How to do value prop and messaging for ai products when everything is about automation, super powering, staying ahead of the curve etc etc

This question really resonates with me because AI mentions are at an all time high; and therefore, the market is pretty noisy. In order to cut through, I focus on getting to a single headline message that is both pointed and taps into an emotional tension. 

How I do this is by focusing on the core principles of any good marketing (this by the way is the Google marketing mantra): 

• Know your user(s)

• Know the product magic

• Connect the two

Let’s say you have a product that will save a bunch of time for your B2B target user. You could just use a generic “supercharge your team with AI product,” which would absolutely get lost in all the other generic messaging out there. Or you could dig into

• Why does saving time matter for this audience? How does it change their day-to-day life? What’s the “from” / “to” for the change that this new product drives?

• What is hard and/or important about the work your product now automates?

• How does your user feel about this topic?

• Is there an emotional tension that you can tap into - e.g., maybe they value saving time but fear being replaced by AI?

• Again, why does this matter to your target user, really?

• How is your offering different from the competition?

Ok, but what if what you’ve built is being copied by others and therefore losing its novelty? 

Then I think it’s important to probe what your brand and point of view is. For example, distinguishing between all the different LLMs today can be hard especially with the tech constantly evolving. However Anthropic takes a very strong and steadfast position in the market around safety. As a result, their message around “Helpful, honest and harmless AI” cuts through. You cannot be memorable if you aren’t willing to put a stake in the ground on something. 

Finally my last piece of advice is that once you know what you want to say, distill it down to very human, simple terms.