I swear this is real!
My new AI presentation is ready. Details are here.
Jay Baer Spills the Te(quila) on What AI Will Never Replace
LOVED this chat with my friend Gail Davis, founder of GDA Speakers about many of the topics I've been talking about in The Baer Facts lately. Humanity > Automation. Also: audio version
Jay's Faves
Shoutout to my friend Jess Jensen for finding this one. Her monthly Co-Pilot newsletter on marketing and leadership is a great read.
I joked like 10 years ago that eventually we'd all have flipper cuz we wouldn't need fingers anymore in the age of voice interfaces.
It's coming, people.
WisprFlow is the ultimate voice tool. Just talk and it handles email. Browsing. Applications. All of it. Soooo fast and accurate. Mind-blowing.
Free for low usage, or $12/month for a lot. If you have a mouth, try it out. iphone, mac, windows.
Book Report
The Purpose of Purpose gave me all the feels. It's a new breed of business leadership book, and if you're a leader (or want to be) I really suggest you grab this.
My friend Ron Tite argues persuasively with a TON of amazing case studies that aligning purpose with action is the best way to grow. I agree.
My quote on the back cover reads: "Hilarious, poignant, ultra-modern, and urgent. This is the business leadership book you can’t put down, and will never forget."
The Power of the Human Touch in the Age of Automation
I’ve spent my entire career helping businesses succeed by identifying what everybody else is doing (or likely to do) and teaching them to do something else instead.
It’s like the George Costanza method of competitive differentiation.
It works best in times when competitors flock to a trend that customers don’t actually care about, or desire. Times of misalignment between company desire and customer desire are massive growth opportunities if you can pursue an opposing strategy.
I believe one of those opportunities is upon us, right now.
There is no question - in my mind - that all companies will embrace AI at some level. The efficiency gains are too profound to ignore AI completely. Embrace of this transformative technology is essentially an existential requirement.
But, what then?
No less a stakeholder than Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella also believes that it will be difficult to stand out with AI, remarking recently: “As AI gets more efficient and accessible, we will see its use skyrocket, turning it into a commodity.”
This always happens with technology over time.
After all, today it’s rare to hear: “you should see this amazing website this company has” or “you won’t believe their mobile app!” But in the past, you did hear those utterances. A lot.
So when everybody embraces AI and correspondingly becomes more and more efficient, how do you stand out from the pack?
By keeping it real and keeping it human.
Your “brand” is what people say about you when you’re not around.
I’ve worked in word of mouth marketing long enough to know that while some companies will create some chatter about AI implementation for a couple years (heck, I talk about them here and on stage)…medium and long-term, AI use cases will become commoditized and therefore not an engine of conversation.
What’s fascinating me right now are scenarios where businesses are embracing manifestly analog, inefficient, human-powered customer interaction. They are zigging while everyone else is AI zagging.
One of my favorite examples is the information desk at Melton Student Center at Auburn University.
The no-cost phone line has been a resource for Auburn students and local residents continuously for 72 years.
The students who work the phone line answer ANY question that comes in:
“What’s the average cost of an acre of land in Texas?”
“What do I do if there’s a snake in my house?”
“What’s the customer service number for Costco?”
And SO MANY more.
The Auburn phone line is the Internet for people that don’t have the Internet (that’s 2.6 billion people, worldwide).
If you call this phone line - and I sincerely hope you do at (334) 844-4344 and receive an answer to some obscure or mundane query, what are the chances you’ll tell someone else about that experience?
Pretty darn high, I’ll wager.
What are the chances you’ll tell someone about an accurate chatbot (especially once everybody is using ChapGPT or Perplexity daily)
Near zero?
Keep it real.
Find ways to insert humanity back into your customer experiences. Not at the expense of AI adoption, but alongside it.
As the human touch gets less and less common, its impact on the psychology and loyalty of your customers will get more and more significant.
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