Our Position, Policy & Involvement with AI​​

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"Susan provided valuable insights into the marketing industry's evolving relationship with AI technology, helping inform our understanding of both the opportunities and challenges faced in this transition."​ - Nigel Jobson, CCO, Maybe* 

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WHAT IS OUR CURRENT POSITION ON THE USE OF AI IN THOUGHT LEADERSHIP?

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Here at SLETL our position on AI in Thought Leadership Marketing has shifted gradually but significantly. Back in 2023 when we published our early White Paper Thought Leadership in the Age of AI, we saw too many problems for AI to be useful.

 

As time has gone on and we ourselves have experimented more with the technology - and as the technology itself has been updated and improved - our view has changed and this will be reflected in the forthcoming Revised, Updated and Expanded version of the White Paper, due out towards the end of Summer 2025 (subscribe here to be the first to receive it)). We have also been delighted to provide input on Marketing and AI to AI companies themselves.

 

This is not to say that all problems have been resolved and there are some things that, in our view, generative AI will never be able to achieve. We also emphasise the criticality of human guidance (including but going beyond Prompt-Crafting), in oversight and revision, fact-checking and ultimate enhancement of AI generated material. One thing we remain clear on is that while AI has enormous potential for helping us replicate and speed up our own ability to produce valuable Thought Leadership materials, it can never do our actual thinking for us. For that, we still need our own AI (Authentic Intelligence). 

 

Nonetheless we increasingly find that AI has benefits especially for 'behind the scenes work' and also for generating First Drafts of certain types of materials, especially when trained in a Bespoke way on a company or individual's own 'In House Style / Voice' - this is an area we are excited to explore. We don't yet feel that the quality of the material produced by current publicly available generative AI programmes is quite at the standard required for quality Thought Leadership Marketing programmes without robust human Editorial Oversight: as such we see AI as enhancing and speeding up - but not as yet replacing - human-produced Thought Leadership programmes. Ironically, we also feel that AI's very efficiency will, in turn, prompt a greater need for human intervention in order to ensure that material remains original, especially given that AI will increase the overall pool of material.

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​As such we continue to undertake experiments in possible uses of AI and are especially interested in the possibilities of training Bespoke AI's to write (and potentially even 'replica-think') in a Company House Style - we include AI Prompts for Bespoke In-House Company 'Voice' with our Entryway / Starter Packages (for example our 'First Thoughts' Package') - always of course on the assumption that strong editorial supervision is in place. Our Vision for the future is currently a two-tier scenario where House-Style Bespoke AI's are utilised alongside true human-crafted Bespoke materials, in a somewhat similar manner to the way Fashion Houses run both Haute Couture and prêt-à-porter lines.*

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*Original Insight taken from forthcoming Revised White Paper: © Susan Lawson Ethical Thought Leadership, June 2025

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​​WHAT IS OUR POSITION ON AI IN OUR OWN MATERIAL?

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At SLETL no material directly written or overseen by Susan Lawson has thus far knowingly used AI textually. AI may have been used to generate research by a researcher which has then fed into posts subsequently written or heavily rewritten. All our forthcoming books, guides and papers have been human-written by ourselves, although Resources, such as Thought Leadership Readiness Checklists, have drawn on AI in very helpful ways.

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However, our Position is changing: ​​​we are looking into possibilities for deploying AI in transparent ways which save time and allow us to put out more useful and insightful materials more rapidly but which remain in line with our Quality and Ethical positions, potentially for example utilising a Bespoke SLETL AI for many Blog Posts but then highlighting hand-written / human-crafted materials as Special Events, as it were.

 

We will keep this page updated as our Stance and Opinions on this change and will keep testing what’s available and how ethically it might be used.

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Note: our Stance on AI and all material on this page is also fully human-devised and authored and is original and Copyrighted material. Should you see the same AI policy elsewhere, this has been lifted from SLETL. SLETL AI Stance ©Susan Lawson/Susan Lawson Ethical Thought Leadership, Policy Updated May 2025.​​​​​

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