The AI Promo Brief: Issue #3

Top story: One shift you can't ignore.

AI is reshaping how clients find you. iPullRank’s guide shows how search is shifting from keywords to conversations, with organic clicks dropping as AI Overviews give instant answers. Results are now personalized to each user. The takeaway: building brand trust and expertise matters more than ever.

AI Likes Its Own Copy Better Than Yours

Major plot twist: A new study shows AI tools pick AI-written content 89% of the time. Translation: the web could tilt toward machine-made words, and brands might need AI in the mix just to stay visible. Call it the “gate tax.” Think product copy, sites, blogs, even that email blast. Full scoop via Search Engine Journal. 

AI Efficiency? Yes. Revenue Boost? Meh.

One report show AI is making marketing teams more efficient but not necessarily fatter in the wallet. A new study shows while 82% of pros see operational gains from AI tools, only 30% can point to actual revenue growth. The kicker? Companies with integrated platforms are twice as likely to see financial results than those just dabbling with standalone tools. Get the full efficiency-vs-revenue breakdown at Martech.org.

Customized AI Delivers 3X the Impact

Your sales team's generic AI tool might be the business equivalent of bringing a spoon to a knife fight. Forbes reveals why off-the-shelf AI consistently bombs for sales organizations – mainly because it lacks the industry-specific context needed for meaningful customer conversations. Forbes breaks down why customized AI delivers 3x better outcomes than the vanilla versions everyone else is using.

Steal This $40K AI Playbook for $40/Month

While we're debating whether to upgrade our AI tools, the finance bros are throwing cash at theirs like confetti. Deloitte's latest report shows investment firms spending 40% more on sales and marketing AI than other industries – and seeing client acquisition costs drop by nearly a third. Their playbook for personalizing outreach at scale has some surprisingly applicable lessons for promo businesses. Action item #1: don’t skimp on tech tools.

Join our AI-Powered Product Search (beta)

You know how frustrating it is to constantly be buried in product search looking for something like that white pen with the red clip that you can’t find anywhere no matter how many search terms you use? Since we’re “by promo for promo” we get it. We’re working on a sneaky new feature that’s going to give you product recommendations but we’d love your help, interested in joining our beta? Sign up here.

Google Flights Gets AI-Powered Deal Alerts

We’re heading into heavy travel season for business and Google Flights now uses AI to predict airfare drops before they happen. The new system analyzes historical pricing patterns to alert you when that Miami flight might dip below your budget. Perfect for planning your trade show travel without the price-checking headache. Dive into the details at Google's blog.

Ethan Mollick Drops AI Truth Bombs for HR

Wharton professor and AI expert Ethan Mollick just shared from a study about how AI is reshaping hiring practices, performance reviews, and talent development for customer service roles. The key takeaway? “LLM voice recruiter beat humans in hiring customer service reps, with 12% more offers & 18% more starts.”

Shopify's Secret Sauce: Growth Without Bloat

Forget GPT-5's underwhelming debut - the real AI story worth your attention is Shopify's impressive efficiency wins. The e-commerce giant achieved 91% revenue growth while reducing staff by 30%. This SaaStr breakdown reveals how AI-powered automation helped them do more with less - a blueprint promo businesses can follow to scale operations without proportionally scaling headcount. The takeaway? Smart AI implementation equals better margins. Deets at SaaStr. BTW: We've got more Shopify news coming, so stay tuned.

Excel Gets Spooky Good at Spreadsheets

Microsoft just gave Excel's AI Copilot a major upgrade. The new function turns spreadsheets into a built-in assistant, letting teams segment leads, summarize surveys, or categorize feedback with simple prompts. For sales and marketing leaders, it cuts out manual work, delivers faster insights, and keeps focus on strategy and action—rather than wrestling with formulas or formatting. Imagine cutting your spreadsheet time in half while actually improving accuracy. 

Pylon:The Zendesk Killer

Keep an eye on this one: The customer service space just got spicier with Pylon, a well-funded startup that's declared itself a "Zendesk killer." Backed by $31 million from Andreessen Horowitz and Bain Capital Ventures, this B2B-focused platform handles complex customer inquiries across Slack, WhatsApp, and Discord while using AI to spot upsell opportunities. Already serving 760+ businesses with impressive retention stats, it might be worth a look.

✍️ Scrybe & Verbite: Scrybe gets you writing fast, and Verbite makes that writing impossible to ignore.

💾 Vector databases just got stupidly simple: Chroma Cloud lets you build AI that actually remembers things without needing a PhD in computer science.

⏱️ Cut your social media time in half: This guide from The Rundown shows how to use Perplexity Comet to research, generate, and schedule posts without the usual headaches.

😰 CMOs are quietly freaking out: The past year has been marketing chaos, with AI rewriting the playbook faster than most CMOs can adapt.

 🤯  Whoa. This AI generated influencer quickly amassed 500 followers and was built in 10 min per day using three tools.  

📅 Our team uses this: Reclaim.ai automatically blocks focus time, reschedules meetings when you’re swamped, and generally saves you from yourself.

📹 Overlap.ai automatically transforms long videos into short, branded clips, ready for social sharing. It handles editing, subtitles, and posting for you.

🎧 Google Docs now let's you listen to your docs. See ya next time!