You're the Top of the AI Sandwich - with Brian Piper and Matt Wilkinson
If AI writes a better prompt than you can now, what are you still being paid for?
In this episode of The Trending Communicator, host Dan Nestle is joined by two of his closest collaborators, Brian Piper, content and AI integration consultant and co-author of Epic Content Marketing Volume 2, and Dr. Matt Wilkinson, founder of UK agency Strivenn and author of the forthcoming Buyer in the Loop. A month earlier, the three shared a stage at Mark Schaefer's Uprising retreat, building one marketing plan together, each orchestrating their own team of AI helpers to pull it off.
Their answer to the question above is discernment. The AI handles the prompting now and most of the drafting. What it can't do is know when an output is wrong, when a claim is weak, when "good enough" isn't. That judgment comes from years of doing the work, and it's the one thing you bring to the machine that the machine can't supply for itself.
The same idea runs through everything else they get into: why enterprise AI rollouts keep stalling, why "saving time" never seems to free anyone up, and why the white-collar-apocalypse story makes better clickbait than it does prediction.
Listen in and hear about...
- Why discernment, not prompting, is the skill that holds its value in the AI era
- What actually went into co-building a campaign live at Mark Schaefer's Uprising retreat
- The change-management gap behind most failed enterprise AI rollouts
- Why "AI will take your job" is quietly sabotaging adoption from the inside
- How going solo became more connected, not more lonely
Notable Quotes from Brian Piper and Matt Wilkinson
"I think where it really excels is when you tie in expertise, you know, and you talked about building that discernment into the prompt and into the structure of your models that you're using." - Brian Piper
"We have this extra time that AI has given us. Now the really strategic part is figuring out how you're going to use that time and how you're going to spend that time in a way that benefits your organization the most or benefits your customer the most." - Brian Piper
"Otherwise the world is just going to be full of AI slop. But we can really use AI to increase the way that we think, the way that we engage with the information that we have." - Matt Wilkinson
"There is no incentive to work with the AI to teach the AI to take over the tasks that you're doing, because then the AI can take your job. So why are you training up your replacement?" - Matt Wilkinson
"I felt lonelier working at an organization than I did now that I'm on my own." - Brian Piper
Resources and Links
Dan Nestle
- Lilypath | Website
- The Trending Communicator | Website
- Communications Trends from Trending Communicators | Dan Nestle's Substack
- Dan Nestle | LinkedIn
Matt Wilkinson
Brian Piper
Timestamps
00:00 Navigating Job Loss and New Beginnings
03:01 The Power of Collaboration in Solopreneurship
05:40 The Unique Experience of the Uprising Retreat
11:48 AI Beyond the Prompt: A New Approach
20:34 The Importance of Mindset and Discernment in AI
30:22 Operationalizing Expertise and Discernment
38:46 Merging Human Insight with AI
40:40 The Compounding Effect of Collaboration
42:09 Understanding AI Governance and Implementation
44:45 Strategic Use of AI Time Savings
46:49 The Myth of Time Freedom with AI
48:43 The Disconnect in AI Adoption
49:07 Building a Community for AI Success
50:05 The Importance of Change Management
52:33 The Reality of AI's Impact on Jobs
54:02 Navigating Job Evolution in the AI Era
56:26 Responsible AI Integration
58:16 The Role of Education in AI Adaptation
01:01:12 The Future of Job Markets and Education
01:04:19 Teaching Prompting for AI
01:07:32 Creating a New Educational Framework
01:10:00 The Solopreneur Experience
01:12:20 The Loneliness Myth in Entrepreneurship
01:15:20 The Human Element in AI Conversations
(Notes co-created by Human Dan, Claude, and Riverside)
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