Q&A with a SaaS marketer turned full-time AI marketing consultant
Prompts are cute, workflows are king
The following is a conversation with Adamma Ihemeson, a former B2B SaaS marketing leader who now owns her own AI marketing education & consulting group – The Automated CMO. Her work makes AI more accessible by teaching marketing teams how to confidently adopt AI as an assistant, not a replacement.
How did your AI journey begin?
My journey started about three years ago when I attended a live webinar hosted by Jasper. I was so impressed that I subscribed before the webinar even finished. I was single-handedly managing product launches for over 28 platforms. The workload was becoming overwhelming and I realized AI tools were my only option to scale.
I already knew how to launch products and build strategies. What I didn't have was time. So I started using prompts for repetitive tasks. Then I started wanting more than quick fixes. I wanted to build systems. That's when I found MindStudio. It's a no-code AI app builder. Suddenly, I could automate entire workflows.
For example, I built a social media copywriting engine in MindStudio. It creates social content based on my inputs. The system does the repetitive work, but I still guide the strategy.
Do you feel like you've mastered any tools yet?
To be honest, I feel I've only scratched the surface of what's possible with these tools. My social media copywriting engine in MindStudio is one of the most advanced systems I've built so far, but even that is just the beginning.
What really excites me is how tools like Zapier and Make.com are now enabling us to connect AI with broader business processes. We can now integrate AI models into workflows that extend far beyond marketing (predictive analytics, lead generation, etc.). The possibilities seem endless to me. Especially with no- and low-code tools like MindStudio, Cody AI, and Cassidy AI, it’s only going to become more accessible and lessens the learning curve to mastering AI workflows and agents.
What other tools are in your AI stack?
I'm open about my tools. Gatekeeping doesn't make sense in this field. If we want to push boundaries, everyone needs access to the best tools and practices.
MindStudio is my main tool. It integrates my whole marketing stack. It has built-in AI models like Claude, Gemini, Mistral, and Perplexity. I don’t have to mess with external APIs. Saves a lot of time when I'm setting up workflows across platforms.
I use Zapier and Make.com for external workflows, especially when MindStudio has limitations. They're good for connecting systems that don't naturally talk to each other.
For email, it's HubSpot and MailerLite. Stripe for billing. I'm always testing new tools, especially ones with open APIs. I've tried Bardeen AI for some templated workflows. Started with Jasper early on for content like blogs and ads.
Perplexity is great for market research. It goes deeper than Google and provides sources for its results. Each tool has its job, but the goal is to get them all working together to streamline the whole process.
Where are we at in the AI for marketing?
A year ago, AI popped up in maybe 3 out of 10 posts in my feed. Now? It's more like 8 or 9. But we're still at the starting point.
OpenAI pushed AI into the spotlight in November 2022. But we're a long way from seeing it used widely and well.
Plus I’m already seeing a flood of AI certifications, workshops, you name it. Everyone's trying to figure out how to make AI a normal part of doing business. It's like the early days of the internet all over again. Exciting times, but we've got a lot to learn.
Who is your ideal client right now?
B2B startups. I love their energy.
But I work with nonprofits too. That's where I started my career. I know how tight their budgets are. Nonprofits are often last in line for new tech, and I don't want them missing the AI boat.
There's so much AI could do for them - automating grant apps, boosting donor comms, managing volunteers. I was talking to someone in legal non-profits recently. It amazed me how many of these groups are just dipping their toes into AI. They're not sure where to start. That's where I can help.
What would you tell someone who's feeling overwhelmed by AI?
Start with what you know! There's a ton of AI noise out there - new tools, new models, updates every other week. It's a lot. But don't try to learn it all at once.
If you're a marketer, think about the workflows you could do in your sleep. The goal isn't to reinvent everything. It's about using AI to make what you already do work better.
Pick one small process you can automate with AI. Just one. Start there.
And don't buy into the AI fear-mongering. There's a lot of clickbait about AI taking jobs or making people obsolete. That's not the real story. The conversation we need to be having is about how AI can make our work better, not replace it.
Being a full-time consultant in the space, you have a unique vantage point. What interesting developments are you seeing?
Specificity. Right now, everyone's talking about the macro picture - "AI for marketing" or "how to use AI in your business." But that's already starting to change.
We're heading towards specialists. AI for video content. AI for SEO. AI for lead generation. AI for email. AI for customer service.
I know consultants who only work with Claude or ChatGPT. Others (like me) focus on tools like MindStudio for building custom setups. This splitting up makes sense. AI is huge. No one can be an expert in everything.
I bet we'll start seeing AI departments pop up in companies. Like little AI agencies inside bigger businesses. They'll have teams just for prompt engineering, or custom chatbots, or custom data architectures.
It's exciting. This kind of specialization means marketers can focus on what they're good at. I think we'll see more marketers doing the same - finding their niche, mastering their tools, and building businesses around that know-how.
I was at HubSpot's conference in Boston about a week and a half ago. Around 90% of the talks were about AI. Interestingly, whenever someone displayed a prompt example on their slideshow, almost everyone in the audience immediately started taking pictures. This reaction struck me as odd because a single prompt isn't what makes your AI implementation great. It's just a starting point, as you mentioned. I feel there's so much more to effective AI use than just one prompt.
It's funny, right? Everyone's snapping photos of these prompts like they're the secret sauce.
Prompts are useful. They give you a jumpstart. But the real work happens after that. That's why I'm all about building systems, not just collecting prompts. I don't want folks to get stuck thinking prompts are the end-all. They're not. The real value is in creating a whole workflow. Prompts are part of that, sure. But they're just one piece of a much bigger puzzle.