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The uncomfortable truth about messaging 'experts'

AI has become the great revealer in our industry.

Not of who's "good at AI" or who's "anti-technology," but of something far more fundamental: who actually understands their own process.

I've noticed a clear pattern in how messaging and copywriting professionals respond to AI tools. Those who confidently integrate AI into their work are the same people who can articulate exactly why they do what they do, when they do it, and how each step builds toward a specific outcome.

Meanwhile, those who either dismiss AI entirely or use it as a crutch tend to be the ones who've been winging it all along. It’s the ones who claim to have a "proven framework" but when you dig deeper, it's really just a loose collection of tactics they picked up from different conferences, courses, and client projects over the years.

A robust process starts with you understanding where to start. In our messaging work at Conversion Alchemy, our process starts with a fundamental question: What conversation is already happening in the customer's head?

When you know your process, it becomes principle-based, not tactic-based. You understand the "why" behind every step.

Signs you know your process

When you truly know your process, AI becomes a powerful accelerator rather than a threat or a crutch:

• You can explain your decisions with research-backed reasoning. When a client asks why you structured a homepage a certain way or chose specific language, you have an answer that goes beyond "this usually works."

• You use AI strategically. Confident practitioners use AI to speed up research analysis, generate multiple headline variations for testing, or quickly adapt messaging for different personas. They're not using it to figure out what to say, they already know that.

• You immediately spot when AI-generated content misses the mark. You understand the subtle psychology of how your specific audience makes decisions, so you can quickly identify when generated content doesn't align with those patterns.

When testing reveals that a message isn't working, you don't just try random alternatives. You go back to your research, identify what assumption was wrong, and adjust based on your understanding of the customer's decision-making process.

What weak processes look like

On the flip side, practitioners with weak processes reveal themselves in how they react to AI:

• They either fear it or depend on it completely. They're either convinced AI will replace them (because they can't articulate their unique value) or they use it to generate everything (because they don't know what good looks like).

• They can't explain their choices beyond "best practices." When pressed for reasoning, they default to industry platitudes or competitor examples. Ask them why they chose a particular headline structure and you'll get "because it's punchy" instead of "because our research showed this audience needs social proof before benefit claims."

• They focus on tactics over transformation. They obsess over subject line formulas or headline templates without understanding the customer journey or the specific psychological shift their messaging needs to create. Tactics have their place, but they shouldn’t be used as a shortcut to the real work.

They treat every project the same. Without understanding the nuances of different markets, awareness levels, or competitive contexts.

Do you really “know” your process?

Here's the real test of whether you know your process: Can you train someone else to get similar results?

And here's another test I'd add: Can you train AI to get close to what you do?

If you can create AI agents that replicate your decision-making process, it means you understand your methodology well enough to systematize it.

If your success depends on your "intuition" or "experience" but you can't break down exactly what you're doing and why, you don't have a process, you have a collection of habits.

At Conversion Alchemy, our messaging framework isn't just something we follow, it's something we can teach (and we often do, with clients). Every decision has clear criteria. Every research method serves a specific diagnostic purpose. Every piece of copy connects to a specific psychological principle and business objective.

This clarity is what allows us to use AI effectively.

If you're feeling uncertain about AI's role in your work, the issue probably isn't AI, it's process clarity.

The practitioners who will win in an AI-enhanced world are those who can articulate not just what they do, but why they do it. They understand the psychology behind their choices, the principles that guide their decisions, and the specific business problems their work solves.

Confidence comes from competence. And competence comes from truly knowing, not just having, a process that works.

DISCOVERY

When it comes to using AI for writing, you’ve got two real choices:

1. You go all-in and learn how to orchestrate it, building context stacks, engineering prompts, running iterative loops, and treating it like a creative partner.
2. Or you don’t use it at all, and double down on craft. On slow thinking. On the struggle that forges clarity and insight.

Both paths are valid. But problems start when you’re sitting in the middle.

Tinkering with AI without understanding how to guide it is like asking a ghostwriter to “just write something good.” You’ll get bland, generic work, and worse, you’ll think it’s fine.

So, to help, I just published a new research report: “The new architecture of AI-assisted writing.” It’s a reality check for writers, strategists, and anyone delegating creative work to a model.

In it, you’ll learn:

• Why “prompt engineering” is dead, and what’s replacing it
• How top writers are using AI like a vibe-powered ghostwriter
• The architecture behind long-context collaboration (and how to build it) - What causes LLMs to “go off vibe”, and how to debug it
• Why the most valuable skill in AI writing isn’t writing, it’s taste
• What it really means to be a “vibe conductor” (and how to become one)

RESONANCE

Musashi Miyamoto, The Book of Five Rings

Have a great weekend!

Cheers,

Chris

Chris Silvestri Founder & conversion alchemist

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