The Role of AI in building a nonfiction business

Practical, step-by-step methodology to help you save time, maintain your unique voice, bring joy into your life, and make your expertise shine in any medium.

Hi,

AI has become an indispensable tool in my creative process. As someone who has written extensively about growth practices, publishing, and building careers, I’ve found AI to be a crucial assistant, not so much in generating ideas from scratch, but in refining, expanding, and transforming them.

I have chronic health conditions that limit the amount of time I can spend at a computer. I can’t always sit down and type out an entire book, a sales page, or a Kickstarter campaign in one sitting. But what I can do is generate ideas, outline my arguments, and structure my thoughts. From there, AI helps me shape those raw materials into something polished.

That’s where the real power of AI lies, not as a replacement for the creative process, but as an amplifier of it. The heart of nonfiction is the idea and the framework that only you, the author, can bring. AI then helps to structure, iterate, and expand upon that framework.

This article is about how I use AI to streamline my nonfiction process, from brainstorming and structuring ideas to repurposing content across different formats. If you’re an author, entrepreneur, or creative professional looking to make the most of AI in your work, this will show you the exact methods I use daily.

AI won’t make you a great brand, ut if you already have expertise and a strong perspective, it will make you a far more efficient communicator who is better at drilling to the core of your ideas.

The Problem AI Solves

One of the biggest challenges of nonfiction is that it often requires multiple formats, like blog posts, courses, books, presentations, and sales pages. Each of these requires a slightly different approach, even if the core idea remains the same. The traditional process of repurposing content is slow and tedious.

AI allows me to take a single idea and quickly generate multiple versions of it for different audiences and purposes. Instead of starting from scratch, I might start with a series of transcripts from a course I’ve already taught. Instead, I can ask AI to adapt it for a different audience or industry.

This approach saves me hours, if not days, of work while keeping my voice and expertise at the center.

How I Use AI to Edit and Strengthen My Arguments

One of the most valuable things AI can do is act as an editorial assistant. I frequently use AI to analyze my drafts and identify gaps in my arguments.

Whenever I make something, whether it’s a book, a Kickstarter page, or an article, I run it through AI with the prompt:

“Go through this and tell me what I’m missing.”

This is an underrated but incredibly powerful way to strengthen my nonfiction. AI doesn’t think like I do, which means it often picks up on missing elements that I wouldn’t have noticed myself. Maybe I assumed knowledge my audience doesn’t have. Maybe my examples aren’t clear. Maybe my argument needs more supporting data.

I still do all the thinking myself. AI just helps point out where my thinking needs to be clarified or expanded.

Turning Transcripts into Chapters

A lot of my nonfiction starts as spoken content, as in interviews, presentations, courses, or even conversations with my business partner. I then use AI to turn those transcripts into structured other media.

Here’s my process:

1. Upload the transcript into Claude or ChatGPT.

2. Ask AI to identify key themes and generate an outline.

3. Refine the outline to match my original intent.

4. Generate a first draft based on the transcript.

5. Edit for clarity, voice, and structure.

AI never gets the final draft exactly right, but it gets me 70-80% of the way there, saving me hours of work. It also gets me something to edit, which is most of the work.

Using AI for Proofreading

I’m a terrible proofreader. I miss obvious typos, forget punctuation, and sometimes introduce inconsistencies without realizing it. AI is an amazing final check before I send something off to a professional editor.

My go-to prompt:

“Do not change any words or phrases, but proofread this for spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors.”

This keeps my voice intact while catching basic mistakes that would otherwise slip through.

Transforming Content for Different Audiences

Once I’ve created a piece of content, I often need to adapt it for different audiences. For example:

• A blog post for writers might need to be rewritten for artists or entrepreneurs.

• A sales page might need to be tweaked for different customer segments.

• A book chapter might need to become a presentation or podcast script.

Rather than rewriting everything from scratch, I use AI to adjust the tone and content while keeping the core message intact. A simple prompt like:

“Keep the tone the same, but rewrite this for an audience of [artists, business leaders, etc.].”

…can save hours of work while ensuring my message stays clear. AI won’t do the work for you. It won’t generate good ideas or turn you into an expert. But if you already have expertise, a strong voice, and a clear perspective, it will dramatically increase your efficiency.

The key is to use AI as an editor, assistant, and amplifier, not as a replacement for original thought. If you approach it this way, you’ll find that AI is one of the best tools available to help you write faster, clearer, and with greater impact.

From Small Ideas to Full-Length Articles

One of the biggest obstacles in nonfiction is taking a seed of an idea and developing it into a fully formed article, chapter, or book. Many entrepreneurs struggle with this process, often abandoning good ideas because they don’t know how to expand them.

AI helps me bridge that gap. Instead of waiting for inspiration to flesh out an idea, I use AI to help expand, refine, and structure my thoughts.

Here’s how I do it:

1. Start with a single sentence or thought. This might be a tweet, a note from a conversation, or a stray thought that pops into my head.

2. Ask AI: “Is there something to this worth expanding?” AI will generate different angles, related themes, and potential directions to develop the idea.

3. Refine and outline the strongest points. Not every AI-generated idea is useful, but reviewing the suggestions often sparks something valuable.

4. Use AI to structure the piece. I ask it to generate an outline based on my revised idea, helping to give shape to the content before I start.

Example: Turning a Tweet into an Article

Recently, I posted a tweet-length thought:

“Writers struggle because they expect A to equal B, but in publishing, A equals xylophone. Nothing works how you think it should, but it does work consistently—if you understand the rules.”

Instead of leaving it as a short post, I asked AI:

“Expand this into a full framework.”

AI provided a structure breaking down:

• Why writers expect logical outcomes but encounter unpredictable results.

• How consistency, rather than logic, makes publishing predictable.

• The emotional rollercoaster of publishing and how to manage expectations.

This first draft wasn’t perfect, but it gave me a starting point. I revised it, added personal examples, and ended up with a full article. Without AI, it would have taken far longer to get from idea to completion.

Using AI to Develop Cohesive Book Chapters

A significant part of my process involves turning course transcripts, interviews, and conversations into structured book chapters. Compelling nonfiction often starts with spoken ideas, but those raw materials need structure before they can become a readable book.

Here’s how I transform transcripts into polished chapters using AI:

1. Upload the transcript into Claude or ChatGPT. AI extracts key themes and sections.

2. Ask AI: “Create a structured outline from this transcript.” This helps me see the natural flow of ideas.

3. Refine the outline. AI often creates a rigid, bullet-point structure. I adjust it to better reflect my voice.

4. Expand each section into a narrative format. AI can take a section of the transcript and rewrite it as a chapter, maintaining my voice while removing filler words and tangents.

Example: Turning a Course into a Book Chapter

For my book How to Write Irresistible Books That Readers Devour, I had hours of recorded training sessions on story craft. Instead of transcribing and rewriting everything manually, I:

• Fed AI the transcript and asked for a 1,000-word chapter on story structure.

• Had AI generate multiple drafts until I found one that closely matched my teaching style.

• Used AI to smooth out rough sections while keeping the personality of the original session.

This saved me days of work while allowing me to refine rather than start from scratch.

Rewriting for Different Audiences

Once I create a piece of content, I often need to adjust it for different readerships.

For example:

• A blog post for writers may need to be rewritten for artists or entrepreneurs.

• A business strategy article may need a version tailored for independent authors.

• A Kickstarter guide for fiction authors may need an adaptation for comic creators.

Instead of rewriting everything manually, I ask AI:

“Rewrite this article for [a specific audience] while keeping the tone and voice intact.”

This allows me to reach multiple markets with minimal extra work.

Example: Adapting “Author Ecosystems” for Artists

I had previously written an article on building a framework for authors to grow an audience, monetize content, and sustain a creative career. I wanted to see if the concept worked for artists as well.

I prompted AI:

“Rewrite this article so it speaks directly to visual artists instead of authors.”

AI adjusted:

• “Books” → “Art prints, commissions, and gallery shows”

• “Email marketing for authors” → “Social media strategies for artists”

• “Selling novels” → “Building a collector base for original work”

After a few rounds of refinement, I had an entirely new article that could reach a different creative audience.

Turning a Book into a Workbook using Deep Research

For many authors, creating a workbook from your finished book feels like reinventing the wheel. The good news is, you don’t have to start from zero. My approach is simple, but for this one you have to use ChatGPT’s Deep Research or similar model, because only that specific function has the ability to return 50+ pages of material, and create something using the type of recursive loop you need to make this happen.

1. Upload the Book- I upload the entire manuscript (or individual chapters) into my AI tool—Claude, ChatGPT, or whichever you prefer.

2. Ask AI to Identify Key Concepts - I give AI a straightforward prompt like:
   “Read this book and extract the core concepts and lessons readers need to grasp. Then create workbook-style exercises, worksheets, and prompts based on each main concept.” This prompt alone often does 80% of the work, because AI quickly pinpoints the key ideas and turns them into actionable steps.

3. Refine and Personalize - AI’s first pass might give me a solid starting framework: fill-in-the-blanks, reflection questions, or mini-projects. I scan through these suggestions, remove anything that feels generic, and add unique elements that reflect my personal touch such as anecdotes, real-life examples, or deeper research findings from the book. Try using things like “Act as a researcher” or “You are a world class educator”.

4. Check for Consistency - Even if AI creates individual exercises for each chapter, I make sure the workbook flows naturally. Sometimes, I’ll ask: “Organize these exercises into a logical sequence that aligns with the book’s chapter order.” This ensures people can follow the material in the same progression as the core text.

5. Add Calls to Action - To amplify the workbook’s impact, I’ll prompt AI to suggest “next steps” after each exercise. These can range from quick journaling prompts to external resources or additional reading. This transforms a simple Q&A sheet into a true interactive experience.

In one simple workflow, I can turn any nonfiction title into a hands-on workbook. Please note that I still haven’t found a good way to format this book with AI, so I have to do all that myself, but it gives me the structure at least, that I can copy into word. This shortcut isn’t just about saving time. It’s also about making your content more actionable and valuable, while still staying true to your original vision.

Turning Articles into Courses and Presentations

Nonfiction often needs to be repurposed into multiple formats—courses, presentations, and talks. Instead of creating everything separately, I use AI to adapt content efficiently.

My Process for Creating a Course from a Book

1. Feed AI a book chapter and ask it to create a course outline.

2. Expand each section into presentation slides. AI structures information into digestible lessons.

3. Convert slides into a script. AI helps refine key talking points.

4. Turn scripts into marketing copy. AI adapts course descriptions and promotional materials.

Example: Creating a Presentation from a Book

For my How to Bank 1,000 Preorders talk, I:

• Started with notes and previous campaign results.

• Had AI generate a structured talk outline.

• Used AI to turn key points into PowerPoint slides.

• Edited for clarity and refined examples.

In just a few hours, I had a polished presentation that would have taken days to create manually.

AI isn’t just about doing it faster. It’s about working smarter. By using AI to:

• Expand small ideas into full-length articles

• Develop book chapters from transcripts

• Adapt content for different audiences

• Transform writing into presentations and courses

…I’m able to maximize the impact of my work while focusing my energy on the parts that matter most—ideas, voice, and strategy.

In the next section, we’ll explore how AI can help with marketing, branding, and audience growth—because creating great content is only half the battle.

Building Stronger Sales Pages and Kickstarter Campaigns

One of the most effective ways I use AI is in refining my sales pages and Kickstarter campaigns. A well-structured campaign can make the difference between a mediocre launch and one that crushes expectations. However, crafting persuasive copy that resonates with an audience takes time, energy, and iteration. Instead of starting from scratch, I use AI to help identify missing elements and enhance clarity in my sales pages. My process looks like this:

1. Draft the core message. Before turning to AI, I outline the main points of my campaign. What is the project? Why should people care? What are the key benefits?

2. Ask AI: “What am I missing?” AI will analyze the copy and suggest missing objections and counterarguments, sections that need more clarity, and ideas to improve conversion rates

3. Strengthen positioning and persuasion. Once AI identifies gaps, I refine the messaging further. If the ideal audience isn’t clear, I tweak the positioning. If it’s too wordy, I streamline the language. If there’s no emotional hook, I revise until it grabs attention.

While creating a Kickstarter campaign for $8333: 12 Concepts to 6 Figures, Monica and I had AI analyze past campaigns and suggest improvements.

• AI suggested breaking up text-heavy sections with more visuals.

• It flagged missing social proof (testimonials, previous successes).

• It recommended stronger call-to-action phrases in key areas.

After a few manual refinements, we had a tight, persuasive page that communicated the value of the project clearly and compellingly.

Generating Blurbs, Press Kits, and Promotional Materials

Another tedious but necessary part of marketing is writing blurbs, summaries, and media kits. AI makes this process significantly easier while still allowing for manual refinement.

How I Use AI for Blurbs and Summaries

1. Write a rough draft. I never expect AI to generate a perfect blurb on the first try.

2. Feed AI key details. The book’s core message, audience, and themes.

3. Refine tone and style. AI generates multiple variations, and I pick the best elements.

For How to Write Irresistible Books That Readers Devour, I tested multiple AI-generated blurbs, tweaking phrasing until I had a sharp, engaging summary. The result was something I could polish, rather than write from scratch.

Here’s where I ended up with it:

Everyone dreams of crafting stories that captivate cusomers, but what makes a brand truly unforgettable?

Bestselling author and publishing expert Russell Nohelty pulls back the curtain on the psychology behind compelling storytelling. Blending insights from years of working with authors, deep research into reader behavior, and lessons from top-selling books, this guide teaches you how to craft stories that not only engage but resonate.

Inside, you’ll learn how to:

• Build emotional bridges between your story and your audience

• Use psychological triggers to make your book unforgettable

• Develop hooky ideas that attract loyal fans

• Balance craft and marketing for maximum impact

• Write stories that don’t just entertain—they connect

Whether you’re an aspiring novelist or a seasoned storyteller, Write Irresistible Books That Readers Devour will revolutionize how you approach writing. Packed with actionable insights, real-world examples, and industry-tested strategies, this book will help you create work that readers can’t stop talking about...and buying.

Using AI for Press Kits

Press kits require a mix of:

• A compelling bio

• Product descriptions

• Pull quotes

• Marketing angles

I use AI to structure and refine these elements, ensuring my press kits are professional and easy to scan for journalists and podcasters.

Using AI to Generate Audiobooks

Recording an audiobook is time-consuming and physically demanding. I’ve struggled with this due to my chronic health conditions, but AI has provided a game-changing alternative.

How I Created My AI Voice:

• Used ElevenLabs to clone my voice. This allowed me to generate audiobook narration in my own tone and style.

• Trained AI with my past recordings. This helped refine pronunciation and pacing.

• Tested and refined. Some adjustments were needed to make it less robotic.

I’m now working on using AI to generate full audiobooks for my nonfiction titles. While it’s not perfect, it’s an accessible solution for authors who want audio editions but can’t record them manually.

AI for Research and Data Analysis

AI is incredibly powerful when it comes to analyzing large sets of data. I use it frequently for:

• Summarizing survey results

• Extracting key insights from podcast transcripts

• Analyzing audience trends for better marketing decisions

I recently uploaded survey data from my audience into AI and asked:

“What insights can we pull from this?”

AI identified:

• Common challenges customers faced

• Recurring themes in audience feedback

• Opportunities for new content based on what people wanted

The key to using AI effectively is knowing where it adds value without replacing your creative voice.

AI isn’t here to replace you. It’s here to amplify your expertise and make the writing process faster, clearer, and more efficient.

If you use AI strategically, you’ll spend less time on tedious tasks and more time on the creative work that truly matters.

Creating a custom GPT

I resisted created my own GPTs for a long time, but now I love them. The one I love the most is one that creates social media posts from my work. To do this I:

• Upload all my previous nonfiction writing and transcripts to the project files. If you only have posts or articles, that’s good, too. I would just combine them into one file because you can only upload a limited number of files.

• Tell the GPT what I want to do with all that work. Mainly, I have it train itself.

Now, every day I can get social posts and have them customized for each platform from my previous work.

Creating and Testing Surveys/Quizzes

Transforming an entire book’s worth of knowledge into a concise, scorable quiz is deceptively difficult. On the surface, it might seem like you just pull random questions from each chapter, but in reality, you have to distill the book’s most valuable insights into balanced, consistent questions—while still ensuring the quiz remains approachable.

Add in the challenge of analyzing the book’s full breadth and depth, and you’re left with a complex puzzle. That’s why we developed a specialized methodology to bridge the gap between a rich, full-length text and an easily consumable quiz. By applying AI for both refining our question sets and validating early test results, we took the heavy lifting out of a once-daunting process.

1. Initial Brainstorm and Outline

1. Core Concept

   • We started with the idea of a quiz to match authors’ marketing tendencies to five “ecosystems”: Desert, Grassland, Tundra, Forest, and Aquatic.

   • We jotted down the quiz goals, e.g., “Identify someone’s dominant marketing style,” and the broad topics for 25 multiple-choice questions.

2. AI-Assisted Question Drafting

   • We typed our rough question ideas into an AI tool and asked, “Which questions might be ambiguous, and how could we clarify them?”

   • AI returned suggestions about phrasing for clarity and consistency.

2. Refining the Questions

1. Iterative Editing

   • We took AI’s feedback and reworked each question. For example, if one question overlapped too heavily with another, we asked AI: “Suggest a more distinct angle.”

2. Coding Answers

   • We mapped each answer choice (A, B, C, D, E) to the five ecosystems.

   • AI helped check for logical consistency, ensuring each question had a plausible reason to select each letter.

3. Setting Up the Scoring Logic

1. Tally System

   • We decided each question has one point for A, B, C, D, or E. The letter with the highest sum after 25 questions is the user’s primary ecosystem.

2. Tie-Breaker Handling

   • AI suggested we note that a near-tie could indicate a “blended ecosystem.” This ensures nuanced results.

4. Pilot Testing with a Small Group (25 “Participants”)

1. Random Assignment

   • We hypothetically “assigned” each of 25 participants an ecosystem—Desert, Grassland, Tundra, Forest, or Aquatic—and created answer sets that should yield that ecosystem in the final tally.

2. Draft Answers vs. Expected Outcomes

   • We fed each participant’s hypothetical answers into the scoring system.

   • AI flagged if any participant’s final score didn’t match their assigned ecosystem, allowing us to adjust questions or “answers” so the quiz remained consistent.

3. Adjusting for Accuracy

   • Where a mismatch occurred (if any), we re-examined the question structure or answer choices. AI pointed out if certain question wording was causing confusion or if the scoring needed fine-tuning.

5. Scaling Up for Larger Testing (100 “Participants”)

1. Replicating the Process

   • We repeated the same test logic with 100 participants, each assigned one of the five ecosystems in equal amounts (20 each).

   • AI validated that tallies aligned with the “assigned” ecosystem, ensuring no question inadvertently skewed results toward one type.

2. No Further Changes Needed

   • Since all 100 participants’ tallies matched their assigned types, we didn’t need extra edits.

   • The quiz was thus confirmed stable across a bigger sample.

6. Finalizing the Quiz

1. Clean Layout and Instructions

   • We asked AI to help finalize instructions (like “Pick one option per question” and how to total letter counts).

   • We proofread with AI for spelling, grammar, and any ambiguous phrasing.

2. Readability Checks

   • By prompting AI: “Check if any question might confuse people,” we simplified a few minor issues.

7. Publishing and Ongoing Iteration

1. Choosing a Quiz Platform

   • We considered Typeform, Interact, or a WordPress plugin. The choice depended on design, budgeting, and analytics.

   • AI helped compare pros and cons of each.

2. Monitoring Real-World Feedback

   • Once live, we gathered user feedback.

   • If participants reported confusing questions, we used AI to suggest possible re-phrasings or alternative wording to improve the quiz over time.

Why an AI-Driven Process Helps

• Speed and Clarity: AI identifies repetitive or confusing items quickly, which is particularly useful when you have 25+ questions and 5 possible answers each.

• Consistency: It ensures each question remains aligned with the same ecosystem definitions, reducing unintentional overlap or bias.

• Scalability: Testing the quiz with 25, then 100 “participants,” is faster because AI points out any mismatch immediately—no guesswork.

By treating the entire quiz-creation workflow as a collaboration with AI—rather than letting AI generate everything from scratch—you end up with a clearer, more accurate quiz that genuinely reflects your expertise in author marketing “ecosystems.” This hybrid approach mirrors how you can apply AI to any nonfiction project: You bring the vision and strategy; AI brings the consistency checks, structural suggestions, and time savings.

How I Use AI in My Daily Process

For me, AI isn’t a replacement. It’s an amplifier, taking what I’m already good at and makes it faster, smoother, and easier to repurpose. It’s like having an extra brain that never gets tired of tweaking, expanding, and structuring ideas.

I always ask myself “Am I a cyborg or a scab?” If it’s helping me be more efficient, or help me have more fun, then I’m all for it. If it’s replacing somebody’s job, then I’m not interested in using it that way.

The way I integrate AI into my daily process isn’t about letting it take over. It’s about minimizing the time I spend on tedious tasks so I can focus on the parts that require actual creative decision-making. Here’s how that works in practice.

From Spark to Structure: Generating and Expanding Ideas

Every piece of content starts with a seed of an idea, a stray thought, a tweet, or even a note from a conversation. But not every idea is worth pursuing. That’s where AI comes in.

I’ll take a concept, maybe a sentence I jotted down while half-asleep, and ask AI, “Is this worth expanding?” AI doesn’t have opinions, but it does have patterns. It can show me different angles I hadn’t considered, suggest frameworks I could build on, or highlight connections between ideas I wouldn’t have seen on my own.

Once I see a structure forming, I step in as the editor. I refine, cut, and shape the raw AI suggestions into something that fits my voice and vision. AI gives me the building blocks, but I’m still the one designing the house.

Once I’ve got my framework, I start feeding AI my raw materials whether that be notes, transcripts, or past articles. My goal is to speed up the process of getting from idea to draft.

AI helps me create a structured outline before I start. If I’m working on a book chapter, I’ll have AI pull out the major themes from a transcript. If I’m repurposing an article, I’ll ask AI to turn it into a talk outline. The key here is that AI accelerates the structural work, so I’m not staring at a blank page.

From there, I generate a rough draft. Rough is the keyword. AI’s first pass is never perfect, but it gives me something to work with. Something I can shape into a finished product much faster than if I had to start from scratch.

Editing: Refining Voice, Tone, and Clarity

If there’s one thing AI can do better than me, it’s spotting weak points in my argument. That’s why one of my most-used AI prompts is simply:

“What am I missing?”

I throw my drafts into AI and let it highlight gaps in logic, unclear explanations, or missing transitions. It doesn’t rewrite for me. It just points out what needs work.

AI is also great for proofreading. I often overlooks my own typos, so before anything goes to an editor, I have AI do a quick spelling and punctuation check. But I’m careful to tell it:

“Do not change any words or phrases. Just check for errors.”

This keeps AI from messing with my voice while still catching the small mistakes I’d otherwise miss.

Marketing: The Part I’d Rather Not Do (But AI Helps Anyway)

AI makes marketing more manageable by helping me refine sales pages, Kickstarter campaigns, blurbs, press kits and all the other things I need but don’t necessarily love creating from scratch.

When I’m building a sales page, I start by writing the core messaging myself. Then I ask AI:

“Does this need anything else?”

It flags missing persuasive elements or areas that need stronger positioning that I might not have noticed because I’m too close to the project. AI also helps me adapt content for different audiences. If I’ve written a guide for authors, but I want to rework it for artists or business owners, I have AI adjust the framing without losing the heart of the message.

Repurposing: Turning One Idea into Many Formats

This is where AI really earns its keep. Every piece of content I create has the potential to become something else,like a book chapter can become a blog post, a presentation can turn into an article, a transcript can be shaped into a book. AI helps with that transformation.

Let’s say I’ve written a long article. Instead of manually breaking it down, I ask AI to:

• Turn it into a series of shorter posts.

• Summarize it into a newsletter.

• Adapt it into a script for a talk or course.

AI can also generate audiobooks from my writing. Since I can’t record long narration sessions, I’ve trained AI to mimic my voice using ElevenLabs. Now, I can turn a finished book into an audiobook without physically recording every word.

By integrating AI into my daily workflow, I’ve cut hours of unnecessary work out of my schedule. But more importantly, AI frees me up to do the things only I can do like coming up with new ideas, developing frameworks, and making strategic decisions about my business.

AI doesn’t replace creativity. It supports it. The key is to let AI handle the grunt work while you stay in control of the vision, voice, and strategy.

For me, that means using AI to:

• Expand ideas faster

• Draft more efficiently

• Edit more effectively

• Market with less friction

• Repurpose content seamlessly

The result? More content, less burnout, and a lot more time spent on the parts I actually enjoy.

What AI Can’t Do (And Why That’s a Good Thing)

AI is impressive, but it has its limits. It doesn’t think like we do. It doesn’t have flashes of insight in the shower or that feeling in your gut when you know you’ve struck gold with an idea. It’s not sitting at a coffee shop people-watching, picking up snippets of conversation that spark something new. AI isn’t creative. It’s predictive.

I’ve seen people claim AI is going to replace us, but the truth is, AI only works if you already know what you’re doing. It’s a tool that speeds up the execution of ideas, but it can’t create the ideas for you. That’s still on us.

Take any great book, article, or talk. It starts with an original insight. Something lived. Something real. AI doesn’t have experience, so it can’t generate something truly fresh. What it does is remix patterns from what already exists, which is useful, but only if the foundation is solid to begin with.

That’s why I never expect AI to do my thinking for me. If I sit down and ask it for “10 unique ideas,” it’s going to give me 10 things that sound like they already exist. They’ll be fine, even polished, but they won’t have that spark. That’s because AI works in probabilities, predicting what’s most likely to come next in a sentence, in a structure, in a trend. And “most likely” is rarely groundbreaking.

The ideas still have to come from us.

Even when AI does generate something useful, it doesn’t know what the best version of that thing actually is. If I ask AI to structure an article, it might give me ten different variations. Some will be good, some will be okay, and some will be a mess of unrelated thoughts. But the real work isn’t in getting those ten drafts. It’s in knowing which one is worth pursuing.

AI isn’t strategic. It doesn’t understand my audience, what my long-term goals are, or what truly matters in a piece of content. It’ll happily suggest edits that sound right, but don’t actually serve the bigger picture. It might decide a paragraph needs to be cut when, in reality, that paragraph is the heart of the piece.

That’s why I never take AI’s first draft as the final one. I push back. I challenge it. I ask, “Is this actually what I want to say?” AI is like a smart intern. It can pull the research, organize the data, and make suggestions, but the final decision is always mine.

AI Still Won’t Make You an Authority

There’s a difference between producing content and building trust. AI can write an article that sounds professional, but it can’t create a relationship with customers. It can’t show up consistently, engage in meaningful conversations, or develop a voice that people recognize.

I’ve seen people try to build entire businesses around AI-generated content, and you can always tell. There’s something flat about it. The words are there, but the human connection is missing. No one follows an AI because they feel seen, inspired, or challenged. They follow people.

This is why I never let AI do the talking for me. It can help refine my message, but I’m the one who has to show up, answer questions, and have real conversations with my audience. The long game is about trust, and trust is built on consistency and authenticity. AI doesn’t have that. You do.

AI won’t take over, but entrepreneurs who know how to use AI well will outpace the ones who don’t.

The difference is simple. To be great you still have to be great. AI won’t fix weak storytelling. It won’t create something new and bold out of nowhere. It won’t teach you how to connect in a way that makes them remember your work years from now.

But what it will do is speed up the process. It’ll help structure ideas, refine drafts, and cut down the time spent on busywork. It’ll let you focus on what actually matters; your ideas, your perspective, your voice.

And in the end, that’s the part AI can’t touch.

AI isn’t going anywhere. If anything, it’s going to become even more integrated into our creative workflows. The question isn’t “Should I use AI?” but “How can I use it in a way that makes my work better while staying true to my voice?”

Here’s my biggest takeaway after using AI extensively:

• AI doesn’t make bad brands good, but it makes good brands faster.

• The more structured your process, the better AI performs.

• You still need to do the thinking—AI is just a tool to shape and refine it.

For those who embrace AI strategically, it will open up new opportunities for growth, efficiency, and creative exploration.

The next time you’re struggling with a blank page, an overwhelming workload, or a messy draft, remember:

AI won’t do the work for you, but it can help you do it better, faster, and more effectively.

Photo by julien Tromeur on Unsplash