Knicks in 7! Let’s go!!!

I wrapped up work with a consulting client this week. I do the same thing at the end of every engagement which is write a strategy doc. It goes over a few things:

1. The plays we’ve run, how they performed, and ways to expand on them

2. Where to invest and where to stop

3. Important links and data

4. Random thoughts, ideas, and experiments we didn’t get a chance to test

It’s nothing fancy but it gets the job across and allows them to pick up where I left off pretty easily. About 8 pages in something hit me—this doc probably could’ve been written with AI.

I’ve done dozens of these at this point. It’d have been easy enough to feed it some previous examples, the new plays, some random ideas, and have it spit out a new strategy doc but doing that felt off so I did something I’ve never done before. I added an Editor’s Note.

It’s not meant to be anti-AI. You know I love AI but as we rely more and more on the ChatGPTs of the world the question of who’s doing the work becomes more and more prevalent. I wanted to remove that doubt for my client.

Who did the work? Told you there was a Spider-Man theme!

The reason it struck me to do this was to remind my clients that the thoughts they were receiving—the ones they paid for—were original. Could they suck? You bet! But that’d be on me and I’d own that.

In any case, I’d never seen this kind of note before so I shared it on Linkedin to see what other’s in our world thought and the response was positive (FWIW I would’ve shared it with the client even if the response was negative).

The points that came up were really interesting:

• it’s transparent

• it offers a human touch

• it feels more premium

• it will be the default soon

• it shows who’s in charge

Most of these thoughts crossed my mind as I was writing it but the three primary ones were the human touch, premium feel, and transparency.

The human touch

If you were to read this doc, it’s full of jokes, random tangents, and some thoughts that had nothing to do with the project. Some could argue that there’s no place for any of them in the work but I’d argue that that’s one of the benefits of working with anyone is getting to know them.

Writing this myself allowed me to reflect in real time on successes and failures and add my own personality to the mix as we went. I’d like to think that as my client re-reads this doc in the days, weeks, and months ahead, that they’ll get a reminder of working together which 1. could potentially bring me back for another project, and 2. provide them with a bit of human connection

Premium feel

A few years ago everyone was clamoring for AI without realizing it’s strengths or weaknesses. Halfway through 2025 both are incredibly clear and if the endless em dash posts have taught us anything, it’s that most AI writing looks and feels the same.

When you get something handed to you that feels like anyone could’ve done it, it feels cheap. The reason why so many businesses are clamoring for more bespoke content is because connection is how you build a relationship (let’s skip over the fact that most B2B is doing this wrong right now). Relationships add endless value to most things thus making it feel more premium.

Could I have taken an AI output, rewritten it, and added small notes? Probably but as anyone who’s done this knows, it still wouldn’t be me.

Transparency

Transparency is the big key though. I used AI throughout this project A TON! I used Cove to help with interview analysis, Canva for generating images, and Zapier + Clay for building AI-based workflows. The only thing I didn’t do was build a custom GPT for them. It sped things up tremendously. I wouldn’t give those toys back for anything at this point.

But when it came to recapping the entirety of the project that was visibility only I had and I wanted to share not just the tools and strategies but the results in my own words.

So now what?

Will this become the standard going forward? I think something like it will. As the lines between human and AI continue to blur I think we’ll see more of these types of notes and I think they’ll go both ways (this was made by a human AND this was made by AI). Only time will tell though.

And from the client? Nothing about it yet, but I’ll report back if I hear anything.

AI, amirite? It’s a gamechanger but it’s not going to unlock your team’s ability to create more business impact. AI alone will only unlock your team’s ability to create more noise. If you’re still figuring out how to use AI and keep the work on brand, that’s something OhSnap! can help with.

AI is a big part of our brand stack and not only will we build a brand and toolset that supports it but we’ll also teach you and your team how to use it effectively. The human touch clearly isn’t going anywhere but getting help from AI is a requirement these days.