By Joost Narraina, Strategic Creative Director
Three months ago, I was still writing every first draft by hand. Taking days to develop concepts. Spending weeks on campaigns that should take hours.
Then I figured out how to work with AI instead of against it.
Last week: Complete recruitment campaign for a tech company in 17 hours instead of my usual 42. Better quality, faster delivery, happier client.
Here's the exact process that changed everything.
I kept asking AI to think strategically. "Create a campaign strategy for..." or "What's the best approach for..."
AI gave me generic garbage every time.
The breakthrough: AI can't think strategically, but it's brilliant at executing strategic direction once you give it clear parameters.
Step 1: I do the thinking (2 hours) I define the business goal, audience challenges, brand voice, and content strategy. This is 100% human work. AI has no idea what will actually work for your specific situation.
Step 2: AI generates options (3 hours) Now I feed my strategic brief into AI: "Based on these parameters, create 15 headline variations that speak to senior developers about career growth."
AI gives me more options in an hour than I used to generate in a day.
Step 3: I choose strategically (8 hours) I pick the concepts that serve my business objectives. AI handles the execution - writing full versions, creating platform variations, formatting everything.
Step 4: I polish for authenticity (4 hours) Final check to ensure everything sounds authentic and aligns with real business goals.
For that tech recruitment campaign, I needed to attract senior developers while showcasing company culture.
Instead of starting with a blank page, I told AI: "Create job descriptions that emphasize growth opportunities, technical challenges, and team collaboration. Tone should be confident but not arrogant."
In 30 minutes, AI gave me 25 variations. I picked the 3 that felt most authentic, then had AI develop them into full campaign materials.
The time savings come from AI handling execution while I focus on strategy and authenticity.
Never let AI make strategic decisions. It doesn't understand your business context.
Always evaluate AI output for authenticity. AI can mimic tone but often misses the human nuance that makes content believable.
Use AI for speed, not thinking. The fastest path to bad content is asking AI to think for you.
If you're still writing everything from scratch, you're competing with people who can execute 3x faster while thinking more strategically.
The competitive advantage isn't better AI tools. It's better strategic direction of AI tools.
Most people either fear AI or expect it to do everything. Both approaches waste time. The middle path - strategic humans directing AI execution - is where the real productivity gains live.
Try this: Take your next content project. Spend 30 minutes defining clear strategic parameters, then ask AI to execute those parameters. Compare the results to starting with a blank page.
You'll see what I mean.
Stay great,
Joost
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