think based off of everything that’s happening and what makes that brand special, the future really belongs to those brands that have the highest density, the [00:20:00] highest amount of authentic expertise. The third bucket, I would argue is, is really going back to the, the words that you and I were joking about earlier, the sameness, the dis- you know, the distinctiveness.
[00:20:13] Um, sameness being bad, distinctiveness being good. marketing leaders really needing to optimize for memorabil- memorability, authentic POV, not volume. And there’s still a lot of brands that are out there saying a lot and also saying very little with it. that’s sort of the high level three things that we would talk, we would talk to, to senior marketers about.
[00:20:35] and they should really think about this not just with net new content, net new strategy, net new approach. It’s really, really important that once the strategy is built and it gets put in place for everything going forward, they also go backwards. They should apply this lens to anything that currently lives within their ecosystem, the website or anywhere they publish content, and put that content through this new lens, optimize, [00:21:00] update that what makes sense, and remove, that what doesn’t.
[00:21:04] You know, not everything is still relevant. So if it doesn’t support this new lens, get rid of it
[00:21:10] Lindsey Groepper: Yeah, I really like that, the leading idea of before you do anything, start with a well-defined and differentiated point of view. Because even in my, my own, um, working with Claude or Chat, I find that even when I’ve defined my point of view and I’m, I’m trying to refine it or create some shape around it, my point of view, the more I iterate, gets more diluted.
[00:21:34] So it’s like what I started with versus what I end with ends up being a very common point of view, and I, and I have multiple times said, “This has gotten away from my original point of view and seems to be the same as every- what everyone else is saying, which is what is the opposite of what I’m trying to c- you know, convey.”
[00:21:54] but that, because that is, it’s easier for me to recognize that because it is me and my personal point of [00:22:00] view. Uh, when it comes to a brand and it’s not necessarily in a person’s voice, it’s your brand voice, I would imagine that’s, that’s harder to, to catch, and that might be something that you miss.
[00:22:11] It’s like, ’cause the general idea is still there, but it’s been very diluted. and so I love that idea of like define what that point of view is and make sure that point of view is crisp and carried through throughout. I mean, that’s the basis of like, you know, everything we do too as a, as a PR agency, but I’ve definitely found that to be an issue when I iterate using AI on my point of view
[00:22:36] Andrew Wheeler: Yep.
[00:22:37] One of the things that we do where we, where we are using AI to create the derivative assets, if you create that original hero asset, that original piece, we can then leverage AI, leverage technology, leverage smart prompting to go create derivatives for specific people or specific channels, but also restrict just how far things can go.
[00:23:00] Meaning you can’t introduce any new fact, you can’t introduce any new quotes, you can’t introduce– It all has to be from that core piece that we know is authentic ’cause we were part of the creation of it, so we know where it came from. And we find that that does a much better job getting the benefit of AI scale without a lot of the risk of just leveraging a, a, a technology off of something that was created with AI.
[00:23:24] It’s the back to the snake eating
[00:23:28] Lindsey Groepper: Yeah, or Boris. and yeah, so it sounds like you have a lot of rules in place for when you’re creating derivative content, which is probably an area that most people miss. It’s saying do this, but they’re missing the but don’t do that. That it’s like we all know the do’s of like create additional content, do something for LinkedIn, make it more, conversational, but we’re not necessarily putting the don’ts in there to help, help give it more shape.
[00:23:54] Andrew Wheeler: And then feeding back into it what’s working and what’s not, and just helping it get better and [00:24:00] better
[00:24:00] Lindsey Groepper: Yeah.
[00:24:02] Do you feel, that we’ll get to a point where the AI-generated content is good enough, better, equal to what a human can write? I mean, the more we put in it, the more that it trains,if, you know, if you’re specifically using, um, an agent that’s built for you. Do you feel like it’ll get to that point where it’s able to, have taste and understand bias, understand appropriate humor and sarcasm?
[00:24:28] Or do you, do you feel that it will really tap out its limit and that it’s really never gonna get much better than it is today?
[00:24:38] Andrew Wheeler: So this is a pure opinion, right? ‘Cause there’s absolutely no way that
[00:24:41] I could
[00:24:42] Lindsey Groepper: I’m not gonna ask you to fact-check it
[00:24:44] Andrew Wheeler: Yeah, I appreciate that. I’m sitting here thinking like, “Who am I to answer that question for you?” I don’t know. I feel like Think about the pace of innovation we’re seeing today compared to 20 years ago. I mean, we all thought search and then mobile, like it happened fairly [00:25:00] fast. But now looking back, seeing what’s happening now relative to that time, that was turtle pace compared to what, what’s happening now, right?
[00:25:08] So even my opinion today, I could have a different one in a week. so I don’t know. I feel like it will get dramatically better at simulating sort of human or softer skills, if you will. AI will become likely incredibly good at tone adaptation or emotional pattern recognition or, even sort of standard conversational language.
[00:25:36] I think about that and I just think, but simulated empathy and lived empathy are so different. and I don’t know how it gets close to that. AI can predict,comforting language, but it still doesn’t understand consequence. And I, I don’t know how that changes. So I think parts of it get better with respect to like data and patterns, but I don’t think it ever gets there with respect [00:26:00] to, okay, I think you know what?
[00:26:01] We’re at a point where it’s good enough and brands can use this sort of whole cloth
[00:26:06] Lindsey Groepper: Mm-hmm. Yeah, I know I, I tend to agree with that. but yeah, the pace at which it’s improving is, it’s insane. And
[00:26:16] Andrew Wheeler: me a year ago if we would be here, I– there’s no way I would have said yes
[00:26:21] Lindsey Groepper: crazy. And when I use the voice function in, in my ChatGPT app regularly, and like, she’s my girl. She talks like me. She uses the same language fillers as me. I mean, it’s literally like I will have full-blown lengthy conversations in my car with her. And it’s lit- her voice, her tone, how she talks is literally like talking to a friend of mine.
[00:26:48] And I will hang up and, and I have to remind myself like, ’cause I’ll be like, “Thank you. Oh my gosh, it was so helpful.” And I find myself talking to her like a real person, and it, again, that wasn’t that way, [00:27:00] you know, six months ago. And so it, it’s on one hand like really cool, but the other hand really scary ’cause I get caught up in it too.
[00:27:08] and I have to remind myself that like, okay, that’s great advice, but I have to be like, okay, but just like a friend is giving you advice, it’s not necessarily the best advice. They’re using it based on opinion, probab- maybe not fact. Like, I have to remind myself of that too. but it is, it is crazy how quick we’re moving.
[00:27:23] Andrew Wheeler: It, it is, it is
[00:27:25] Lindsey Groepper: well, Andrew, this has been awesome. Um, is there anything that we didn’t tackle today that you wanted to make sure that we covered on today’s conversation?
[00:27:34] Andrew Wheeler: you know, I think the, the one thing that I would say as, as we close would be, brands have already heard that they need to stop with focusing on content volumes, like stop focusing on publishing and really, focus on, I think they’ve heard the word quality, but I’m gonna replace that here and talk about perspective, right?
[00:27:52] So stop optimizing for publishing and start optimizing for, for, for perspective, because I think the strongest brands and the brands that will win in this [00:28:00] new world are gonna be the ones that are built around conviction and have established trust and have that authority. So as a brand, ask yourself or ask yourself on behalf of the brand, like, what do we believe that competitors don’t?
[00:28:14] What are we willing to say that others avoid? what expertise do we genuinely own? and focus there ’cause that differentiation will drive a POV, and that POV is gonna be way more impactful than just volume of content.
[00:28:28] Lindsey Groepper: Awesome. And if you feel stuck, Skyword is a place that can help. They have both people and software, uh, to help you get unstuck and get out of the sort of the Ouroboros that you’re in right now.
[00:28:39] well, Andrew, I end the every episode the same way, which is I ask my guests if they have a signature toast to send us out
[00:28:47] Andrew Wheeler: signature toast. What’s yours?
[00:28:52] Lindsey Groepper: it’s funny that I ask this question because, well, I have one that’s an appropriate just cheers, and then I have my friend’s toast, which [00:29:00] you may have heard before, which is, “Cheers to you, cheers to me. Friends for life we’ll always be, and if you should disagree, screw you, here’s to me.”
[00:29:08] Andrew Wheeler: I like that and I have heard it. I love it. I don’t have one, but I’m gonna steal one. I was fortunate enough to grow up and my grandfather was around. Um, my grandfather was in broadcasting for the better part of his career. You don’t hear people talk about broadcasting much anymore.
[00:29:24] and he did a lot of speeches and a lot of quotes, and there was one in particular that has always, like, stayed with me, and it’s a very short line, and it’s not his. Like, he stole it, right? We all borrow from each other. but the line is, “If it is to be, it’s up to me.” Um, and I think some folks take it at face value and they think, “Oh, great.
[00:29:43] It’s not, you know, it’s not about doing everything yourself, it’s about delegating.” But that’s not the way that I’m thinking about it here today, right? ‘Cause I think you can call me crazy, but there’s a pretty strong parallel in the conversation we just had. I think it applies perfectly to AI and brand authority right [00:30:00] now.
[00:30:00] too many brands are thinking visibility will happen automatically if they just publish enough. But AI systems don’t owe brands, authority. So if your, if your company sounds interchangeable, it’s up to you to create that clear perspective. and if competitors are becoming the trusted voices, it’s up to you to have that differentiated expertise.
[00:30:21] So that’s why that came to mind, that, that sort of closing quote or toast, if you will.
[00:30:27] If category authority is to be, it’s up to the brand to make it happen
[00:30:32] Lindsey Groepper: Look at that. Twisting it up with your grandfather’s words. I love it. that’s awesome. Well, I will certainly drink to that, Andrew. I appreciate you joining me. This was a great conversation, and cheers
[00:30:46] Speaker: Thanks again to Andrew for joining me on SaaS Half Full. This is definitely a topic of conversation that we’re having internally at the agency. Slight annoyance is being stirred up by me regarding all of the craziness with AI visibility, but hopefully you took a couple [00:31:00] things away from the conversation on how you can improve using AI with your own content generation.
[00:31:06] If not, you can certainly turn to Skyword, but we always appreciate the listen, and until next time, bottoms up.