AI meeting minutes note takers allow for critical day-to-day time saving and efficiency. As a global marketing studio, our team is often here, there, and everywhere. To be able to have full transcripts emailed out to both participants and the wider team immediately after a meeting saves critical time, keeps the whole business up to speed, and frees us up to do what we do best and drive creativity.

Inthe ever-evolving and never-ending landscape of business, staying ahead of the curve is a prerequisite for success. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has gone from being a futuristic concept to a daily business tool that executives can’t ignore. In this interview series, we would like to talk with business leaders who’ve successfully integrated A.I. into their operations, transforming their companies in the process. I had the pleasure of interviewing Angel Gaskell, founder of The Alternative.

Over two decades at the forefront of marketing, scaling a business from 0 to 50 people, and now revolutionising content’s role for brands, Angel Gaskell is a pioneer leading the post-agency rebellion. Her latest venture, The Alternative, is a global marketing studio without borders which harnesses the power of fusing human creativity and technology. The team has integrated AI into its services and even offers training to in-house sales and marketing teams looking to streamline their processes and increase efficiency in their marketing with AI. With a focus on doing more for less.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! To set the stage, tell us briefly about your childhood and background.

Mycareer kicked off in the dot-com boom. Back then, I thrived in an ad sales team that was overwhelmingly male-dominated. Even at the start of my career in London, I wasn’t afraid to push forward and quickly climbed the ranks. That’s when I decided to leap into the world of marcomms, and over the past two decades I’ve transformed myself into an industry-leading marcomms expert managing a successful agency throughout Covid. I’ve since launched my newest venture, The Alternative — the future of AI, marketing, and creativity.

What were the early challenges you faced in your career, and how did they shape your approach to leadership?

Early on in my career, I definitely faced hurdles. Starting out in a competitive sales team, and then adding the challenge of being a young mum during a time when workplaces weren’t always accommodating was a tough combination. However, those experiences shaped how I lead and instilled resilience in me that’s been vital to both my professional and personal growth. On the busy sales floor, I learnt the importance of fostering a supportive environment, one that empowers everyone to succeed regardless of background or personal circumstances. It helped me to understand what is needed to create a healthy, happy, and successful team that can thrive under any circumstances.

We often learn the most from our mistakes. Can you share one mistake that turned out to be one of the most valuable lessons you’ve learned?

One of the most valuable lessons I have learned is to trust my gut instincts and not rely on others to always have my back. It turns out that people very rarely do. It’s better to listen to your inner voice and intuition, as they are often our most reliable guides in life. And never put you faith in anyone who is plauded as an expert, however amazing their career is — learn, but always trust yourself.

A.I. is a big leap for many businesses. When and what first sparked your interest in incorporating it into your operations?

My interest in incorporating A.I. into my operations was sparked when I realised the enormous potential it had to streamline, energise, and revolutionise how I managed client accounts. It hit me that by embracing A.I., I could free up more time for strategic thinking, human creativity, and driving tangible business results. It was a real moment of clarity that made me realise that looking to artificial intelligence could have a genuine impact on the bottom line and ignite a rebellion against high costs and inefficiency.

AI can be a game-changer for individuals and their responsibilities. Can you share how you personally use AI and what are your go-to resources or tools?

AI is so useful in work and in my day-to-day life, too. Whether it’s as a search engine, for research, or for learning about new things, it’s become an essential for navigating the internet.

I also love AI Writer App which is a fantastic tool for dealing with most life admin tasks!

On the flip side, what challenges or setbacks have you encountered while implementing A.I. into your company?

One of the biggest hurdles has been the sheer multitude of AI tools available. It’s like being a kid in a digital sweet shop, with so many enticing options, but limited time and resources. Additionally, many of these tools are locked behind payment gateways, making it harder to explore and experiment. We often find ourselves pondering which tools to use for marketing and how to identify the ones that truly drive efficiency and when money and time is on the line, we have to find the best solutions quickly and with little to no financial risk. It’s a bit of a balancing act, but myself and the incredible team around me are constantly working to find the perfect blend of AI-powered solutions that will propel our marketing efforts forward.

Let’s dig into this further. Can you share the top 5 A.I. tools or different ways you’re integrating AI into your business? What specific functions do they serve and what kind of result have you seen so far? If you can, please share a story or example for each.

1. Mailmerge-JS is inbox magic. It’s an AI tool that we drive with our teams’ creative brains to deliver fantastic, bottom-line focused results for our clients. It allows us to create and send highly personalised emails without worrying about stiff templates or data massaging.

2. AI meeting minutes note takers allow for critical day-to-day time saving and efficiency. As a global marketing studio, our team is often here, there, and everywhere. To be able to have full transcripts emailed out to both participants and the wider team immediately after a meeting saves critical time, keeps the whole business up to speed, and frees us up to do what we do best and drive creativity.

3. Meeting schedulers are crucial for timesaving and organising. When juggling various clients, projects, and staff, the ability to cut out the back and forth and find the ideal date and time for a meeting is invaluable. Not only is it incredibly convenient, but it means that we can be more efficient and better invest our time elsewhere.

4. We use AI to help with visualisation and storyboarding thanks to software like Midjourney or Firefly. Being able to input our human creativity and instantly get results cuts valuable time out of the process, ensures a quicker turnaround for the client, and streamlines our workflow to reduce costs.

5. Relume is a brilliant tool that helps us to design and build websites more efficiently than ever. We can generate, customise, and collaborate on designs for clients with simple, creatively-driven prompts to deliver the impactful results our clients need.

There’s concern about A.I. taking over jobs. How do you balance A.I. tools with your human workforce and have you already replaced any positions using technology?

AI is a powerful tool, but it’s all about using it alongside human creativity, not as a replacement. We see it as a way to make everyone’s lives easier. By streamlining repetitive tasks with AI, our team has more time to focus on what they do best — the strategic thinking and creative problem-solving that drives real results. In fact, we haven’t replaced any positions with AI, and we don’t plan to. Our vision is for AI to be an empowering tool that unleashes even more creativity within our team.

Looking ahead, what’s on the horizon in the world of AI that people should know about? What do you see happening in the next 3–5 years? I would love to hear your best prediction.

In the next 3–5 years, I predict we’ll see a surge in hyper-personalization. AI will become a master matchmaker, predicting customer preferences and behaviours so we can deliver content and experiences that resonate deeply. The leaps forward in integration and application will unlock huge opportunities for the software to seamlessly understand and work alongside us.

On the content creation side, AI is poised to become a marketer’s superpower. Advanced AI tools generating social and video content at scale whilst still allowing marketers to maintain a consistent brand voice will free up time to focus on the big-picture thinking like strategy, client relations, and ideation.

But the real magic lies in the data. AI-powered analytics will crack the code on customer behaviour like never before, helping marketers make more informed decisions, improve campaign targeting, and maximise ROI.

If you had to pick just one AI tool that you feel is essential, one that you haven’t mentioned yet, which would it be and why?

One essential tool for The Alternative and outside of work is Sana AI. It’s a clever productivity tool powered that is used to provide insights, collate data, brainstorm campaigns, compare invoices, summarise documents, and more! Without it, we’d spend a lot more time on the small stuff, and less time generating ideas and serving clients.

For the uninitiated, what advice would you give someone looking to integrate AI into their business and doesn’t know where to start?

First, I would suggest for any marketeers that they set aside time to learn. Navigating AI is completely new to so many people, and investing in the right resources is critical to getting the most out of AI. At our ALT Academy we offer hands-on training that gives people a deep understanding of how these powerful tools can make a business more productive, efficient, and streamlined from Midjourney, Runway, Firefly, ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini…

Secondly, I would suggest identifying specific tasks where AI can help, like customer service or marketing personalisation, and setting clear goals to guide your choice of AI tools and ensure that the integration makes sense and is of value.

Finally, it’s important to monitor AI performance, gather feedback, and adapt as needed. In an ever-developing landscape, staying informed about AI advancements to keep discovering new opportunities is essential. Self-learning is critical, become that Ai prompt engineer in marketing!

Where can our readers follow you to learn more about leveraging A.I. in the business world?

First, check out The Alternative’s website and social media channels. We’re constantly sharing insights and best practices on using AI to achieve marketing goals. Additionally, consider signing up for our AI Gig List — a curated weekly info of tried and tested AI for marketeers!

This was great. Thanks for taking time for us to learn more about you and your business. We wish you continued success!

About the Interviewer: Chad Silverstein, a seasoned entrepreneur with over two decades of experience as the Founder and CEO of multiple companies. He launched Choice Recovery, Inc., a healthcare collection agency, while going to The Ohio State University, His team earned national recognition, twice being ranked as the #1 business to work for in Central Ohio. In 2018, Chad launched [re]start, a career development platform connecting thousands of individuals in collections with meaningful employment opportunities, He sold Choice Recovery on his 25th anniversary and in 2023, sold the majority interest in [re]start so he can focus his transition to Built to Lead as an Executive Leadership Coach. Learn more at www.chadsilverstein.com