sell the outcome, not the mechanism

I’m honestly tired of how “AI companies” market themselves nowadays.

I’ve studied close to a thousand products and I can honestly say that putting “AI” next to your copy doesn’t make your product any more valuable to an end user.

I’d give an example.

“Increase your email productivity with AI”

This doesn’t hit as hard as

“Get email replies drafted automatically, in your voice”.

A user just wants something that fixes their problem and slapping AI in your copy doesn’t help because… AI is just a tool!

Imagine telling a user that “I built an app for you with React and Express” 😭

That’s the exact same way I feel when people slap “AI” in their product copy.

People have advised against “tool-inspired” copy since marketing was a thing and yet no one seems to be talking about it in this AI era.

Some companies have even gone as far as to rewrite their positioning to accommodate “AI” so as to seem more attractive to investors.

That’s fine and all, but I believe it's always best to sell benefits and outcomes in your positioning.

Instead of saying

“Revolutionize your customer experience with AI”,

They could just say

“Let your users find answers themselves with an AI chatbot trained on your documentation.”

It's simpler to understand, and sells the benefits of their product.

And in the game of conversion, clarity always wins.

Something I'm learning is that users don’t care how you’ve solved their problem, they just want to know if you can.