Using AI to speed up strategy work — summarizing books, strategy analysis

I recently used AI for some strategy work, and it amazed me how it can speed things up! I thought I’d share my method 💡

First, I wanted to learn what I found most interesting in a marketing book I read some time ago. So I exported my Kindle highlights from "This is Marketing" by Seth Godin into an HTML file. Then, I submitted it to ChatGPT and asked it to summarize them for me. 📚

It gave me 10 key takeaways:

"The patterns and commonalities in your highlights emphasize several core themes:

1. Focus on the Customer: Understand and serve the specific needs, dreams (…)"

and so on…

Next, I wanted to use these learnings to see how one might apply them to build and market a particular business. Since the business model of my client was similar to that of Zoom, I decided to use Zoom as a model, especially since it’s a publicly known company with lots of information available online.

I asked ChatGPT:

"Can you speak about how these conclusions and takeaways from the book might apply to building a brand like Zoom?"

To my surprise, it was able to project the 10 book takeaways onto Zoom and how it grew and gained popularity:

"Customer-Centric Approach. Zoom should focus on understanding the specific needs and emotions of its users. For instance, remote workers need reliable, easy-to-use video conferencing to feel connected and productive. By addressing these needs, Zoom can enhance user satisfaction and loyalty. (…)"

Using AI in this way can speed up work significantly. You can use ChatGPT to brainstorm, explore different spaces, get comparisons, etc. It’s especially good at handling text-based tasks like this.

⚠️ Caveat: Be careful because ChatGPT can sometimes hallucinate. It can present untrue statements, make false claims confidently, and fabricate facts.

So this approach works best if one has the knowledge, judgment, and critical thinking skills to interpret answers adequately.

I hope this inspires you to use AI in some new ways! Comment if you have other tips on using AI for strategy work.

PS. I also used AI to crunch some numbers recently and will share some thoughts on it in a future post.