I spent three years writing a B2B marketing book with AI as my co-editor. What I discovered will change how you think about creativity, productivity, and your future career.
As generative AI transforms the GTM universe, marketing teams are naturally defensive about their future prospects—myself included. “AI will not replace marketing! We will still need human creativity, empathy, and oversight!“ These statements have become the new battle cry for marketers.
But what does that really mean?
Rather than speak from the abstract, I want to share my specific experience leveraging generative AI as I wrote Some Assembly Required, my new B2B marketing book. The journey transformed not just my writing process, but my understanding of how AI amplifies human creativity rather than replacing it.
There’s a lot to share, so I broke this blog into a four-part series. I’ve also included specific use cases and generative AI prompts that supported the entire book writing process.
The $100,000 Prompt Question That AI Answered in 10 Seconds
Before diving into the process and AI prompt use cases, let me share why this matters. Over the past decade, a relentless growth-at-any-cost mindset has suffocated our capacity for creativity and strategic vision. Every company today sounds the same across every segment of their ICP.
Case in point: While at the gym recently, I stared through the window at yet another billboard making bold AI promises. I’ve seen dozens like it—and I can’t tell any of these companies apart.
This sea of sameness isn’t just in advertising—it’s infected our entire approach to B2B marketing. We suck at storytelling. As B2B marketers enter the age of AI and “shut up and grind,” history is repeating itself.
That’s why I knew my book needed to break through differently, and AI became my secret weapon for finding unique angles.
How AI Transformed My Book-Writing Process
I discovered that generative AI transformed my book-writing process across four critical dimensions that every marketer struggles with:
1. Strategic Vision: Rising Above the “ING” in Marketing
Over the past decade, marketing has become the job of “more”: More events. More content. More webcasts. As former CMO and current CEO Christine / Chris Heckart explains in my book: “In the past, we didn’t define marketing’s charter or establish a standard organizational structure. This oversight has led to a profession fixated on tactical activities and busywork—the ‘ING’ in marketing—rather than delivering strategic impact.“
By the “ING“ in marketing, Heckart means the endless tactical activities—email-ING, blog-ING, webinar-ING—that consume our days but don’t move the strategic needle.
AI’s Role: It helped me step back from tactical execution to see the bigger strategic picture, identifying patterns across 50+ interviews that I would have missed while drowning in details.
2. Scale: Doing More Without Burning Out
While I hate the “ING” in marketing, we cannot escape it. We still need to produce webcasts, content, newsletters, and pipeline reports.
AI’s Role: AI automated the mundane research and synthesis tasks, giving me 5-8 hours back each week to focus on strategic thinking and original insights.
3. Collaboration When Humans Aren’t Available
As marketers, we work best in collaborative environments with constant feedback. But remote work and busy schedules limit our ability to brainstorm and gain meaningful input during the creative process.
AI’s Role: Generative AI became my 24/7 editorial partner, providing instant feedback and alternative perspectives when my human collaborators were unavailable. That said, AI could never replace my writing coach and primary editor, Anne Janzer and production designer, Carla Green.
4. Creative Inspiration Beyond Our Biases
Our creativity—for better or worse—is shaped by our worldview and experiences. This limitation can trap us in echo chambers of our own making.
AI’s Role: AI consistently proposed alternative viewpoints I never would have considered, challenged my assumptions, and helped conceptualize content across different mediums.
During the early ideation process, there is one very important rule to remember: AI cannot create the concept and vision of your book. That’s your job. I’ll discuss in subsequent blogs how this plays out during the writing process. Without a subject of your making that you’re passionate about, an AI-inspired book will never exude authenticity or move readers to take action.
Getting Started: My AI + Human Writing Process
Step 1: Finding My AI Editorial Partner
The Challenge: Throughout my career, I’ve authored three “For Dummies” books and penned hundreds of white papers. Drawing from this experience, I believed I could complete a 200-page manuscript in 4-6 weeks.
Boy, was I dead wrong and a little crazy.
There’s a reason 80-90% of books get started but never see the light of day. Writing a high-quality book is A LOT of work.
The Timeline Reality: I started experimenting with various AI tools in early 2022, beginning with GPT-3 for initial research. When Claude became publicly available in 2023, I switched to its superior synthesis capabilities and writing quality. The book, originally slated for early 2024, is launching today—but without AI, it would have taken until late 2025.
My AI Solution: After testing multiple platforms with identical prompts, I chose Anthropic’s Claude for its superior ability to:
- Synthesize large volumes of interview transcripts
- Maintain a consistent voice across chapters
- Generate thoughtful questions that uncover deeper insights
Result: AI helped reduce my production lag time by 50%, from an estimated six months to two months.
Step 2: Ideation Stage – Finding Your Book’s Unique Angle
The Challenge: With hundreds of thousands of B2B business books published annually, your brilliant idea might already exist in 47 variations. I thought my “personal agency” angle was unique until AI showed me 12 similar books—forcing me to dig deeper.
The AI Solution: Instead of guessing, I used AI to analyze the entire competitive landscape and find my white space. Here’s the exact prompt that changed everything:
The “Go Big” Prompt: Analyze the B2B marketing book landscape from 2021-2024. Identify the top 10 bestsellers, their key themes, and gaps they leave unaddressed. Compare their approaches to [personal agency/AI integration/marketer wellbeing]. What unique angle could differentiate a new book in this space? Are the challenges cited in my book common today among other B2B CMOs and GTM practitioners, and executives? Please cite expert reports and interviews, and relevant news stories from the past three years.
The Result: This analysis revealed that while dozens of books addressed burnout OR AI OR B2B marketing, none connected all three through the lens of personal agency and addressed the recent threat of “quiet cracking” where teams were burned out and disengaging. That differentiator is now the core message resonating with readers.
Here are additional prompts that shaped my book’s foundation:
Audience Definition Prompt: Create detailed personas for 3 potential reader segments for a book about B2B marketing personal agency. Include: current role, years of experience, biggest pain points, what they’ve tried before, why existing solutions fail them, and what transformation they seek. Format as a table with emotional drivers highlighted.
Chapter Structure Prompt: Based on this book premise: [insert premise], create a 10-12 chapter outline that aligns with four main pillars: Act, Learn, Influence, Thrive. Each chapter should include: a compelling title, key learning outcome, practical exercises, and how it connects to the next chapter. For each chapter, provide five inspirational quote examples from notable figures.
Step 3: Research Stage – Turning Data Overload into Insights
The Challenge: I interviewed over 50 B2B GTM executives and experts, producing 1,357 pages of transcripts. With only 30 minutes per interview, every question had to count. I couldn’t afford to miss key insights buried in this mountain of data.
The AI Solution: AI became my research assistant, accurately synthesizing those 1,357 pages, finding golden nuggets, identifying trends, and ensuring I didn’t miss killer quotes.
Interview Question Generator I: I’m interviewing [CMOs at Series B SaaS companies] about personal agency in B2B marketing. Generate 15 open-ended questions that will uncover: specific challenges they face, stories of failure and success, controversial opinions, and practical tactics. Prioritize questions that elicit emotional responses and specific examples.
Interview Question Generator II: I am interviewing [CMO name] at [Company]. Based on their LinkedIn profile and public news stories from 2022-2025, provide ten recommended questions that uniquely align with their experience and my book’s focus on personal agency.
Research Synthesis Prompt: Analyze these interview transcripts [paste key excerpts] and identify: 1) recurring themes mentioned by 3+ people, 2) surprising contradictions, 3) unique insights that challenge conventional wisdom, 4) powerful quotes organized by theme. Create a summary of the top five themes and trends.
The Result: AI helped me identify three completely overlooked themes that became cornerstone chapters of my book, including the connection between marketer wellness and pipeline performance.
If you are writing a book—or even some short-form content—experiment and find your “Go Big Prompt” today. By making AI your editorial partner, you’ll be amazed at the impact on your creativity and productivity.
In the next blog in this series, we will explore the writing and production process.
- Part 1: Finding Your Unique Angle with AI (today’s blog)
- Part 2: The Writing & Production Process
- Part 3: Maintaining Your Authentic Voice
- Part 4: Unexpected Discoveries & Future Implications
Ready to develop your personal agency in the age of AI? Get my pre-launch copy of Some Assembly Required for just 99 cents before it launches on August 15 (and will be $9.99). Bookmark our Generative AI Template Library, which will also launch on August 15.
