The modern field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) came into existence in 1956. It then took decades of work to make significant progress toward developing AI as a technological reality. Many people still associate AI with science fiction dystopias. That characterization, however, is waning as AI grows and becomes more commonplace in our daily lives. Today, AI is a household name. Lately, one such example of AI’s omnipresence is an AI-powered content and copywriting generator for anyone who needs help writing anything. Be it social media, blogs, texts, ads, emails, or any content or copywritten messaging you can dream of across every industry – Lately doesn’t just write for you; they write a better version of you.
Fueled by the neuroscience of music, Lately’s AI studies familiar touchpoints to create a writing model and then applies it to transform long-form content into something new. “Each time your brain hears a new song, it automatically accesses every song you’ve ever heard before. Your brain then looks for familiar touchpoints to index that new song in your memory banks. Every voice has a frequency, like a musical note. When you read a text, you hear that voice inside your head. Like a rock ‘n’ roll DJ, it’s the writer’s job to give you familiar touchpoints to sell you something new,” shares Kate Bradley Chernis, Founder and CEO, Lately.
A DJ turned Copywriting Savant
Kate used to be a rock ‘n’ roll deejay, broadcasting to 20 million listeners a day for Sirius/XM. What she learned about the neuroscience of music now fuels Lately’s AI. She says, “That, in combination with a spreadsheet system I created for little company called Walmart, back in 2011, that got them 130% ROI, year-over-year for 3 years.”
Aspiring to be a leader who she would want to follow herself, Kate’s golden rule is ‘do unto others,’ which is how she treats her team, their sales target, and customers as well. She explains, “The biggest guiding principle is that I’m a wild horse. If you tether me, I’ll keel over. But if you let me run, I’ll win every single dang race. So I hire wild horses as well. That’s tough because many people need guidance – a lot more guidance than I’m willing to give them. I’m impatient about this and expect others to be relatively autonomous. That’s a big ask. But it’s why my team is superior. They impress me daily, both on skills and on kindness.”
Considering the mistakes she made as a stepping stone to where she is now, the best advice Kate received was to be herself. After spending a lot of time trying to be someone else in this life, which never worked, she could not be her true self. “Sometimes you do it because you’re trying to be who other people want you to be. Sometimes you’re trying to be who you think other people want you to be. For me, when I’m not being my true self, my body starts to scream at me – pain happens. I have a partial permanent disability because, in the past, I wasn’t listening. Now, I do,” says Kate.
With a team as her pillar of strength, Kate had witnessed her team unflinchingly support her and the company, even when she had to ask them to not take paychecks. “They make me feel proud of them. They fight this fight as though it’s their own. Nothing makes me more grateful. These are truly incredible people. How lucky I am to call them my team?” says Kate.
Even the pandemic could not disrupt Kate and her team. Having always been a dispersed company, Work-From-Home worked out and benefited Lately to a great extent. “My team has been shaking hands via Zoom since the beginning. Slack is our water cooler, and the environment we cultivate is generally filled with laughs and high-fives. The team has always supported me and each other, and we’ve managed to keep a wicked sense of humor because… Startup life. The roller coaster is just par for the course,” adds Kate.
Disrupting Writing through Technology
Kate is currently working on relaunching the entire company as a self-service series of products, entry-level price points, product-lead-growth, and gamification. She states, “The timing is now, and a confluence of events has given us the knowledge, the purpose and the positioning to do this now. It’s exciting and terrifying. You know, business as usual!”.
From the mundane to the breathtaking, artificial intelligence is already disrupting virtually every business process in every industry. As artificial intelligence technologies proliferate, they are becoming imperative for businesses to maintain a competitive edge. The pandemic has been a blessing in disguise for Lately, as their demand has grown exponentially. Kate claims, “If you’re not using AI in your sales or marketing stack, you’re eradicating yourself.” Lucky for Kate, the AI content creation field is nearly empty, so they are at the forefront of the next wave of AI demand. Advising upcoming tech leaders, Kate concludes, “The best advice for anyone, in any domain, is to be kind. The more you can put yourself in the shoes of others, the better the leader you’ll be. Plus, you’ll have fewer wrinkles!”