NEW: What Science Says about AI

I’m beyond excited to kickstart 2025 after a holiday break as we’ve been preparing something BIG. 

So much hype around AI, everyone has an opinion…

But we don’t do opinions, we do SCIENCE.

Over the next month, my team and I are going to bring you:

• 4 new actionable insights about how to use AI effectively as marketers (the first one arrives tomorrow!)

• A new AI insights category on our Platform

• AI special Case Study (for our Platform members only, join now so you don’t miss it)

• A Q&A session with Professor Stefano Puntoni, Co-Director of AI at Wharton, where you’ll be able to ask your AI questions (more details soon!)

And….

You can now base your decisions on how to use AI on scientific evidence. No hype, no opinions, no winging it. 

👀 Why now - a peek behind the scenes

Until recently, I felt that I didn’t have much to say about AI. 

I thought - it's moving so fast that research can barely keep up. It usually takes 1-2 years to write, peer review, and publish a paper.

And when I don’t have something useful to say, I prefer to keep to myself rather than jump on trends for the sake of it.

Besides, there are plenty more qualified people than me to show you the technicalities of how to best use AI (For example, I recommend Professor Ethan Mollick’s newsletter).

People are just winging it

But then I started to notice a pattern: companies everywhere - even $1B+ corporations - are releasing very strange, useless-seeming AI gimmicks in their products.

It’s obvious they have little idea what they are doing - and many of these AI attempts are probably hurting sales rather than helping them. They’re ticking that 'AI product' checkbox, but repulsing their customers along the way.

“Someone has to be looking into this nonsense,” I thought, so my team and I did a deep dive into the latest research. 

And what we found was better than I expected

1) In the most popular use cases of AI (e.g. chatbots, product recommendations), we already have clear evidence of what works best, and what doesn't. 

2) We already know many 'truths' about how customers react to AI vs humans - and when it’s best to use one or the other so they’re more likely to buy. These change much more slowly than the technology itself.

3) The latest research coming out is already showing us when as marketers it makes sense to use AI, and how (e.g. to do market research, to produce SEO content) - and when it’s just hype which we can ignore.

If the knowledge is there, why is nobody using it?

I looked around and realized that all that’s out in the market are biased ‘hype guides' to AI. While the companies that don’t fall for that seem to be just winging it. 

That's when I realized: there is an urgent need for scientific evidence on how to navigate this entire AI implementation on a strategic level - so that it actually improves your results.

So here we are. This is going to be a very special month. And let me tell you, what we’ve been putting together was worth the wait. 

I can’t wait to share it with you.

Thomas