We are all starting to use AI and some really interesting ways, but one of the ways
I think we are not using AI as well, is that we are not asking it
enough questions, and we are not asking it, even more importantly, to ask us questions.
We’re asking for data. We’re asking it to crunch numbers. But one of the things that I think
makes being an agency owner so challenging is that sometimes you don’t really have
a great thinking partner.
In the moment when you’re trying to make a big decision, there’s really no one else to bounce
some of these things off of.
Well, guess what? AI can be that thinking partner for you.
One of the things I want you to experiment with over the course of the rest of the year is I want you to
go to your favorite AI tool.
I want you to create a thinking partner.
And so you’re going to tell it what expertise it has, what knowledge base it has, what knowledge
base you want it to tap into.
And I want you to start asking it questions. And ask it to start asking you questions.
Give it a try.
View Video Transcript
Hey, everybody. Drew McLellan here from Agency Management Institute this week coming to you from New York City. We were here in town for Thanksgiving week because we wanted to see the Macy's Day Parade. And we did some other things, some plays and other things. But the big thing was the parade. And as we were watching the parade, imagine millions of people coming down to this one main street of New York City and all of this, all of these floats and balloons going down that road and keeping everybody safe, keeping all of the balloons afloat, keeping the parade in order. The logistics must have been off the charts. And as we were watching the parade, I was thinking about I would love to have sat in on some of the logistical conversations that they had as they planned for the 99th annual Macy's Day Parade. And then I got thinking, you know, we all are starting to use AI and some really interesting ways, but one of the ways I think we are not using AI as well is that we are not asking it enough questions, and we are not asking it, even more importantly, to ask us questions. So we're asking it for data. We're asking it to crunch numbers. We're doing things like that. But one of the things that I think makes being an agency owner so challenging is that sometimes you don't really have a great thinking partner.
In the moment when you're trying to make a big decision, there's really no one else to bounce some of these things off of. Well, guess what? AI can be that thinking partner for you. So one of the things I want you to experiment with over the course of the rest of the year is I want you to go to your favorite AI tool. Whatever it is, mine is perplexity. Yours might be Claude or ChatGPT or whatever it is. And I want you to create a thinking partner. And so you're going to tell it what expertise it has, what knowledge base it has, what knowledge base you want it to tap into. And I want you to start asking it questions. Maybe the questions are, you know, how is AI a threat to my business today? Here's what we do and here's who we do it for. And what are the ways that AI is a threat to my business? And what are the ways that AI could be a boon to my business? Or you might say to it, you know what I need to increase my profitability by 10%. I'm going to upload all these financial documents, and I want you to look at those financial documents and give me three scenarios by which I can improve my profitability by 3 to 5%. Or you may be facing a tough decision about a client or an employee or something like that, and explain the situation and then ask it to ask you question so that you can find the answer that is right for your business.
So rather than thinking of AI as the as the tool that has all the answers, I want you to think of AI as the tool that asks better questions. Because we know in our work that one of the greatest compliments we can be given by a client is, “Oh, no one has ever thought to ask me that question before.” So I think AI can be that thinking partner for us. I know that I'm using it that way, and the results are pretty spectacular. And what's fascinating is the results are my results. It's as a result of the better questions I'm being asked. My answers get better, my ideas get better. I think broader, I think bigger because the tool is asking me better questions. It's it's inviting me to expand my horizons. It's inviting me to think differently. And if there's anything we need as we go into 2026, it is that. So find your favorite AI tool and ask it to be your thinking partner by getting more thoughtful answers out of you. All right? Give it a try.
