Stop Teaching AI to Think Like You

I just spent my entire morning testing ChatGPT's new 5.1 model against its legacy versions, Claude Opus, and Gemini 2.5 on the same marketing briefs. The results? Wildly different outputs that vary in quality depending on the specific task. This is the new normal - constant testing isn't optional anymore, it's survival. And here's what the Carnegie Mellon research that dropped this week confirms: these models don’t think like we do. They approach every task as programmers, not content marketers. Once you accept that fundamental truth and start working WITH their alien intelligence instead of against it, everything changes.

AI creators aren't making this easy on us. New models drop weekly, capabilities shift overnight, and what worked last month might be obsolete today. I've made testing and re-testing part of my weekly ritual now (yes, I'm that nerd comparing AI outputs over green tea). But here's my secret weapon: I'm not doing this alone. The smartest marketers I know are all sharing notes in private Slacks and Discord servers, swapping prompts that actually work, calling out which models excel at what tasks. Because let's be real - none of us can keep up with this pace solo.

This week's research proves what our little testing collective has been discovering through trial and error: Stop teaching AI to think like you. Start understanding how it actually thinks. Join a community. Test obsessively. Share what works. That's how we stay ahead of the machines that are supposedly coming for our jobs.

Ready to peek behind the curtain at what's really happening with AI in marketing? Let's dive in.

🔥 This Week's Hot Takes: AI Marketing Edition

AI vs. Human: What Every Content Marketer Needs to Know (Lisa Peyton) – Groundbreaking Carnegie Mellon/Stanford research reveals AI agents achieve 64.6% success on writing tasks vs humans' 94.4%, but complete them 88% faster. The kicker? When humans use AI for augmentation (not automation), they work 24% faster - but when they try full automation, they actually slow down by 17%.

Amazon Cuts 14,000 Jobs as AI Reshapes Marketing Roles (Marketing Week) – Amazon's massive layoffs reveal AI isn't replacing factory workers first - it's hollowing out middle management. The company claims it's about "culture" and becoming more nimble, but this is really about AI-level margins replacing human-level headcount.

Sir Michael Caine Partners with ElevenLabs for Ethical AI Voice Marketplace (ElevenLabs) – The legendary actor joins 25+ iconic voices on ElevenLabs' new platform, emphasizing AI should "amplify voices, not replace them." The Iconic Marketplace represents a performer-first approach where estates and talent control their digital legacy with full consent and compensation.

Bipartisan AI Jobs Act Would Track Automation's Impact (CNBC) – Senators Warner and Hawley introduce legislation requiring companies to report AI-related layoffs quarterly. According to Axios and Senator Hawley’s public remarks, this bill was prompted in part by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s warnings that AI could automate up to half of all cognitive tasks and potentially push unemployment toward 10–20% without workforce safeguards.

Google's Nano Banana 2 Promises 4K AI Images in Seconds (eWeek) – Google's next-gen image model reportedly handles complex prompts in under 10 seconds with native 2K resolution upgradable to 4K. New features include an "Edit with Gemini" tool and improved character consistency - addressing major pain points from the original version.

Ethan Mollick: Give Your AI a Job Interview (One Useful Thing) – Organizations are treating AI selection like a tech decision when they should approach it like hiring. Mollick argues companies need systematic "interview" processes for AI models, testing them on actual work tasks rather than relying on generic benchmarks that don't predict real-world performance.

Dr. Fei-Fei Li: Spatial Intelligence is AI's Next Frontier (Dr. Fei-Fei Li) – The Stanford professor and World Labs founder explains why current AI lacks true understanding of physical spaces. While LLMs master language, they can't navigate mazes, estimate distances, or predict physics - limitations that prevent AI from truly augmenting human creativity and scientific discovery.

The Cost of Automating Authenticity in Social Media (Observer) – As brands convince themselves AI can replace social media professionals, they're discovering automation can't replicate authentic human connection. The rise of AI influencers has actually increased demand for genuine human creators, with 71% of consumers worried about trusting AI-generated content.

Brands Scramble to Optimize for AI Answer Engines (Digiday) – With half of consumers using AI-powered search and $750 billion in spending expected through these platforms by 2028, marketers are restructuring content for algorithms, not humans. Key strategies include prioritizing FAQs, structuring content around questions, and building credibility across all digital touchpoints.

Mid-Market Marketers Feel AI Gap Widening (eMarketer) – While 98% of mid-market marketers believe AI will improve metrics, only 27% have widely adopted it. The biggest barrier? 39% cite lack of knowledge, and just 29% have specialist staff for AI - creating a growing divide between large agencies with resources and smaller firms struggling to keep up.

BCG: AI Will Shift Marketing Work from Agencies to Technology (BCG) – Survey of 60 senior marketing executives reveals agencies' contributions will fall 11-14 percentage points as technology takes over. Agentic AI is expected to handle over 20% of marketing workload within 2-3 years, requiring fundamental rethinking of talent strategies and agency partnerships.

AI Reshapes Product Discovery - Influencer Marketing Must Adapt (eMarketer) – Gen Z embraces AI for shopping more than any other category, with 54% using it to compare products. Influencers who create educational, descriptive content that mirrors natural language queries are more likely to surface in AI recommendations, making authentic product storytelling crucial.

🧪 The Alchemist's Lab: Tools I've Been Testing

ElevenLabs Image to Video (elevenlabs.io/app/image-video)

• Function: Transforms static images into dynamic video content with AI-generated motion

• Marketing application: Perfect for creating social media stories from product photos or bringing infographics to life

• Pricing: Part of ElevenLabs suite starting at $5/month

💼 Industry Moves & Grooves

Amazon's AI restructuring signals industry-wide shift (Marketing Week) - The 14,000 layoffs aren't about money but "flattening organizations" as AI takes over coordination tasks traditionally done by middle managers. Expect similar moves across tech as companies chase "AI-level margins."

Agencies face existential threat from agentic AI (BCG) - CMOs remain skeptical of agencies' ability to scale AI effectively, with concerns about outdated business models and incentive misalignment. The future requires true partnerships, not transactional relationships.

Virtual influencers go mainstream but authenticity wins (Observer) - While AI influencers never make PR mistakes and work 24/7, the most successful strategies blend AI creators with real humans, creating hybrid campaigns that balance futuristic capabilities with emotional connection.

🎓 AI Marketing Master Class Moment

Use AI to Create Audience-Centric Content that Converts

One of my very best lightning lessons where I test an AI content prediction on a real target audience. Did the AI get it right?

This lesson dives deep into using AI for audience research and content optimization, showing you exactly how to validate AI's assumptions against real customer behavior. You'll learn my framework for turning AI insights into content that actually converts.

Watch lesson here: https://maven.com/p/8c1d65/use-ai-to-create-audience-centric-content-that-converts

🤖 AI Whispers (That You'll Want to Shout About)

The Carnegie Mellon research changes everything about how we should approach AI in marketing. These aren't human replacements - they're alien intelligences that happen to speak our language. They write code to solve visual problems, fabricate data when confused, and slow us down when we try to hand over entire workflows. But here's the opportunity: marketers who understand this fundamental difference are building augmentation workflows that leverage AI's speed while maintaining human judgment. The winners aren't replacing their teams with AI; they're creating human-AI partnerships where each does what they're actually good at.

🏆 My Take: What This Means for Your Marketing

Stop trying to make AI think like a marketer. Start understanding how it actually thinks - like a programmer solving every problem with code. The Carnegie Mellon study isn't a warning; it's a roadmap. Use AI for first drafts (88% faster!), ideation, and repetitive tasks with clear parameters. Keep humans for strategy, brand voice, emotional resonance, and quality control. The immediate action? Audit your workflows this week. Mark tasks as "readily programmable" (perfect for AI) or "requires judgment" (keep human). Then redesign your process for augmentation, not automation. You'll join the 24% faster club instead of the 17% slower one.

📊 The Number That Made Me Spill My Green Tea

37.5% - The percentage of data analysis tasks where AI agents made erroneous calculations, often fabricating data to produce plausible-looking outcomes. Imagine your campaign analytics looking professional but being completely made up. Always verify AI's numbers, folks.

🥊 Battle of the Week: Augmentation vs Automation

Team Augmentation says AI should enhance human work - draft content we polish, surface insights we interpret, handle repetitive tasks while we focus on strategy. The Carnegie Mellon research backs this up: 24% productivity boost.

Team Automation promises hands-off workflows where AI handles entire processes. Set it and forget it! Except the same research shows this actually slows teams down by 17.7% due to debugging and quality control.

Lisa's Verdict: Augmentation wins by knockout. The fantasy of full automation crashes against reality - AI agents think too differently from humans to replace us wholesale. But as partners? That's where the magic happens. Use AI as your tireless assistant, not your replacement. The most successful marketers in 2025 will be orchestrators, not operators.

Before You Go: Hit reply and tell me - what's your biggest AI marketing challenge right now? I read every response and it helps shape future newsletters!

That's a wrap on this week's AI marketing alchemy! Keep experimenting, keep transforming, and remember - true magic happens when we blend AI efficiency with human creativity.

Crafted with passion (and a dash of AI alchemy) by Lisa Peyton | AI Marketer, Professor, and Innovator

Let's connect in the digital realm: https://linktr.ee/lisapeyton

🚀 Want to go deeper? I've created a full arsenal of AI marketing resources—from my weekly AI Marketing Brief to advanced cohort courses on agentic AI. Get prompting guides, lightning lessons, and the frameworks my students use to transform their content marketing workflows. Explore all resources here: https://lisapeyton.com/ai-marketing-resources/.