In this conversation, Mike Montague, founder and CEO of Avenue9, discusses how businesses can use AI in a human-first way to improve marketing, sales, and customer relationships. He explains why AI should support people rather than replace them, how strong strategy and context shape better AI results, and why generative AI is only one part of a larger set of tools that includes automation, machine learning, predictive analytics, and answer engine optimization. The discussion also covers practical AI use cases for content creation, sales calls, customer service, podcast repurposing, and business workflows, while highlighting the need for original human thinking at the center of every AI-driven process.

Takeaways

• Human-first AI marketing starts with improving the customer experience, not just saving time.
• AI works best when it supports people like an assistant, rather than replacing full roles.
• Strong strategy must come before AI, because AI can make weak ideas fail faster.
• Context engineering helps AI create better results for a specific business, team, and audience.
• No single AI tool fits every job, so teams need the right mix of tools for each task.
• Generative AI is powerful, but automation, machine learning, and predictive analytics still matter.
• Meeting transcripts, podcast transcripts, and customer service tickets can become rich sources of business insight.
• Answer engine optimization focuses on how people find businesses through AI-driven search and direct questions.
• Original human content gives AI stronger material to repurpose into posts, summaries, keywords, and sales assets.
• Agentic workflows, AI skills, and tools like Claude Cowork may shape the next stage of knowledge work.

Today's guest, Mike Montague , can be found at:

Website: https://avenue9.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikedmontague/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mikedmontague/

Your host, Hunter Jensen, can be found online at:

Website: https://www.barefootsolutions.com/

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/hunterjensen/

Keywords

AI marketing, human-first AI, content marketing, sales conversations, customer relationships, strategy, context engineering, generative AI, automation, machine learning, predictive analytics, answer engine optimization, AEO, SEO, LLMs, ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, Grok, Gamma, Whispr Flow, meeting transcripts, podcast transcripts, customer service tickets, trust signals, LLMs.txt, LinkedIn, YouTube, Reddit, Wikipedia, AI search, marketing automation, sales calls, customer success, content repurposing, long-form content, agentic workflows, Claude Cowork, AI skills, Perplexity Sonar, knowledge work