Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: There are more AI tools out there than any agent has time to test. And most of the advice you'll get assumes that you'll try all of them. But who has time for that? That's why today we're doing the shopping for you six AI platforms which what each one does best and how to pick the one that fits the way you work.
[00:00:17] Speaker B: This is the first episode of our new five part series, AI for Agents. Everything you need to know to put AI to work in your business, starting today with the tools themselves. I'm Jo Barker.
[00:00:26] Speaker A: And I'm David Belleville and this is
[00:00:28] Speaker B: the Amerilife Marketing Mentors podcast.
[00:00:35] Speaker A: All right, Jo, before we run through a single platform, when an agent asks you which AI platform they should be using, how do you respond?
[00:00:43] Speaker B: I respond with a lot of questions. So I think the most important part is understanding what is it that they're trying to do. I think people want to go straight to the tool and they want to start trying to figure it out where sometimes you just got to back up and look at the entire workflow or system that you have in place and see what tools make the most sense to make you more efficient or to make your process more efficient. Not necessarily going straight to the tool. Now somebody came to me and they were like, hey, I want to Talk directly about LLMs and which one to utilize. Then we can go down a whole conversation, which we're probably about to, in all those different tools. But that's usually the first thing is just figuring out what is your current process and where can we make you more efficient by having AI assist you with it?
[00:01:23] Speaker A: Yeah. What do you need to use it for? And as you mentioned, we will go down every single platform, talk about what they're best for, what they're known for, and how you can leverage one. But we certainly won't advise today that you need to have every single one of these, especially if you're unfamiliar with using AI. We recommend that you just start with one and then get comfortable with it. So let's run the list, Jo. I'll give a one line version of each and then we'll have a brief discussion. And let's start with Copilot, because here at Amerilife, that is our LLM of choice and it's baked right into everything that we use. So what are your thoughts on Copilot?
[00:02:00] Speaker B: Well, I think you just said it, you know, it's baked into everything that we use. So if you're on the Microsoft suite of products, so you're utilizing Microsoft Outlook, you have Excel, you have Word, you're utilizing, say you're utilizing OneDrive. It connects everything and it just makes it so easy to rely on it as your assistant to help pull in, you know, different conversations. If it's via email, make do functions and different things within your Excel sheet that maybe you don't have to look up those functions anymore because now you can ask Copilot to help you out with that. Same with Word documents. So the use cases for Copilot, utilizing it as an LLM and utilizing it as kind of your assistant for all the Microsoft tools is a no brainer. If you utilize the Microsoft suite of products.
[00:02:40] Speaker A: Do you remember the little paperclip icon with Microsoft Word he used to give pointers and advice. It just feels like we've come so far, but having that integrated into the tools that we use, it's so convenient. You don't even need to leave the Word doc or the PowerPoint that you're editing. It's been super convenient.
There's a learning curve with all of these platforms, but the more that you get comfortable, as we'll say throughout, the better. Are you off?
[00:03:07] Speaker B: And I think the more you. Yeah, the more you get into the different Microsoft products and the more you deploy it and you kind of test it out to understand how it can help you and how you can. And it's just asking it questions, letting it respond and building those prompts and those conversations with it.
[00:03:20] Speaker A: And how many of us out there are using the Microsoft Suite already?
It's just, it's so naturally fits in to so many people's workflows and obviously here at Amerilife, like we said, that is our go to. But there's of course many other options out there and so let's keep this moving and talk about perhaps the most popular one, which is ChatGPT. This has kind of gained a reputation of being a general purpose LLM or kind of a beginning platform. What do you use ChatGPT for most?
[00:03:49] Speaker B: I use it for my content. So I still rely on ChatGPT a lot for the content. I spent a lot of time training it, having an interview, me getting used to my tone, the way that I speak, doing, you know, the words that I use, the words that I don't use.
So I spend a lot of time training it and in my opinion, for me it's the best LLM I have that mirrors the way that I typically would speak or write something. So it has the least amount of edits for me. And you're right, it's the most popular. It's the most downloaded. It's usually where people start. Yeah, that's usually the first one that they download. There's a free version of it and they start, you know, playing with it a little bit, understanding that capabilities. It doesn't take long to get hooked once you're in there, but eventually you run out of space or tokens and then you got to level up a little bit with the plan that you have.
[00:04:36] Speaker A: Yeah, it didn't take long for me to become a paid ChatGPT user because once you do start getting comfortable with it and you train it and you take that time, it becomes. It really does just become automatic for something and you rely on it so much that it becomes worth it too.
[00:04:50] Speaker B: And the thought of waiting for your. For the time to pass or the. It's no, you're like, no, I need you, you're my assistant. Help me here. So. Absolutely.
[00:04:59] Speaker A: And talk about consumer behavior changing. I mean, we are perfect examples of like starting to really rely on these super helpful tools.
Let's keep this moving though. We can revisit some of these. I also want to make sure that our audience knows what an LLM is. It stands for Large Language Model, and so those are these platforms that we're talking about today.
So, Jo, let's talk about Claude.
So much of the AI landscape was dominated by ChatGPT and OpenAI. I really feel like six months into the year, Anthropic with Claude has kind of started to emerge as one of the top LLM platforms.
[00:05:37] Speaker B: Absolutely. Especially if you're doing coding. So I think that's where you saw a lot of people in the marketing space especially or in the IT space, really tend to lean more towards Claude because the capabilities of its coding platform, its capabilities of integrating with. With other platforms, the teamwork feature to where you can work with others was stellar. And I think when you were used to chatgpt and then you started to move over there and you saw the capabilities of what it could do, it was. It was very quick to pick up that behavior and want to spend time over there, especially for those coding. So that's what I use it for the most. Anything that has to do with websites, anything that has to do with SEO, aeo, Geo, anything along those lines of connecting of my apps. I use Claude now for all of that and then I go back to ChatGPT for my social media or other content ideas.
[00:06:24] Speaker A: And that's a great back and forth, I think, with Claude too. And you kind of touched on this. IT'S great to break down the complexities. So coding is obviously something very complex, but for our audience of agents and advisors, I mean there are regulations and rules and paperwork and documents and admin work that they do. That Claude can really become an assistant, that, that helps decipher all of that and make it simpler to, to digest.
Let's keep this moving, Jo. Gemini. Gemini. It's Google's version of an LLM and this has also emerged throughout 2026 as a very popular LLM platform. Just like Microsoft Copilot, if you're using Google Google products every day, then Gemini is baked right in. What do you have to say about Gemini?
[00:07:15] Speaker B: Yeah, I think with Android it also plays a major role because Android space off of the Google platform.
[00:07:19] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:07:19] Speaker B: And so, you know, especially if you have an Android that and you utilize a Google Gmail and all of those same resources, it absolutely makes sense. Traditionally, I've always relied on Gemini for my researching. It does really good at deep researching. And so that's kind of an area where if I really want to learn something or I really want to understand something, or if I really want to take the time to dig into a topic, Gemini is the first one that I go to. It's always been a reliable source for me and that's kind of how I've always thought of it of you're my research assistant.
[00:07:53] Speaker A: I feel the same way.
I've also started to replace some of what I would go to Google and conduct a traditional search for. I've started to bring that over to Gemini just out of interest and to learn a new platform. But I agree, if you're going to Google, then Gemini is a platform that you should at least experiment with and if nothing else, treat it like another search engine.
Jo, I don't have much experience with this one transparently, but Perplexity is a well known LLM platform and it is great for research. As we mentioned, it cites sources. How much experience do you have with Perplexity?
[00:08:31] Speaker B: I use Perplexity a lot as my fact checker.
[00:08:33] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:08:34] Speaker B: So in my opinion, Perplexity is probably one of the top at being most factual. And so if I pull something out of Claude or I get some information out of ChatGPT or Grok or any of the other ones, I usually will load it into Perplexity. I will ask it to review the information that it gave me and let me know what's accurate and what's inaccurate.
And you still have to fact check it yourself, but that is always the first step that I go to is utilizing Velocity for that.
[00:09:01] Speaker A: That's so interesting because what you're describing is really LLMs working together. Now you've got this assistant working with this assistant and now we're all collaborating. I too will run through multiple LLMs just to fact check. You know, if multiple are saying that this is true and then I'm able to verify it, then I'm feeling pretty good that we can run with that information.
[00:09:23] Speaker B: And they have LLM aggregators now, so actually have sites that you can go to and you can put in your. Your prompt or your search into one platform, then it will feed all of them.
Why I don't personally use it and why I'm not a huge fan is I don't necessarily need all those tools to have all my data in the same way. And so that's where I pick and choose which ones I utilize for what. So once you put it into the aggregate, it sends it everywhere. And I don't necessarily want all of that everywhere, all the time. Sometimes I know exactly which LLM I want to use.
But I received that question a couple of weeks ago at an event and someone asked me if I used it or what I thought of it, and I literally hadn't put thought around it. So on my flight back, I looked into it and I was like, yeah, no, I don't want to do that. Because that was one of the cons of it was you're now feeding that same query into all of those platforms. And I was like, I don't need that.
[00:10:14] Speaker A: That's a tremendous, powerful tool too. I mean, for our use cases. I don't feel like, especially our audience, that something that massive is necessary, that. But it kind of is a preview of perhaps what's to come and how the AI landscape might continue to evolve.
[00:10:31] Speaker B: Which is why I love when people ask questions at those events. Because something like that, I've never experienced it before, I've never tested it before, but then it gave us that research. So it just goes to show with AI, with everything, you're never going to know everything and you're never going to, you know, know the pros and the cons. And so it really is testing it out for yourself and trying to figure out what best fits for what. You know, your use cases.
[00:10:52] Speaker A: Yeah. And. And we hope that this conversation today helps you narrow down where to at least begin if you're deciphering between all of these platforms. Jo, we've got one left on the list. And I know that this is another frequently used LLM for you and our team, it's Grok.
[00:11:06] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:11:07] Speaker A: And, and that one is baked right into X. So you'll also notice a theme that these LLMs are now emerging within the platforms we use every day. And X, formerly known as Twitter, is one of them. Now with Grok, what is Grok best for?
[00:11:23] Speaker B: I use Grok for anything trending. So if I want to know hot topics, if I want to know what people are talking about, if I'm trying to understand, you know, the sentiment around certain topics, I go to Grok, I put it in there and then it pulls back and gives me that real up to date information based off of real conversations that are happening out there. So every single week I have it set to run a trending on anything marketing that's happening. And, and then that way it just pulls everything and brings it over to me so I'm not having to go research and try to learn things. It does all that for me and I know it's the most up to date as it's tied into the platform.
[00:11:56] Speaker A: How did you set that up?
[00:11:57] Speaker B: It's a prompt. So you can literally go in and tell your prompt every single week on Monday morning to run this prompt for you. I have it, I can share it.
And so I give it topics that I wanted to watch for. I also say who my audience is. And so, and I tell it every single Monday, run this, run this prompt for me and send this back to me. I have it checked for very specific platforms like email marketing, social media marketing, AI marketing. So I have it all in there and then I will say it doesn't run it every single week, automatically every time. But if I go back to that feed and just type in run now, it will run it for me.
[00:12:33] Speaker A: I think what you're describing is a fantastic best practice for our audience to kind of keep in their toolboxes that's saving prompts that the ones that you know work and generated a response that you were looking for. Keep a library of those or specific chats that you always refer back to because those are the ones that you want to use over and over again. So instead of having to start from scratch, you now have an ability to pick up either where you left off or start a new conversation with the same prompt.
Jo, I feel like because now there's so many platforms on the market, one reason people might be hesitant to start using an LLM is because they don't know which one to pick, they don't know where to start. So now that we've gone through all of These. What advice do you have now for those who may still be wondering which one is best for them?
[00:13:26] Speaker B: I didn't start out using all six of them. I. And I didn't know all six of them. And so over time I just started doing research to try to figure out and I started prompting within each of the LLMs to understand and to really kind of figure out what it was good at and what it was, what it was not so great at. I started with ChatGPT for the content and it didn't take long to realize that there were coding issues. There were a couple of times where I had to go right back to Chat GPT and this was in the beginning and say, nope, that's not right, or that's outdated. That's three years ago. Obviously they fixed it since then, but it was a lot of outdated information. When Claude's updates came out about all the new coding that it could do, I naturally moved over there, started testing it out and I found things that I liked. I think it's just a natural progression as you realize the pros and cons of each platform. There's people out there that are not going to agree with me, they're not going to use the tools the same way that I use them. All I can share is my experiences with them and how I believe it's benefited me and that could change. So we, we said it earlier in January. My favorite was ChatGPT. I was never even looking over at Claude. I was using it, but not a ton. Sure, now I buy. I definitely use Claude a lot more than I use ChatGPT.
[00:14:35] Speaker A: Well, and all of these companies are in an arms race with each other. And what that does is it breeds innovation, it breeds competition. And so the pace of this AI race is by nature going to have these platforms evolve and the use cases for them are going to continue to evolve. So if you're not using them yet, now is a great time to get started. Just pick one that we've talked about today. If you're on the Microsoft Suite, use Copilot Pilot, Google use Gemini or Chat GPT if you're not sure really which one to use. Jo, as we wrap up this conversation, do you have any final thoughts?
[00:15:14] Speaker B: I'll share my final thoughts. So as you were sharing that story about the races, I literally was picturing sitting at the raised stadium and you know how like the ketchup and the mustard or whatever, various each other.
[00:15:23] Speaker A: The mascots.
[00:15:23] Speaker B: Yes, that's literally what I was picturing as you were talking about it. Because they always, like, one will trip and then one will get right back up. That's what I thought of. That's what I pictured when you were Talking about the LLMs trying to race each other. So there you go. There's a visual for you of how
[00:15:36] Speaker A: I was thinking about it and it's so accurate. And I don't want to end on any other note than that. So if you need help picking your next LLM or you want to dive into this conversation more, please head on over to our website, amerilifemarketingmentors.com book a 15 minute consultation with us and we'll direct you to your next platform. In the meantime, for the Amerilife marketing mentors, I'm David Belleville.
[00:15:59] Speaker B: And I'm Jo Barker.
[00:16:00] Speaker A: We'll see you next time.
