And that’s coming from a guy running an automation agency.
So many businesses are jumping on the AI and automation train right now. But it’s not done in a strategic way.
It's either "we need to automate everything and replace entire departments" or it's pure FOMO without any real plan. The problem is they usually don't have any of the foundational work in place. No SOPs. No frameworks. Closed software. Nothing to actually carry the automation forward.
When automation carries your business instead of your business carrying the automation, you're in a tough spot. Your competitive advantage is arbitrage. Eventually someone else is going to figure out the technology and catch up with you.
I just had a conversation with Defne Gencler that reinfored my thinking on this.
Defne runs Laurel Leaf, a content marketing agency. What’s funny and ironic is she launched her agency in 2023, right when ChatGPT blew up and everyone was panicking that content agencies were dead.
"I was immediately panicking and freaking out because I was just like, what have I done?"
But instead of trying to automate everything or compete on speed, she went the opposite direction. She spent three years formalizing her knowledge and building frameworks (specifically her Message Mapping process) that delivers value as fast as possible.
The frameworks came first. The automation came second.
Now she uses AI for first drafts and data entry, but the strategic work (the workshops, the positioning clarity, helping teams go from confusion to clarity) that stays human.
I hate that nowadays people trust AI blindly. Sure it helps speed things up dramatically, but you need to set the direction and judge the output. She had a great way to put it: "You have to be able to have the expertise to challenge the AI. AI is not going to challenge you."
She’s clear on what’s important (not many seem to be nowadays) and what humans are uniquely good at: handling the politics, managing the confusion that comes with doing business, building actual partnerships with clients. Those things are hard to scale, but they're crucial.
And those are the things you definitely don't want to automate.
If you're trying to figure out what to automate in your business versus what to protect as your competitive advantage, you’ll enjoy the chat.
→ Watch the full conversation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28lup0RFTLI