This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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Writers have always used tools. You know, people are asking a lot about AI these days. And if you go back when Microsoft Word, or there was probably some other word processors actually before Word, spell check came out. And spell check was like this thing, you know, that felt kind of like cheating. Like you're using spell check, is that cheating?
Nowadays, of course, spell check is integrated into every system that we all use. Then there were companies like Grammarly, then there were headline generators. And now you've got Chat GPT, Clod, Perplexity, all these other language models, which are basically the power tools of 2025. And so I listen to today, is he a freelance writer? He is a marketer.
In fact, he'll explain that more. Basically, he is a marketer and he's wondering about, like he's using these AI tools, just like lots of people are. He's wondering about trust and positioning. Should he tell his clients that he's using Chat GPT? Basically, does the transparency risk spooking them or does it actually showcase like a modern efficient service?
This is how the world is these days. So I think this is an interesting question that a lot of people are thinking about in different ways. I think a majority of people are using some sort of AI now, especially in their work lives. A great majority of college students and high school students are using it in their studies and in their assignments and such. So the world is obviously changing and has changed a good bit.
Should you admit when you were doing freelance marketing, should you tell your clients? Let's not even say admit 'cause that sounds like it's something wrong. Should you tell your clients you're using AI? That's what we'll look at in today's episode. Stay tuned.
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Hello from Pittsburgh. I'm Rob, a marketer writing posts and social captions for small businesses. I've started drafting outlines with chat GPC or quote to save time. Then I polish everything by hand. The work is better and faster, but a few clients have strong feelings about AI content.
Do I come clean and risk them thinking it's low quality work or keep quiet because they're paying for finished results, not my workflow. Where's the ethical and profitable line on transparency about AI systems? - Well, Rob, as I said, you know, people have been using all sorts of assistance tools for a long time. Whenever a new one comes out, there's all these questions about it and such. I think the big picture here is you lead with outcome.
Like what are you trying to do for your clients? You know, are you just trying to complete a deliverable? Is there some sort of transformation? You know, transformative elements perhaps in the work. Ultimately, in this case, it sounds like clients are hiring you for polished on-brand content that drives traffic.
So your proposal and case studies should highlight metrics like open rates, shares, conversions. So the tools become secondary. Like ultimately the outcomes matter far more than how you get there. But then if you want to be transparent, you can adopt what's known as a process snapshot statement. It's just like a little sentence people are adding to contracts and onboarding docs these days, which says something like, you know, first draft ideas may be generated with AI software, then rewritten, fact-checked and optimized by me.
And so that kind of allays some concerns. It makes it clear like you use these tools, probably won't be shocking these days, but you actually are doing a good bit of editing and rewriting afterwards. And I think it's actually important to really do that because if you don't, like a lot of people are noticing AI language has some commonalities in it. And a lot of things like we look at and we're like, that sounds kind of AI, right? And it'll be interesting to see how that develops in the years to come.
But I think, you know, for now, at least it is very important to do that careful, you know, reviewing fact-checking optimization. So ultimately you are transparent enough to stay trustworthy, but you don't apologize for using professional tools. You know, graphics editors are using tools that make their life better, video editors. You know, everybody is using tools. So the whole point of a tool is to make your life easier in some way.
If you are leading first with a tool, if it's all about the tool, that's not so great. But if the tool is designed to support your workflow, then nothing wrong with that at all. Stay to briefly focus on the results and perhaps give a pricier human only option that very few clients will actually take. That's one other thing you could do is like, if you don't want any AI at all, you can pay me a lot more. But most people won't take that because they don't really need to.
That's my two cents. Listeners, we'd love to know your experiences as well, sidehustleschool.com, 3,200 plus episodes available for download or streaming directly on the site. And you can access new episodes every day when they come out, wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks so much for being out there. My name's Chris Guillebeau.
This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
- From the Onward Project.
