Weekly CASual #31: 87% of execs approve of AI

Weekly CASual Issue #031

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Hey friends,

Crazy factoid to hit you with today from the AI realm.

IBM did an outrageously insightful study pulling data from a survey of 3,000 C-level executives across 28 countries and another of 21,000 workers in 22 nations.

Their conclusion?

40% of the workforce will have to reskill in the next three years due to AI implementation.

This means a whopping 1.4 billion of the 3.4 billion people in the global workforce will reskill for AI, according to World Bank statistics.

Dang, fam.

According to the IBM research, adopters who successfully reskill to adapt "technology-driven job changes report a revenue growth rate premium of 15% on average" and those who focus on AI "see a 36% higher revenue growth rate than their peers."

And the craziest statistic of them all?

87% of those executives expect generative AI to augment roles rather than replace them.

Interesting.

Are you in these categories?

The executive making the decision... and/or the workforce team member expected to reskill?

Here's three hot tips for you.

For those on both sides.

Important:

• Don't hop on an AI tool just because it's the highest-trending thing on AppSumo. Do your research. Be critical: Will this save you actual time and money? If it won't, toss it. (I've tossed more AI tools than I've kept. Efficiency is paramount. If it doesn't help me do better and/or faster work, it's kaput.)
• Look to match up generalized AI with generalized function, specialized AI with specialized function. Content at Scale, for example, replaces the hours of grunt work it takes to map out, research, ideate, and write your long-form content. It's not going to help you write an email – it's going to help you write an inbound content piece full of gold. ChatGPT is great for ideation and helping you come up with a cool newsletter name. Etc. So, line up your function (end goal), and match the AI tool search accordingly.
• Give your team budget to use AI. Seriously! Let them play with it, use it in their day-to-day. How to start this: ask them to find a few AI tools they want to try, submit that list to you, and then it's your turn as the leader to invest and give them permission. You never know what could happen. We have an upcoming case study of an agency owner that gave their writer a Content at Scale login – and that writer cut her research time down from a day to 7 minutes. 🤯

AI in the news

I know there's a lot of Skynet-level fear about AI out there.

But check this story out.

It warms my heart AND elevates my belief in the innovation of humankind for good, not evil. It might do the same for you too.

Two days ago, the University of California in San Francisco recently covered an amazing story of how AI was used to give a paralyzed woman her voice.

Quite literally – a breakthrough in brain implant and digital avatar (AI) allowed a stroke survivor to speak with facial expressions for first time in 18 years.

They implanted some electrodes on the surface of Ann (stroke survivor)'s brain – and it successfully sent signals to her speech muscles when she tried to talk.

From the article –

At the age of 30, Ann suffered a brainstem stroke that left her severely paralyzed. She lost control of all the muscles in her body and was unable even to breathe. It came on suddenly one afternoon, for reasons that are still mysterious.

“Overnight, everything was taken from me,” Ann wrote, using a device that enables her to type slowly on a computer screen with small movements of her head. “I had a 13-month-old daughter, an 8-year-old stepson and 26-month-old marriage.”

Edward Chang, MD, chair of neurological surgery at UCSF, has worked on the technology known as a brain-computer interface, or BCI, for more than a decade. He hopes this latest research breakthrough, published Aug. 23, 2023, in Nature, will lead to an FDA-approved system that enables speech from brain signals in the near future.

Ann worked with Chang's team on training the AI algorithm to recognize her brain signals associated with phonemes, the sub-units of speech that form spoken words.

Her husband, who sat with her, watched her brain associate with words and said he saw her arrive at the outcome they hoped for more quickly than anyone could have ever thought.

When you see the joy on this amazing woman's face...

It's clear that AI can be used in wonderfully beneficial ways to humankind.

And yes – it can be used for evil, too.

Just like anything powerful.

But I'm here to advocate for the good of AI in our reshaping world.

It's going to change everything... and up to us how to adapt and see it all.

LIVE partner event today 🗺

by Steven Harvey , Partner Manager

Our Content at Scale Treasure Island hunt is wrapping up TODAY!!!

Join us today – Friday 25th @ 12 Midday EST and find out who won our brand new Peloton, an Apple Studio Display and Mavic DJI Drone!

Could it be you, if you were one of our affiliate partners?!

Find out. Join us via Streamyard TODAY at 12 noon EST!

Hiring for a Product Marketing Manager

We're looking for a Product Marketing Manager who has 5-7+ years of experience growing a $50M+/year SaaS.

Is that you? Do you know anyone? Follow the steps to apply here.

Join us at BrightonSEO, Austin Chamber, PubCon, AIMPACT

Ben Harper , our Director of RevOps and a native UK dweller in Northamptonshire, is representing Content at Scale at these two amazing events in the UK:

BrightonSEO September 14-15 in the UK and, National Entrepreneurs Convention this October 2-3 in Birmingham, UK .

BrandWell , with our own Ben present, will be sponsoring both events – present with books/swag and other goodies! Come say hi if you're at either event.

And yours truly is off doing a virtual and in-person speaking circuit. 😉

I'm crafting cutting-edge talks with the latest and greatest on AI.

Want to be in the room?

Here's where you should be. It's a lot, and more get added every week 😅 , but I LOVE juggling these wonderful opportunities to add impact and guide my people:

I've been invited by the Austin Chamber of Commerce to be a table host & expert at AI: The Next Generation of Productivity Tuesday September 19, in downtown Austin, Texas.

I'm giving a talk on AI + SEO followed by fellow SEO expert 🤖 Will Scott at Search Influence in PubCon in Austin, Texas September 21.

BrightonSEO San Diego : I'm giving a full talk on the future of AI and content, and joining a panel as an expert speaker. The event is November 9-10, 2023.

My BFF Hailey Wilson is putting on something incredible: AIMPACT 2023, an immersive virtual event running November 7-9 . I'm honored to speak alongside industry leaders at this groundbreaking AI conference. Learn all about it.

(AND there's about four more AI events brewing... when I have more details, you'll see 'em here! Hope to see you at one - or two! - of them. ❤️ )

Looking for SEO case studies 🏆

Want to get featured in front of ~80,000 marketers and agencies on our channels? We're currently looking specifically for case studies from people that have ranked Content at Scale content in the top of Google.

Have content that's ranking? We want to feature you! Here's the form to fill out if you're in . This would get featured along with you/your business name on all of our channels.

How Focus Bear Doubled Content Production & Achieved #1 Ranking with Content at Scale

Customer: Focus Bear

Results: Doubled content production and achieved #1 ranking with Content at Scale

Customer: Jeremy Nagel , Founder & CEO of Focus Bear

Jeremy Nagel lives with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) and Level 1 Autism Spectrum Disorder. And for people like him, these neurodevelopmental challenges make it difficult to stay productive and maintain healthy habits. 

Every morning, he would find himself sleepily checking emails rather than getting out of bed to do yoga or the morning routine he craved. He tried everything to break the bad habit — he installed parental control apps on his phone, hid his laptop in the cupboard, and even asked his wife to slap him if she found him scrolling through his inbox in bed. 😆

Nothing worked. The struggle was all too real.

Determined to overcome procrastination, Jeremy tried and reviewed all the current apps out there, took their best features, and created his own — one that would finally help him form better habits.

The result? Focus Bear.

The Focus Bear app provided much-needed structure to Jeremy’s morning routine by eliminating decision fatigue, incorporating smart breaks, and making every device safe from distractions. Now, as the Chief Bear Obeyer (CBO) of Focus Bear, he wants to share this awesome tool with people living with ADHD and ASD so they, too, can have their beary best day, every single day.

To accomplish this goal, Jeremy launched the companion website to his app, Focusbear.io — a resource designed for people who need to improve their focus and build good habits.

Goal: Produce High-Quality Content Consistently

Jeremy had two goals for Focus Bear: 1) to help ADHD/ASD patients block distractions across all their devices and 2) help them establish morning routines to boost their productivity.

He started a blog where he shared tips, tricks, and guides for getting the most out of your day with routines, breaks, and habits.

But keeping up with deadlines was hard. His writers took a long time to produce content and the quality wasn’t that great.

Looking for a better way to write his blog articles, Jeremy found Content at Scale.

Read the full story.

Cheers!

Julia McCoy

President, Content at Scale