Earlier this month, a roundtable centered on AI tools brought together marketing and communications professionals to share how they’re actually using AI tools day-to-day…and where they want to go next. The conversation ranged from practical workflow tips to bigger questions about task automation, prompting strategy and how to stay relevant in a fast-moving marketing landscape.
Where Members Are Starting (and What’s Missing)
Before the event, attendees took a survey, with responses shared during the roundtable. They shared their go-to AI tools, with ChatGPT and Copilot topping the list. Gemini, Adobe Firefly, Canva and Rev rounded it out. When asked what they were curious about in relation to AI tools, the answers surprised some in the room – video creation and editing tools, generally considered more complex tasks compared to writing or administrative work.
Notably absent from the survey? Claude. Speaker Kathy Anderson, CEO/Co-Founder of Brint Tech, used the moment to make a broader point: knowing who builds a tool (Anthropic, Google, Microsoft, OpenAI) matters; it affects how the tool behaves, what content it prioritizes and how your data may be used.
Paying Attention to Where AI Already Exists
Many tools people use daily already have AI built in, even if it’s not front and center. Some recognizable tools: photo editing features in Adobe Lightroom, auto-transcription in Zoom and Otter, receipt scanning in mobile banking apps. The trend seems to be incentivizing every major platform to incorporate AI, so the landscape is expanding whether we’re paying attention.
Kathy also highlighted a suite of tools that aren’t strictly AI but power meaningful automation – text expanders, Google Apps Script, Slack bots, Gamma for presentations and Zapier-style workflow chaining. The common thread throughout all of these was: 1) identify a repeated problem; 2) find something that solves it simply; and 3) let it run.
Prompting Better with Existing Tools
It wouldn’t be an AI tools discussion without a chunk of time focused on prompting strategy. How does the way you “talk” to AI tools dramatically affect the response you receive? Small shifts in how you phrase your request can mean the difference between a generic response and one that’s actually useful:
- Give the tool a role. This changes both tone and content (i.e. Act as the best CEO vs. act as an experienced manager).
- Pre-fill part of your output. Providing a few bullet points or an outline and asking the tool to help build around them can reduce revision time.
- Provide examples up front. Helpful for tone-sensitive work like scripts or branded writing, giving examples of similar styles produces far better results than trying to describe an abstract version of it.
- Utilize “chain-of-thought” prompting. Breaking complex tasks into sequential steps helps AI tools handle nuanced problems more reliably.
The bonus approach? Ask AI to write a better prompt, then use that prompt in a second pass. Or draft your prompts in a separate document before pasting them into the AI tool to avoid accidentally submitting a half-formed thought.
Real Problems, Real Attempts at Solutions
Part of the roundtable gave attendees the chance to work in small groups, applying previously discussed ideas for AI tool usage to actual challenges:
Script an intro video for a new executive director you haven’t spent much time with
- Gather the existing bio, previous writing samples from other projects and past presentations to give the AI tool enough context to approximate his voice and tone.
Balance designer workloads when dealing with different response times
- Some clients respond quickly, while others take more time. Make sure to frame that problem clearly enough for AI to help model or plan around it.
Build emails that require specific contacts, a custom message and scheduling the send
- This can be a headache, but AI tools can help automate the workflow. Utilize tools that stay within your existing email ecosystem (i.e. Copilot for Microsoft) so they can “talk” to each other to build a form > to spreadsheet > to automated email process.
Accessibility, Data Privacy and Keeping the Human Side
Two major considerations when using AI tools – accessibility and data privacy. AI-generated presentations and websites don’t automatically account for contrast, proper tagging or screen-reader compatibility. However, AI tools can help fill in the accessibility gaps in recorded presentations by adding alt-text descriptions of on-screen visuals that would otherwise be missing. For data privacy, make sure to review how the AI tool will use the content you input. Enterprise licenses for some tools mean that your company’s data isn’t used for training the model, but it’s important to double check your AI tool settings regularly.
So, What’s Next?
It’s important to keep the conversation going. Ask a colleague what they’ve been automating. Show up to AMA Lincoln events and discuss AI tools with fellow marketers. Experiment with new tools to practice and refine your prompting skills. The AI field is rapidly evolving, and the best learning right now is still via in-person connections and communities.
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