Oh dear ...

 

the [mis] use of ai

At a recent social event, I ran into a gentleman who I had several times advised on digital marketing for his medium-sized business. Our conversation got round to AI – and he just rolled his eyes and shook his head.

Twenty-odd years ago he had consulted me on how his organisation could best use email. I had advised him that as around 80% of his outgoing email was the same few messages that he should create templates, so that all staff sending ‘repeat’ emails [e.g. confirming delivery of goods and confirming receipt of an order] sent out emails in the same layout, same font and in the agreed ‘voice’ of the organisation. Each message was clear and concise, checked by his solicitors to ensure there would be no legal issues raised by addressees of the emails. As a result – even when employees changed – all outgoing messages remained consistent. 

The owner had then retired, and his son had taken over the business. Last year his son decided that all the templates could be scrapped and staff use AI for email generation. The result was – in the old man’s words – ‘utter chaos’. Every outgoing email was different, different style different voice, different colours … different everything.

My client knew nothing of this until news of a legal claim against the company arose because an outgoing email had not made clear what was required or what should happen. As a result, a customer lost [a lot] of money and was claiming that money – and expenses – back from the business.

I suggested he get someone in to advise his son on the use of artificial intelligence in the business.

it's funny 'cos it's true

 

is this a trustworthy list?

Apart from Wikipedia - and why not go direct to that website instead of using an LLM? - I'm not sure I would have a great deal of faith in content from these sites. Reddit in particular as much of it is simply folk's opinions.

it's an advantage of the internet

In the early days of the web when I was 'selling' the Internet to organizations, one of the major positives over printed media was that content could be changed in minutes rather than having to reprint leaflets/brochures/etc.

And yet 30 years later you can still find web pages [like this one] that are 13 years out of date. In this case, someone planning a visit to Cleethorpes could have no confidence that this car park still exists.  I'm pretty sure that if it does, the price will have gone up. Oh - and the link I've underlined doesn't work.

d2c … I don't think so

The headline of the article - in reality, it was an ad for a podcast interview - said "2 Bootstrapped D2C Brands, 1 CEO"*. However, when I read the content it was about a business that buys in products then sells them online. This is online retailing [e-commerce] IT IS NOT D2C. D2C is when a manufacturer/producer sells products direct to the end consumer ie without a third party being involved.

As far as I am concerned everyone that is involved in the business and article does not have knowledge of what marketing really is.

*Note: I'm not adding a link to the article as I don't think it's worth your time reading it.

excellent analogy

Seen on X, from @Emma_Turner75

"Making a microwave dinner is easy. You put it in the microwave, press a button & it’s done.  

Making a microwave dinner doesn’t teach you how to cook; you’re then reliant on microwave meals to eat.

Bypassing the hard thinking necessary for learning with AI use is just microwaving."

I agree completely ...

"In practice, however, technology is never neutral because it takes on the characteristics of those who devise it, finance it, regulate it and use it".

Pope Leo, May 15, 2026.

The reference is to artificial intelligence.

so you've paid a subscription for an ai service ...

And then you get this ...

links - but to what?

Dark on light is easiest to read. That includes text links.

 

why search for something that isn't there?

I'm a fan of filters when searching a website for something to buy ... but listing what's out of stock?

someone [ or more likely, ai] seems to think i want to start a small war

 

a place of your own?

For years [about 30] I used to tell students that they should register their name as a domain name and set up their own web page. 

Now that artificial intelligence dominates search [apparently] and folk ignore search engines and social platforms when researching people [eg for job applications] that advice is more than ever relevant.

What could be better than your own CV that can be changed only by you? 

the same in Europe?

This research is from the USA where Amazon dominates e-commerce and so I would expect that figure to be lower over here. If they're honest [are there any who are? 😏] I think those folk selling AI would be  disappointed at these results.

what do you think?

The headline of this article says "Influencers Are Still Making Their Mark with Gen Z" ... but is that the case when none of the numbers are over 50%? And what about the research methodology ... what is a 'celebrity or influencer'? eg if you follow one sports person do you appear in this survey's results.

how long?

Six weeks seems a long time to enter something on to a computer?

que?

 

where's that then?

This map - is it a map? - is the result in the search featured in the previous post. It's a town-centre shopping precinct which could be in just about any town or city in the UK. Ho hum.

there's no such place

Sunderland is in the county of Tyne and Wear ... Durham is a city about 20 miles from Sunderland. No excuse. None. 

why not just right write it to start with?

Saw this 'tip' from a source I normally value. But: it's for writing website content - so not thousands of words - so wouldn't it be quicker, and more effective, to just write it off the top of your head and not use ai? 

now you see it ...

 ... now you don't. A lack of testing, methinks [and poor design in the first place].

it's funny 'cos it's true[ish]

 

nice sign

A few weeks ago I posted a story of a business where the opening hours were hard to find. Well, here's an example of good practice. This is from the google listing for a business, with the search being outside it's hours of business. Note that after you've set it up, Google does the work for you.

Premier-Image?

 

in the great scheme of things ...

 ... five minutes isn't that long. But it is.

Ad spend well spent?

Five million impressions for an ad that seems to be for a podcast 🤔 

Whatever it's about, why did the advertiser/X think I would be interested?

Ad spend well spent?

 I have no idea what either of these are advertising ... 

ai shopping assistants ...

 ... these numbers seem a little generous to me, I'd like to see the research methodology 🤔

ai - a sensible review

Well worth 20 mins of your time. From the excellent Hannah Fry ... Why AI Agents are either the best or worst thing we’ve ever built.

it's funny 'cos it's true

 

that's a good idea, I think i'll order one ...

 

what's the point if ...

... 'Grok can make mistakes', [you should] 'verify its outputs'.

In case you're not a follower of football: it was 2-0 at half time [surely every report on this match anywhere on the web would have reported this correctly], particularly as the third goal [on the hour mark] came in the second half. If an LLM can get something as simple and obvious as this wrong, why would to trust it for anything important?

one thing you don't change is your team [3]

 And these are local rivals to my team ... 

one thing you don't change is your team [2]

 

one thing you don't change is your team

 ... and Liverpool ain't my team.

none of these are 'my city' [and most of them aren't even cities]

 

A follow up to the last post ...

 ... which featured a promotion for 'Lessons from the Web Performance Summit 2026' which featured 'More than 100 corporate digital communications professionals from many of Europe’s biggest companies'. 

Well, I'm sure those folk know there own organizations, but how much can they offer marketers that run digital communications for organization's that are smaller than Europe’s biggest companies?

No tracking = not much room to read

Previously I've commended Bowen Craggs on the way their website handles cookies - but it seems the space for users to read the content with the cookie message in place has shrunk a bit [the box I've highlighted in yellow]. 

But things get even worse on a phone's screen - it's the bit at the bottom [again, in yellow. 

open ... or closed for business?

This morning I was going to visit an antiques/collectibles shop about an hour away from my home. Because most antiques stores do not keep 9-5, 7 days a week opening hours, before setting off I thought I would check on their website if it was open today. There was no website, only social media pages - none of which included the basic details of the business [just a lot of nice pictures]. I eventually found a phone number and gave it a ring. Landline number, no answer. Is it closed today? Will it be open later? Are they on holiday this week? One thing is certain: they won't be taking any money off me today. Or perhaps ever.

Moral? Well, it could be; read my book - but I'll go with: have a basic web page with 'about', 'address', 'contact details' and 'opening hours' [you can get these for next-to-nothing when you buy a domain name], or have these details on the home/pinned page of any social media presence. Or go old school and have an answerphone message saying 'sorry, we're closed at the moment, our opening hours are ...'. 

Customers can be hard to find, don't make it hard for them to find you.

Update: several hours after originally publishing this post - and because I wanted to follow up this post, not because I was desperate to visit them - I had another go at finding some opening hours ... and after a bit of digging, found them. Ho hum. 

a snapshot in time?

After attending a Premier League football match, I was invited to complete a questionnaire about my match-day experience. All fairly standard stuff, but there was one key question missing: what time I arrived at the stadium. I got there an hour before kick off - effectively, one of the first to experience the various elements of the event so, no queues. I'm pretty sure folks arriving after me would have had a very different experience.  

another 'war and peace' review

This notice popped up at the end of a purchase. Sound idea, provides a bit of marketing data [not sure how much], but I was logged-on to the site - so technology should have been designed to recognise this. To be fair, when I clicked on 'other', one of the options was 'shopped here before', but that should have been in the original list. As with most [all?] of these feedback forms, I was willing to offer a couple of quick clicks ... but I gave up after four clicks and was then asked to write something🤷. I left the site at that point.  Surely the site's data collection is set up to show how many folk start, but don't finish, the feedback.

unnecessary clicks

One of my website design bug-bears is the use of hamburger menus [three lines] which you have to click on to open the menu. These started use on apps and websites on smaller screens, where they do serve a purpose. But on a website like this one? No. In usability terms it's an unnecessary click for the visitor - more so if you have to return to the home page - where the opened menu will have closed. In this case, why not just put the menu/links across the top of the page? my opinion of why designers use the hamburger? It makes the top of the page look 'cleaner'. A case of style over substance.

So what is this ad for?

Short? What's a short?  I checked the website of the organization in the ad - and I couldn't find where it is based. Maybe it doesn't actually exist ... and a short is from the imagination of of artificial intelligence.

Close ...

 ... but no cigar - I'm an adidas man.

look behind the numbers

I think this research offers something for online retailers - but there is something missing. What is the total number of folk being represented here? It is not - for example, 33% of a population - it is a percentage of folk who have purchased from a social media platform. 

Oh, and what does the statement 'purchased on social media' mean? I would say it means that no other website was involved in placing an order and paying for it. If you click on a link on the social media platform which takes you to a website's purchase page, I don't think the purchase was made on the SM platform. I wonder what the respondents thought? 

And finally ... the survey's title. Shouldn't it be; 'Social media platforms that are most popular for shopping'. 

Ad spend well spent?

I've bunched these together because I have no idea what is being advertised in any of them. I would suggest that for at least some of them, the product - or service - is so specialised that actual customers could be identified ... and so contacted directly.

my review? your reviews are hard work

If you want more reviews, make them quick and easy ... don't ask them to write an essay.

Ad spend well spent?

I'll stick with my old MR2 thank you. As always check out the stats at the bottom. A quick glance at the comments show they are mainly folk doing the same as me and taking the p*ss.

i don't find it at all entertaining

Apparently the terms of service for Microsoft's Copilot say it's for entertainment purposes only, that it can make mistakes and may not work as intended ... and that users should not rely on it for important advice.

If you use X - there's a good analysis of the story  by @HedgieMarkets 

how to end problems with social media

March 2026: A court case in the US over a woman's childhood addiction to social media which Meta and YouTube lost brought the dangers of social media into the public realm. Again. Those issues are beyond the scope of this blog's subject area, but halting them is not. The social media platforms exist only by selling advertising on them. And marketers pay for those adverts. Ergo, if marketers stopped buying that advertising space the social media platforms would close. End of problem.  

soulless ...

 ... as if written by a computer 😒

already a member? well join anyway.

I've subscribed to a number of email newsletters - some of which provide me with posts for this blog, others on a range of subjects including sport. Many of these newsletters include links to web pages. 

Those websites must recognise that I've arrived from a subscribed email. So why - usually seconds after the page has downloaded - do I get messages asking/advising me to subscribe to the newsletter?

who wouldn't want something that ...

 ... plugs right into your pipeline via API and having instant access to M4 runners, automated code signing and zero hardware to manage? [and yes, I realise that the end of that sentence doesn't make sense, but I just copies it from the ad😏]

Ad spend well spent?

Anybody any idea what the product in this ad does? Or who would use it? The interaction would suggest that most of the 641 thousand folk who have had it delivered on their 'X' feed are like me and have no idea.

now you see it ... oh, no you don't

One of the first things I advised folk about website design back in the mid 1990s was 'light background, dark text' - black on white is best [like every book you've ever read]. This is why ... I put the red arrow on to help  you find the text 😏]

using ai

A tad off-subject, but On Becoming a Cyborg is the best article on the use of AI that I have seen.

Ad spend well spent?

Binders apparently 🤷 I didn't think they were still a thing in the digital age. 469 thousand 'views' - not cheap.