“AI makes good workflows faster and bad ones more expensive.”
Last week, a new client came to us with some AI-generated info they pulled together before our brand workshop.
What they shared was both (technically) accurate …
and completely useless.
The messaging was so vague, and the target audience so broad, it could’ve described half of the businesses on LinkedIn.
And I can’t argue that their AI tool failed and got it wrong. It perfectly reflected what was on their website. AI just read what was there and dressed it up with flowery, meaningless language (per its usual).
***
Here’s what’s happening right now for most service businesses.
They’re layering AI tools on top of positioning that was never quite right — using it to write more content, show up in more places, reach more people, and generate MORE … of everything.
And that’s a massive problem.
Because if your positioning is muddy, AI doesn't clarify it. It distributes it to the masses. Way faster than your manual process ever could have.
A business that used to have a confusing website, NOW has a confusing website, confusing search results, confusing emails, and a confusing LinkedIn profile — all saying slightly different versions of the same unclear thing.
***
Brand clarity isn’t “nice-to-have” anymore. It’s critical infrastructure.
Because AI tools — the ones prospects use to vet service providers — are reading your website and drawing immediate conclusions from it.
And bots don’t “browse” the same way humans do. They’re scanning for structured, consistent signals across the entire web: what you do, who it’s for, and what makes you different.
If your signals are fuzzy or trying to be too many things at once, the tool just moves on and summarizes what it found. With zero interpretation or forgiveness.
***
Even worse if your site is DIY, or something your nephew built in a caffeine-filled weekend during Covid.
That’s not just a messaging problem; it’s a technical one. Slow load times, bloated code, missing or broken markup … it’s all the stuff that search engines and AI tools rely on to understand what your business is all about.
A human visitor might wait an extra two seconds and shrug it off. A crawler doesn’t. It just moves on.
You can have the clearest positioning in the world and still lose that battle because your website’s structure is working against you.
***
The businesses getting traction from AI already know exactly what they do, who they do it for, and why it matters. THEN they hand that off to the robots.
So, no … our client didn’t have an AI problem. They had a clarity problem (first) that AI made impossible to ignore.
Which, honestly, might be the most useful thing the bots have brought to the table!
***
Wednesdays are for super heroes
Not caped crusaders (or really great sandwiches) …
Starting this week, I’m going to pick a real service business homepage, tear apart its hero section, and show you exactly what's working, what’s missing the mark, and what I’d change first.
If you want me to break down YOURS in an upcoming issue, hit reply and send me your URL. I’ll add it to the list.
First one drops Wednesday. Stay tuned! 👀
Claude is not just a chatbot anymore. Is your security team ready?
Claude.ai is one thing. Agentic workflows, MCP connections, ungoverned skills taking actions across your data? That's a different conversation — and most security teams aren't equipped for it.
Harmonic Security gives your CISO the visibility and controls to say yes confidently.
Victory Points
By: Mike Shary
My board-game-loving, copywriter extraordinaire and mentor, Dad ❤️
Figment : A brain-bending, cooperative card game for 1–6 players
Figment is a cooperative card game where you’re ranking images by how much of one color appears in each.
Sounds simple … until the cards hit the table and your brain starts lying to you.
The whole game lives in the gap between what you think you’re seeing and what’s actually there.
That, my friends, is Branding 101.
Most businesses assume clients see them in the same way they see themselves. Usually, that’s not the case. What seems clear from the inside can look like a muddy mess on the outside — and a skilled brand strategist helps close that gap.
Figment just happens to teach that important lesson without making it feel like work.
Make it a great week! 🙌
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