Let’s get something straight: this isn’t a love letter to AI. It’s also not some melodramatic prediction about how robots will soon be taking your job (along with your local barista’s). No, this is about how I use AI in the form of digital assistants, to do better work, faster, without sacrificing human creativity, strategic thinking, and most important of all, the ability to foster trust with authenticity and proven output.
At Page One, we’ve never prayed to the Algorithmic gods. We’ve always been in the business of building smart systems, powered by smart people, that are designed to drive meaningful results (not clicks and impressions), and help our clients grow faster while trimming waste.
While we’ve prided ourselves on our ability to stay ahead of industry shifts, I’d be lying if I told you AI hasn’t completely overturned the entire industry and our agency as a whole. Like most marketers, we’ve faced an identity crisis and, at times, an existential crisis over the past 12 months (I mean, our name is “Page One Web Solutions”). What sets us apart from other B2B agencies is that we’ve always been about more than just rankings, vanity metrics, or even lead gen. Not only that, we’ve embraced AI from the start. And thanks to the encouragement of our C-suite overlords (that was a joke, Sully), we’ve tested almost every tool under the sun to stay ahead of the cataclysmic shift reshaping our Marketing.
And yes, this has made for one hell of a year with near-constant learning/upskilling, testing, adopting, and abandoning new products and tools, building, demolishing, and rebuilding workflows to piece together the ideal tech stack for our agency and our clients, respectively. Most marketers would understandably burn out, but the beauty of our team is that it energized us. It’s the Wild West, a new frontier (and I don’t mean that as a cliche), and we’re not just here for the ride; we’re here to capitalize on it.
But I digress…
This post? It’s a spotlight on one area where I’ve used AI to stop drowning in menial tasks, and it’s about how I started nervously paddling out to meet the AI tsunami about a year ago, and am now ripping barrels like Kelly Slater (yeah, dated reference, but he’s still winning competitions).
More broadly, this post is about using the right tools to enhance strategic thinking, accelerate execution, and ultimately improve outcomes.
This post breaks down how I built a fleet of custom GPTs to support everything from paid search and CRO to automation and competitive research—and how this investment helps us do smarter work faster.
It’s also about where we’re headed, as an agency and as marketers.
The dust hasn’t fully settled, but the path forward is clear. While others wait on the sidelines, hoping for a miracle or sign, we’re evolving.
(Growth Marketer and GTM Engineer by day, Dead Head / Luddite by night)
At Page One, we’ve leaned into AI to enable faster workflows, deeper insights, and more flexible marketing systems. It helps us move more quickly, ideate more effectively, and break free from the repetitive grind, allowing us to focus on what matters: solving real business problems and driving strategic growth for our clients.
From Inbound to Impact: Why We’ve Evolved
Let’s set the record straight…we’ve never been just a digital agency. Sure, we were built on the inbound methodology (and that hasn’t changed), where structure, buyer personas, journey mapping, and a deep understanding of HubSpot were never optional. They were our foundation, but we’ve always known that content without strategy is just noise and the tool is only as good as the person wielding it.
But the game has changed.
Search isn’t about gaming algorithms anymore, it’s about building authority and trust now more than ever. AI is churning out content (most of it garbage) at the click of a button. Tools are more accessible than ever, and customers have never been more in control of their buyer’s journey. A blog post and gated PDF alone just won’t cut it anymore
So we evolved.
We’ve moved beyond inbound to become a RevOps and GTM Growth Partner. That means we’re not just helping our clients generate leads or one-off purchases, we’re aligning your marketing, sales, and success teams across the full funnel to drive predictable, scalable revenue. We break down silos, build your revenue engine, and optimize every touch point, from awareness to closed-won (and beyond).
What That Looks Like in Practice
Systems That Communicate
CRMs. ERPs. Zapier spaghetti: We untangle it all, connect it, clean it up, and transform chaos into clarity with a logic-driven, purpose-built, and ruthlessly efficient strategy.
Content
Content is King? While that’s still the case, all content is not created equal (looking at YOU LinkedIn influencers), authority, trust, and connection are the ones pulling the strings and driving the results. With AI overviews and search engines shifting how users find answers, content for content’s sake is about as useful as a Tesla truck in a snowstorm. If it doesn’t support a journey stage or tie to a real business outcome, it’s met with the proverbial guillotine (little French Revolution reference there for ya…what’s up with these tech bros, though seriously?).
Infrastructure Built To Scale
Think of us as revenue mechanics. We’re not just here to polish the hood, we’re here to build the engine and tear it apart if necessary. This isn’t about vanity metrics or surface-level campaigns. Full-funnel marketing isn’t optional anymore. It’s foundational and businesses need someone they can partner with to succeed in today's search wasteland, oops…I meant landscape.
My Personal Evolution: From Curiosity to Core Strategy
A couple of years ago, I recognized the beginnings of a big shift within our industry and decided to learn the ins-and-outs of ChatGPT. About a year ago, I got serious about integrating AI into my daily workflow in ways that actually mattered. The idea of creating AI assistants and using GPTs to automate time-consuming and repetitive tasks was of particular interest. What began as curiosity and a healthy fear of becoming irrelevant (or automated out of a job) quickly turned into a cornerstone of how I operate.
As Roger Spitz eloquently put it recently, “AI won't replace you, but someone who can use it better will."
While GPTs are just one piece of the puzzle, AI is now woven into nearly every part of my day-to-day. But I didn’t do this so I could chase the 4-Hour Workweek or let HAL run my campaigns. I did it so I could stop wasting brainpower on the digital equivalent of folding laundry.
GPTs haven’t replaced strategy. They’ve given me the space to think bigger, test faster, and fail better.
How I Use GPTs to Boost Efficiency (Without Losing My Soul Or Personality)
Let’s not romanticize this: I built a small army of GPTs to handle the boring stuff. Repetitive tasks. Research. The sort of work that's critical, but can scramble your brains when you're managing campaigns for 18 clients.
Research Assistant
Like a historian with a marketer’s brain, it sifts through the digital noise to find real insights, analyzing industries, products, services, identify painpoints, aggregate and understand conversations happening on the web in real time, and answer any question I throw at it with the expertise, thoroughness, and accuracy of a historian wasting away in the stacks.
Automation Consultant
Supports process mapping, integrations, and workflow design across CRMs, ERPs, and marketing tools.
Prompt Architect
Helps refine inputs so I can achieve better outputs from GPTs and reduce the need for trial-and-error prompts.
Creative Asset Pro
Kickstarts the creative process without needing a mood board or a seance.
Keyword Strategy
Helps identify and cluster keywords based on search intent and funnel alignment better than most third-party platforms.
CRO GPT
Spots funnel friction like a digital chiropractor (if they were real), utilizing a proven conversion framework to analyze pages and pinpoint friction points that hinder performance.
Landing Page Builder
Drafts high-converting pages faster than I can overthink the CTA.
Competitor Analysis Expert
Scans ads, rankings, and brand tone while I sip my coffee and pretend like I don’t have a problem.
Ad Copy Generator GPT
Generates spectacularly bad first drafts, so I can rewrite something instead of staring at a blank page.
Why the Upfront Work Matters
Building good GPTs takes work. Not weeks, but enough thoughtful input to make sure they serve a real purpose. I identify the repetitive tasks, systematize them, and hand them off to AI. That frees me up to focus on the weird, wonderful, strategic mess that marketing is supposed to be.
But if you think AI is a set-it-and-forget-it solution or a one-stop shop, the result is going to feel as soulless as half the stuff you've scrolled past on the internet lately.
AI’s job is to assist, not to think for you.
It can help produce content, but it can’t create connections. It can’t interpret brand nuance, tell a meaningful story, or earn someone’s trust.
And that’s the whole point.
AI helps us scale. However, authority, credibility, and trust still derive from the individuals performing the work. Our role is to make sure what comes out of AI tools actually aligns with a client’s goals, voice, and the needs of their customers. When used intentionally, AI becomes a force multiplier, not a shortcut.
What This Means For Our Clients
From your side of the table, it means:
- Faster deliverables that still feel thoughtful
- more time spent on growth, not guesswork
- strategicsystems that align teams, tools, and outcomes
- a partner who is riding the wave, not drowning (or worse) sitting in the water
We’re not here to automate for automation’s sake. We’re here to help you scale with purpose.
Where Search (And The Web) Are Headed
The digital landscape isn’t just shifting-it’s liquefying. But here’s the thing: the brands that will win are the ones who know why they’re saying what they’re saying. Not the ones publishing the most.
The future of marketing is clarity. Authority. Relevance. AI can help you get there, but only if you’re brave enough to stay human in the process.
Final Thoughts: Use AI Like a Pro, Not a Shortcut
This isn’t about efficiency at the expense of meaning. It’s about cutting out the crap and focusing on growing your business through thoughtful, strategic, full-funnel marketing, by understanding what’s happening and leveraging the tools available without surrendering your humanity.
At Page One, we use AI to support strategy, not replace it. We help you stay relevant, resilient, and revenue-focused.
Ready to build smarter? Let’s talk.
