Awais Khan, the Vice President of Operations at Superhuman AI, brings a singular mix of technical experience and a background in advertising and gross sales to his function. As the primary worker at Superhuman, Khan was drawn to AI by the keenness surrounding ChatGPT’s rise in late 2022. This ardour led him to focus his content material on AI, which finally formed his profession. In his function, Khan has navigated vital challenges, notably in forming partnerships inside the AI business. By focusing on startups with low-cost promoting initially and finally attracting enterprise firms with useful content material, he has efficiently grown Superhuman AI’s attain. Khan believes within the early potential of AI to spice up productiveness and effectivity however emphasizes the significance of getting expert staff to leverage these instruments successfully. His insights spotlight the evolving function of AI in advertising and gross sales and the necessity for companies to stay adaptive and forward-thinking to remain forward of business developments.
Are you able to share the journey that led you to change into the VP of Operations at Superhuman AI, and the way your background in advertising and gross sales influenced your method to AI and automation?
I used to be worker number one at Superhuman. The concept was that our CEO is extra of a artistic sort whereas I thrive extra on the technical/repetitive aspect of issues so I made a decision I’d deal with Operations. My curiosity in AI was fairly unrelated to my 9 – 5 day job. I keep in mind when ChatGPT had blown up in late 2022 and other people had responded very positively to it. That’s after I simply began nerding out on it and began posting about it just a few months later. Seeing folks’s enthusiasm in the direction of AI made me wish to make it the main focus of my content material.
What have been essentially the most vital challenges you’ve confronted in forming partnerships inside the AI business, and the way have you ever efficiently navigated them?
I prefer to phase our companions into 2 sorts: Enterprise firms and early-stage startups. It was fairly simple getting early-stage startups within the door. Our publication, Superhuman AI, was charging very low CPCs (cost-per-click) to promote within the Superhuman AI publication originally. Loads of these early-stage startups who had smaller budgets have been seeing nice outcomes with us and that made renewals simple. We didn’t have an outbound gross sales perform originally, which made it fairly exhausting to focus on bigger firms in order that was considered one of our most important challenges. Nonetheless, as soon as our publication grew to 500,000+ readers, we grabbed the eye of enterprise firms, typically even with out doing outbound. So long as you produce nice content material and supply worth to readers, entrepreneurs in enterprise firms are sure to note you and wish to work with you ultimately.
In your opinion, what are the important thing elements companies ought to contemplate when integrating AI and automation into their operations to maximise effectivity and productiveness?
I consider we’re nonetheless fairly early within the AI revolution and are usually not fairly on the level the place AI can merely change your staff. Ensure you are hiring the very best people who find themselves already nice of their capabilities earlier than prioritizing AI over every thing else. We use ChatGPT and Midjourney for writing our publication but when we didn’t have a number of the greatest content material writers/producers within the business, they wouldn’t have a watch for when ChatGPT is producing nice outcomes or horrible outcomes. AI must be a device to spice up your greatest staff to allow them to prioritize higher-value duties.
How do you envision the function of AI evolving in advertising and gross sales over the following 5 years, and what ought to firms do to remain forward of the curve?
It’s exhausting to say. The tempo of progress is so intense and our expectations have been surpassed so many instances. To remain forward of the curve, take heed to your staff once they say they wish to combine AI into their work. So typically, my colleagues at Superhuman AI have requested the usage of a sure AI device that I hadn’t even heard of however we built-in and it produced nice outcomes. At present, we’re experimenting with AI in Gross sales and it’s producing nice outcomes. Be open-minded and grateful for workers who’re continually pondering of those enhancements.
Are you able to present an instance of a profitable AI implementation at Superhuman AI that considerably impacted enterprise outcomes? What have been the important thing takeaways?
Our favorite device by far seems to be Midjourney. Our Content material Group is nice at prompting and the standard of pictures that we produce in our publication is one thing that’s tremendously liked by our viewers and units our model aside. The key takeaway is that Midjourney is on the disposal of so many newsletters on the market but it surely’s actually about your capacity to make use of the AI.
How do you steadiness your tasks at Superhuman AI together with your function as a content material creator on LinkedIn, and the way do these two roles complement one another?
It’s not too exhausting. I swap between creating a few of my content material after which having somebody on my Content material Group assist produce the content material if I’m ever too busy. The 2 roles are intertwined with one another. Nice content material results in nice engagement, which results in subscriptions to our publication. Natural subscribers are far more engaged than subscribers who come via paid channels.
What developments do you presently see in AI and automation that excite you essentially the most, and why do you consider they are going to be game-changers for companies?
Within the gross sales business, there are some rising instruments that may learn the communication and emotional alerts of prospects and inform you what’s working and what’s not with a view to enhance lead conversion. It takes a variety of experimenting and AB testing in Gross sales to determine what’s working and what’s not so an empathetic AI like this could be an enormous resource-saver.
Out of your expertise, what are the frequent misconceptions companies have about AI and automation, and the way can they overcome these misunderstandings?
That AI implementation is pricey and dear. We’re quick approaching a cut-off date the place it is going to be way more pricey to not have applied AI.
How do you method the monetary features of AI initiatives to make sure they ship a robust ROI for Superhuman AI and its companions?
For us, AI has been a price saver. Till very lately, we had no person with a devoted profession in Design. So most of the designs/pictures for the publication and our social media content material have been produced utilizing AI. In relation to our companions, nonetheless, we’re fairly danger averse as we wish to guarantee the very best service – supply. Because of this we now have a devoted staff for the Partnership expertise, whether or not that’s gross sales or copywriting.
What recommendation would you give to younger professionals who aspire to work within the intersection of AI, advertising, and gross sales, based mostly in your profession experiences and business insights?
In the event you’re contemporary to advertising or gross sales, make certain you perceive folks rather well earlier than utilizing AI – our jobs are about human psychology. AI would possibly assist you to go from being a horrible Content material Author to a median Content material Author but it surely received’t assist you go from being a median Content material Author to an ideal Content material Author.
