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In just one year, my experiment with Artificial Intelligence revealed untapped opportunities and looming threats that can either revolutionize or destroy businesses. The result?
I saved over $100,000 by fully embracing AI’s potential while uncovering its risks.
This wasn’t about riding the AI hype—it was about smart integration and calculated risks, which also inspired my latest book, The Wolf is at The Door: How to Survive and Thrive in an AI-Driven World.
In this blog post, I’ll walk you through how I leveraged AI to cut massive expenses and why you should be thinking about how to integrate it into your business.
Plus, as a bonus, you’ll find a free chapter from my new book below to help set you up for success in the AI era. But first, here’s a breakdown of how I used AI to save $100k in my business.
1. Revolutionizing Marketing with AI
The pandemic forced me to downsize my team, leaving a gap where a capable marketing manager once was. Instead of hiring someone new, I leaned into AI, focusing on how it could both save and generate money. I categorized key areas where AI could make the most significant impact, including;
Email marketing
Content production
Decision-making
Marketing analysis
The first thing I tackled was analyzing video and email content to better understand what was driving leads and sales.
I used AI to sift through 12 months of data, analyzing the top-performing videos and emails. With ChatGPT’s help, I generated email campaigns that drove more traffic to my best-performing content.
The AI didn’t just stop there—it also mapped out a series of emails to drive further engagement and generated countless subject line variations to optimize open and click-through rates.
The result? Increased sales and profit margins with less effort.
AI allowed me to leverage what was already working and shrink the learning curve, pinpointing exactly where to optimize in my business. This kind of analysis used to take days, if not weeks, and now it’s done in a fraction of the time.
2. Saving Time with Podcast and Video Content (Plus, My AI Video Editing Tools of Choice)
One of the biggest time-saving revelations was using AI to create summaries of my podcast series and quickly and easily editing video based on text. It saved my team hours generating timestamps, transcriptions, and identifying shareable content for marketing.
Beyond that, I used AI to transform long-form videos into hundreds of YouTube shorts, complete with captions, in minutes. This wasn’t just a minor improvement—it saved weeks of editing time that would have otherwise cost thousands of dollars. Here are my top two AI editing platforms that I use;
I will say, when using tools like Opus Clip to turn long form content into short form content, not every clip it produces will be a home run. Often, it can miss out on key context that's required for the audience to keep watching. Even then, if you are able to get 6 out of 10 clips from a tool that saves hours - you're onto a winner.
3. Protecting Your Brand from AI Copycats
Here’s an essential warning for anyone using AI in their business: don’t rely on AI to mimic someone else’s style. While AI can be a powerful tool to enhance efficiency and creativity, blindly copying another person’s approach can strip you of what makes your brand unique.
The more you imitate others through AI, the more you risk blending into the crowd, making it easier for clients or employers to view your work as replaceable. Instead, it’s crucial to harness AI’s capabilities while staying true to your personal brand—using it to amplify your strengths, not overshadow them.
Tips for Maintaining Your Personal Brand While Using AI
Embrace Authenticity:
Don’t ask AI to replicate someone else’s style or voice. Instead, use it to enhance your own unique tone and message. The more you lean into your originality, the more you will stand out in an AI-driven world.
AI as a Partner, Not a Replacement:
Treat AI as a creative assistant that helps you brainstorm, streamline workflows, and generate ideas. Use it to augment your strengths, not replace them. This can free up time for higher-level strategy and creative thinking.
Develop Your Signature Style:
Focus on crafting a recognizable voice in your industry or niche. This includes your writing, branding, and communication. AI tools can help polish your work, but your core style should always reflect your values, personality, and expertise.
Infuse Personal Insights:
AI can’t replicate lived experiences or personal insights. Share anecdotes, lessons learned, and human perspectives that AI can’t generate. This positions you as a trusted, relatable expert rather than a generic content creator.
Test for Consistency:
As you integrate AI into your workflows, regularly audit your content for consistency in tone, values, and message. This ensures your brand’s voice remains distinct and genuine over time.
Build Human Connections:
In an age where AI can do much of the heavy lifting, human relationships and emotional intelligence are more valuable than ever. Focus on fostering genuine connections with your audience—through storytelling, engagement, and personal interaction.
Evolve Your Skills:
Stay ahead by continuously up-skilling and learning. Understand AI deeply, but also invest in improving soft skills like creativity, empathy, and strategic thinking—traits AI cannot fully replicate. This will ensure you remain irreplaceable.
By integrating these strategies, you’ll ensure that you remain a standout, irreplaceable asset in the era of AI, positioning yourself as a leader rather than someone at risk of being replaced.
4. AI as a Full-Time Editor (Saving Tens of Thousands)
Another way I slashed expenses was by using AI as a full-time editor, not just for marketing materials, but for my book, The Wolf is at The Door.
Traditionally, writing a book involves hiring full-time editors and researchers, which can cost a fortune. But this time, I turned to Perplexity.ai—my diligent research partner. It helped me delve into academic papers, interact with the data, and pinpoint exact answers. This saved me weeks of research and tens of thousands of dollars in editorial costs.
Of course, you will still want to check the sources that any AI tool provides you. While it can save you tens of thousands of dollars, it still hallucinates and combines fact with fiction.
However, here’s something even more crucial you must understand: I didn’t use AI to actually write the book. Why?
Because, as it stands, AI-generated content cannot be copyrighted according to the U.S. Copyright Office. If you’re creating products or content with AI, you have no legal protection if someone decides to steal and repackage your work. That’s why it’s essential to infuse as much human creativity into your projects as possible—something I was careful to do in my book by including twists and insights that AI can’t replicate.
Anyone using AI to help produce content must learn more about how AI is testing current copyright laws. I've got the full breakdown for you here.
5. Using AI to Cut Legal Fees
AI didn’t just save me time and money in marketing and editing—it also helped me reduce legal fees. With caution, I used ChatGPT to act as both an immigration attorney and contract lawyer for answering pressing legal questions. While it’s critical to validate the information provided by AI (by asking for citations and legal references), it still helped me curtail legal costs significantly.
Here are some tips to ensure you use AI wisely for legal matters:
Always validate the information: AI can provide helpful insights, but it’s crucial to verify the accuracy of its responses. Ask for citations and legal references so you can cross-check the information with trustworthy sources.
Consult an attorney when necessary: AI can assist with simpler legal queries, but for more complex issues or high-stakes decisions, it’s wise to consult a professional attorney to avoid any potential pitfalls.
Use AI for legal research: AI can help you comb through legal documents, find relevant cases, or clarify basic legal principles. This can save you hours of research time that would otherwise require costly attorney fees.
Be aware of limitations: AI doesn’t account for every nuance of the law or jurisdiction-specific regulations. Know when to treat the information as a rough guide and when to bring in a human expert.
AI as a drafting tool: You can use AI to draft simple contracts or agreements, but have a legal professional review them. This approach saves both time and money while ensuring that the final document is airtight.
By using AI in these ways, I was able to dramatically reduce legal costs without sacrificing the quality or accuracy of the advice I needed.
6. The Most Unexpected AI Success: Diagnosing My Dog
One of the most astonishing outcomes from my AI experiment came in an unexpected area—pet care. My miniature rescue Yorkie, Mitch, had been suffering from digestive distress for weeks. After spending over $1,000 on vet bills and tests, we still didn't have a concrete diagnosis.
That’s when I turned to AI. By uploading Mitch's recent blood work into an AI diagnostic tool, I ran a hypothetical scenario. In just moments, the AI pinpointed the underlying issue, saving not only my dog's health but also saving me from further financial strain.
Here are some tips on how you can use AI for pet care and health diagnostics, all while ensuring accuracy:
Consult with your vet first: AI is a great supplementary tool, but it shouldn’t replace professional veterinary care. Always consult your vet before trying anything AI suggests, especially when it comes to medical treatments.
Leverage AI for data analysis: Upload lab results, blood tests, or other health data to AI tools that can analyze the results. AI can detect patterns or highlight issues that may not be immediately obvious to a vet due to the sheer volume of data they review daily.
Use AI to generate follow-up questions: Even if the AI provides a possible diagnosis, it’s wise to use that information to ask your vet follow-up questions. For example, ask if the issue the AI flagged is plausible or if further testing is necessary.
Verify AI's advice with human experts: AI can often provide helpful insights, but it’s important to verify any medical advice with a vet. AI is not infallible, and there may be factors it doesn’t account for that a human professional would catch.
Using AI for pet diagnostics can be an incredible time-saver and could provide quicker answers than waiting for multiple vet appointments. Just make sure you're using it as a tool to supplement, not replace, traditional veterinary care.
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