Best Way to Work with AI (From a Performance Marketer and SEO Expert's Perspective)
Inspiration: How people used to call the way I write as Grammarly, and my odd talent for SEO without any prior training.
Alright, let’s get it rolling.
Before we get into the “best way to work with AI”, we need to make it clear that this is not the technically best way to work with AI (as that will require domain expertise where you train your own models).
By AI, we are referring to the good-old chatbots of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Meta’s Meta AI and Google AI’s Gemini.
Ready? Great.
The main reason I write this is not to pretend I know the best way to work with AI, but rather to share my experience of helping others who kept asking me the question, “Barbaros, how do I best use AI?”
Like I am Sam Altman… Yet, my friends asked me about this question quite often, and they really enjoyed my reply to them.
Best way to use AI? You talk to it like you would talk to a human.
Wait, what? That simple?
Yup. It’s that simple.
You don’t need to have an imaginary PhD in prompt engineering to use AI effectively.
There are people SELLING COURSES on this stuff…
Heck, companies even created their guides, such as the Prompting Guide 101 by Google.
Here are the main areas they want you to focus on for “writing an effective prompt”.
- Persona
- Task
- Context
- Format
Here is the exact example they used:
“You are a program manager in [industry]. Draft an executive summary email to [persona] based on [details about relevant program docs]. Limit to bullet points.”
Now, if you are someone intimidated by new tech like the LLMs/chatbots/AI, or have difficulty communicating in written communication, that sentence above may look quite impressive or perhaps even overwhelming.
But.. isn’t that how you would write a brief to a colleague or your direct report?
Now, there is a very good chance that you were not a manager who had to communicate through writing, or have a very different way to communicate through words, and that is perfectly normal.
But, if you wish to adapt to the digital world, and more importantly, for this writing, learn how to use AI effectively (since you are reading this), you need to learn how to communicate with it.
Now, you might ask why I think this is the most efficient way to use AI for 99% of the people (the 1% don’t need to read stuff like this), and that’s fair.
Here’s why:
Barbaros, You Sound Like Grammarly
That’s right.
Before ChatGPT became a worldwide sensation, many people, especially those I recently met, would find the way I type fairly different than how most people write.
Perhaps a little robotic, odd, or like.. Grammarly, the grammar reviewing tool powered by AI.
Again, this was way before these LLMs got popular.
Funny enough, now that ChatGPT, Gemini and Meta AI have become so popular and people are trying to find the best way to work with them (for job security, and many other reasons), your friend who sounded like AI ended up being the chat many people listen to on a daily basis.
I don’t sound that different anymore, huh?
Okay… Let’s get back to the topic.
I believe the best way to talk to AI is to speak to it like a human, because it is trained on data provided by humans.
Don’t overthink that sentence. That’s the whole point of this exercise. People try to overcomplicate these things (like how they overcomplicate Search Engine Optimization/SEO to charge you more).
When you write a brief to someone you manage, do you say “write emaeeel make eet gut”?
No.
You provide context through clear language, making it very easy to read while sharing the objective of the task.
Wait, where did you hear that?
Oh, right, the official guide provided by Google AI on how to write an effective prompt…
But what if you have no management experience?
That’s perfectly fine. Then, you talk to it like you would speak to a child.
(I don’t mean managers should treat their direct reports like children. This is an example for non-managers who work in other roles.)
Just talk to AI like you would text your kid who is preparing for their SAT exam.
Clear language. Context. The aim of this task. Any additional information that can minimize the chances of making a mistake. Heck, if you want to put your leader hat on, you can even share why you are doing this task and why you need their help.
Then… Magic happens. AI just works for you.
SEO Expert. So, Automatically a Chatbot Expert.
Well, kind of…
First of all, were you aware that using Google’s search engine is basically a skill you learned over time? Perhaps doing it better or worse than some, and most definitely better than your grandparent, who did not have this tech around their time (considering this was written in 2025).
If you haven’t heard of SEO (which is perfectly normal), it is Search Engine Optimization.
Basically, managing your website in a way that can rank on the first page of Google when people search for certain keywords.
It matters waaaaaaaay more than you think.
Anyhow, business owners love investing in this service (mostly for a good reason), as there is a lot of return on their investment if their business can rank on the first page of Google for certain keywords.
So, brands pay digital marketing consultants like me to come up with a strategy to try to rank.
Even though this is one of my least favourite services to offer, as brands either have unrealistic expectations (like trying to rank better than Amazon), or I have to witness once again how they got scammed in the past by another so-called SEO expert.
Hold on… How does this relate to AI?
Well, we are talking about the same thing! Well, kind off…
Similar to chatbots like ChatGPT or Gemini you use, the system of presenting the most useful information to you, the user, stays the same.
These invisible robots go through every accessible website in the world to read on your behalf, then present you the information that they think will be most helpful to you.
(Of course, we are talking about not ads here.)
So, as an SEO expert (who always had a much easier time understanding this tech, like Mr. Robot in that picture), I am pretty confident the best way to use AI remains the same.
The best way to use AI? Once again, you talk to it like you would speak to a human.
As Scott Galloway also said, “AI won’t take your job. But someone who understands how to use AI will.“
So, please take a deep breath, and use these tools in your favour, my friend.
