YouTube, newsletters, and X — the AI workflows that will help you dominate them all Let‘s be honest: if you’re running a business focused on AI tools and you‘re not using AI to grow that business, you’re missing the point entirely. I've been testing AI growth strategies for months now to boost my following across YouTube, X, and my newsletter. These tools aren‘t just speeding up the grunt work. They’re helping me create content that stands out in a sea of generic content. Here are the exact AI-powered workflows, tools, and tips that powered my success. Let's dive in. YouTube Growth Strategies with AI When it comes to growing on YouTube, you need hooks that people feel compelled to click on and content that follows through. While that balance seems tricky, AI can help you get it right. Here’s how AI helped me grow my YouTube channel to over 785,000 subscribers. Thumbnails You can make the most informative, entertaining video of all time. But, if your thumbnail is boring, potential viewers will keep scrolling. Luckily, AI can help you create click-worthy images — no graphic design background required. In the past, I used Stable Diffusion with the Dream Booth add-on to make AI art and add my face to thumbnails. Now, I use Leonardo. This tool has a built-in feature that lets me add my likeness to their system. Now, I can generate thumbnails with my face directly without any extra steps. Here’s another method: ...

AI predictions that will completely change marketing — and life — in 2025 For the past few months, I‘ve been deep in the trenches testing the latest AI models, spending $200 a month on ChatGPT Pro, and building games with AI that would have required entire development teams just months ago. I’ve watched reasoning models solve problems that stump PhD mathematicians. What I’m seeing isn‘t just incremental improvement; it’s a complete phase change. After countless hours testing ChatGPT against Claude, Gemini 2.0, and similar AI competitors, I'm convinced 2025 will be the year AI goes from “cool tool” to “fundamental infrastructure.” Here are my six predictions, as well as tactical steps marketers can take to stay ahead. AI Predictions That Will Change Marketing 1. OpenAI will maintain its lead with major breakthroughs. OpenAI isn’t slowing down. And by the end of 2025, I‘m convinced they’ll be even further ahead of the competition, especially for power users who need the absolute best performance. While the o3 model may be o1 with more compute, the real breakthrough is how it uses reasoning during inference. That’s what sets it apart. I think we'll see something like Orion — a new, larger base model — launched by year’s end. Sam Altman has hinted AGI is coming in 2025, and honestly, by my definition, Pro mode already qualifies as a kind of basic AGI. Once these models combine fast response with deep reasoning, most people will call that AGI, and it will...

How I used ChatGPT-o3 to plan an entire marketing campaign during one plane ride In an hour, ChatGPT-o3 can make you dozens of high-level marketing graphics — the kinds of campaigns that would take some teams weeks to complete. And the graphics aren’t just a first draft starting point. They’re final assets ready to run. I tested this out on a recent flight and managed to create an entire 2025 marketing campaign in about an hour. Brainstorming. Prompt writing. Graphics generation and iteration. ChatGPT has evolved from a simple productivity tool into a high-level creative and strategic partner. The new ChatGPT equation for AI-savvy marketers is this: deep research + your brand standards + o3-generated prompt + in-app editing = full graphics pipeline. I’m going to show you exactly how that looks and offer tips that I found make this process much more effective. Why ChatGPT-o3 Is a Game Changer ChatGPT-o3 was released at the end of 2024, and OpenAI has shared big upgrades in 2025. To me, o3 feels very human, and I’m having a ton of fun with the leap forward in image generation. There’s a tangible magic for marketers. Let’s look at the under-the-radar features of ChatGPT-o3 that should be common knowledge, plus some use cases for 4o image generation. Improved Prompting You’ve probably heard many times that AI is only as good as the prompts you give it. Focus on these two things with o3: self-prompting and context. I think o3 is a fantastic prompt...

I tested 2025's most realistic AI voice tools — here’s what blew me away AI voice technology has been moving fast for a while now. But recently, it feels like we‘ve shifted into a completely different gear. We’re not just talking about smoother narration or cleaner text-to-speech anymore. These tools are starting to sound like actual people, with emotions, personalities, and conversational quirks that can genuinely fool you. I wanted to see how far things had come, so I spent the last few weeks testing six of the most advanced AI voice tools available. Not just to see which one’s “best,” but to understand what they can actually do — where they’re useful now, and where they’re clearly heading next. Here's what I learned and what it means for anyone creating content, building creative campaigns, or just trying to stay ahead of the marketing curve. The Top 6 AI Voice Tools That Actually Matter for Marketers Right Now There are a ton of AI voice tools out there, but most don’t move the needle. These six did. Some are surprisingly usable right now. Others just made me rethink what’s possible. I tested all of them hands-on and tried to break them a little — here’s what stood out. 1. Sesame: The Emotionally Intelligent Conversationalist Source Sesame is a conversational AI voice platform backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Spark Capital, and Matrix Founders. It focuses on emotionally intelligent dialogue, and it’s one of the few tools that actually delivers...

How I localized AI-generated emails for international markets without losing the human touch Earlier this year, I was handed an AI-generated content project with a deceptively simple goal: adapt email messages for international audiences. This wasn’t my first time navigating global nuance. With an MBA in International Business and experience working on a global consulting project in Portugal, I’d already seen how messages land differently depending on culture, tone, and language. But this was my first time applying that lens to AI content generation in my MarTech AI role at HubSpot — and it was more complex than expected. We already had an AI-generated email prompt that worked well in English—conversational, friendly, and context-aware. The challenge? Making it work in Spanish and French without sounding robotic, clumsy, or culturally off-base. Sounds easy. It wasn’t. The Hidden Complexity of "Just Localizing" What we were really doing was asking an AI model — trained predominantly in English — to speak other languages as naturally as a native marketer would. Our first attempts fell flat. Example (original AI output in Spanish): Here’s what we aimed for in English: “I saw you were scoping around the platform and that you were interested in speaking with us. Would you like to meet on one of the following days?” This is the original output in Spanish: “Estuve revisando tus interacciones en nuestra plataforma y quería ofrecerme como tu punto de contacto.” In English, it translates to: “I reviewed your activity and wanted to become...

Here are the most popular AI video tools that are actually worth your time My son and I were recently watching some AI-generated videos when he suddenly stopped and asked, “Wait… none of these are real?” That pause perfectly sums up where we stand with AI video tools right now. We‘ve reached the point where even a casual viewer has to take a step back and consider if what they’re seeing is real or AI. But, not all tools propel viewers past the uncanny valley. Having spent years in Silicon Valley watching AI startups rise and fall, I‘ve learned that the tech that looks impressive in demos doesn’t always translate to real-world utility. For this post, I’m cutting through the noise and focusing on AI video tools that are popular and live up to the hype. I’ll dive into visual quality, surprising functionality, and the heated debates these tools sparked. So, here are the nine tools that rise above the rest. The 9 Most Popular AI Video Tools Right Now — Ranked 1. Veo Veo, Google’s AI video model, is the most impressive AI video I’ve seen so far in terms of pure output quality. The visuals are crisp, the motion is smooth, and it offers four video options per prompt. You just need to pick your favorite. I’ve found one of the four is good enough to use straight out of the gate almost every time. The tech is miles ahead, even if the product still feels...

How to get AI to write copy in your brand voice — from picking the right platform to training your GPT When generative AI first came out, I was skeptical. While it came up with some good ideas, I saw it more as a novelty than a real copywriting tool. Honestly, I didn’t believe “great” and “on-brand AI copywriting” would ever belong in the same sentence. To be clear, I still see my own brain and approach as a competitive advantage. That hasn’t changed, but two things have shifted: First, AI algorithms have become more advanced and intuitive, making it easier to get better output. Second, I’ve learned how to train AI tools in my voice and perspective consistently enough that they can now produce strong first drafts that actually sound like me. And, I’ve found the biggest shift by thinking of myself as a copy chief and AI as a junior writer. It has fantastic ideas but needs strong guardrails, constant feedback, and clear direction. And, I’m going to show you how. Table of Contents Picking the Right AI Platform Training an AI Platform Limitations of AI Copywriting Great Examples of AI-Copywriting Picking the Right AI Platform For starters, I don’t believe that there is a single “best” AI platform for copywriting. It really comes down to personal preference. ChatGPT was the clear winner among the people I...

Generative engine optimization: What we know so far SEO is changing. We’re entering a new era of search — the AI age — and with it comes generative engine optimization (GEO), the practice of optimizing content for AI-driven engines such as ChatGPT or Perplexity. If we want our content to reach the right people, we need to adapt. There’s no need to throw out the SEO principles you’ve spent decades learning. Much of GEO is an extension of these techniques — and it’s not as scary as it sounds. Let’s take a look at what we know about GEO so far. Table of Contents What is generative engine optimization? GEO vs. SEO Why is GEO important? How does generative engine optimization work? How to Do Generative Engine Optimization Tips for Navigating the Generative SEO Landscape Generative Engine Optimization FAQ The good news for SEO is that generative engines pull information directly from web content (as well as other sources) to deliver responses to user queries. They use large language models (LLMs) to make sense of the information scraped and provide coherent, relevant answers. ChatGPT, Perplexity AI, and Google AI Search are all examples of generative engines. Generative engines work by: Interpreting a user’s query. Leveraging personal data it may have on the user, such as preferences or conversation history. Searching to find relevant answers to the query Synthesizing information from these documents...

How much does AI cost? Here are the industry averages I first tested AI tools in 2019 to automate repetitive parts of my workflow. It seemed like the perfect solution: Let the code execute the manual stuff I was too bored to do. However, I quickly discovered hidden costs to everything I did. My automation script needed a server to live on. The server needed maintenance and monitoring. And if the backend APIs changed, my script would no longer work. AI today has similar overhead costs, but at a far greater scale. For instance, Sam Altman recently tweeted that saying “yes” and “please” to ChatGPT cost tens of millions of dollars in computing resources. This got me thinking: How much does AI cost businesses, and when does it make sense to integrate AI? In this article, I’ll walk you through different kinds of AI models and how much AI solutions cost based on the model type. Whether you’re a startup founder, an SMB, or an enterprise business, you’ll learn how to budget for AI in your company. Table of Contents How much does AI cost? How is pricing determined for AI? How much should you spend on AI in your business? How much does AI cost? AI costs vary widely depending on the type of solution, business model, data quality, model variant, usage patterns, and more. Let’s break down the cost of AI based on four commonly used AI model types. The...