The AI Marketer's Playbook

42 | How Abigail Merrill Helps Teams Adopt AI Responsibly

• Audrey Chia • Season 1 • Episode 42

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Abigail Merrill joins host Audrey Chia to demystify how marketers and teams can responsibly integrate AI into their operations. Drawing from her AI Accelerator Toolkit and work with highly regulated sectors, Abigail shares a flexible, repeatable framework for aligning business goals with the right AI use cases. From using embedded AI features in existing tools to collaborating with sales teams on high-impact content, her approach emphasizes sustainability over hype. 

She also highlights how to avoid common pitfalls—like lack of governance—and reclaim valuable time using tools like Gemini, ChatGPT, and NotebookLM.

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Audrey Chia:

Hello and welcome back to the AI Marketers Playbook, where we cover actionable frameworks to help you leverage AI and marketing strategies in your business. I'm Audrey Chi, a host, and today I have with me someone who brings structure, clarity, and serious results to the world of ai. Powered marketing nit. Abigail Merrill, a seasoned marketer based in North Carolina's research Triangle with more than 15 plus years of experience spanning experiential and digital marketing. Now, she has worked with both solo premiers as well as major brands like OpenTable and Nectar, and I think what sets Abigail apart is a sharp focus on making AI practical, especially in more highly regulated industries like pharma, FinTech, or even real estate. Abigail is the creator of the AI Accelerator Toolkit and a four step integration framework that we will be covering in a bit. Abigail, welcome to the show. Hi. Thanks for having me, Audrey. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much for being on. I would love to know a bit more about yourself, your journey. How did you get started in the whole world of ai?

Abigail Merill:

For sure, for sure. So, like many folks, I started off in marketing and sales enablement. I. And sales enablement is, kind of like the crux of how we actually do marketing. So, marketing operations and making sure that the sales team have what they need in order to, you know. Close those deals and get people to events. And so I actually started off in the operations side and then I was like, Hey, you know what? I've been planning these huge, large conferences for all of these people and really focusing on the marketing efforts. So I got my certification in marketing, and that was back in 2019. And I've been really focused on helping every step of the customer journey for my clients, and as you said, in highly regulated industries. So, from pharmaceuticals to, finance to real estate. So I really focus on, kind of the business side of how to integrate AI appropriately. So when more and more of my clients were coming to me about marketing and strategy and sales, and then. You know, I was working with a client, back in, I wanna say October of 2021. So before chat, GPT, they were a competitor of them. 2022, excuse me. and then chat, GPT came along and I was like, this is amazing. And. So just from the, that very beginning, I have really focused on, just building my skills. Just like a lot of your listeners here. just started off with experimentation and seeing how I can include it within, small use cases. And so today I'd really like to talk to your, listeners and kind of share this proven framework that has really worked for my clients, and it's based on business acumen and, the actual process of incorporating AI safely and responsibly into our practices, not just for those immediate gains. But also for the repeatable success, and being able to scale that.'cause as we know, some marketers and some businesses, especially here in the us, are kind of hitting fire a little bit in the sense that, oh, well maybe we don't even need marketers now that we have chat pt. And so, my framework really gives people that competitive edge, and really helps them shine within the organization and also. Bringing those repeatables, repeatable. ROI

Audrey Chia:

Yeah, I what you said about, it's not just a one time thing, right? It's like how do you do it consistently? And even before AI as a marketing team, you already had to figure out how do you, you know, create content that's scalable, that's also consistent. Now I want to double click on one thing you said. You talk about, you know, bringing ai but looking at it with a more business lens, right? that point of view. Can you tell us more about that? I.

Abigail Merill:

Yeah, for sure. So, for me, I have always had to be the outsider looking in with consulting and going, I had to always make a case for the management team, to either continue to hire me, to continue to use me to, integrate the strategies, that I recommend. And so really that that began to really think about that when it came to our AI use and our AI adoption and what I'm. Recommending to my clients, solopreneurs through small businesses is how we actually build a case for the management team, for the leadership, so they're able to see your results and be able to know exactly where your efforts have been spent. See you as a leader within the organization. Self and then it's kind of a slam dunk win for them to wanna set you up. Either give you more money that you're able to set aside for these pilot programs, or, you know, maybe you're able to upskill your team or upskill yourself. So, really taking what you're able to accomplish within the framework and within the phase. Three phases and then it, you just lay it out there and it makes your case super easy for leadership.

Audrey Chia:

So curious to know, like what are some maybe common use cases that you have seen across the board, in terms of using AI and plugging into your business workflows?

Abigail Merill:

Yeah, for sure. So, for me, like I said, I really come at it from like a sales enablement marketing operations standpoint, and that's where I really. D ai, really helping. And of course it can make fun photos and it can, you know, update our copy and, you know, create fun memes. But really, thinking about how AI can really be the backbone of your organization. And so, part of the framework I teach is starting off with, let's look at what your current tools. You already have in your Toolkit are, so I never want to bloat an organization. have too many, you know, people saying, oh, we can't afford that. We can't do this. so I recommend people looking at the tools that they already own, and sometimes they have the AI features embedded already within them. And so finding those particular use cases. It's not AI for more AI's sake, right? let's not cause us to have so much more on our plate. So let's really use and learn the tools that we are already using, we're already comfortable with. And let's see if they already have those AI features. Those are probably, that's the quickest win you can provide. Not only yourself, but also your team. sometimes it's a matter of. AI features are embedded already, and maybe they've been turned on, but people haven't had a chance to use them, haven't had a chance to learn them. So that's another part of the framework is like making that an important step. So going back to your question about, the best use cases. It really depends on the person. within the phase one, I have people set up smart goals. are you familiar with smart? for those, listeners that may not know, it's an acronym that starts with specific measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound. So when we are really looking at what are. Current processes are, and going back to business acumen basics for a second, a lot of the solopreneurs and a lot of teams that I see that are very small, and maybe they're a small business, they haven't actually even. Documented what their current processes are, their manual processes are. So when they're trying to look for ways that AI can be included or turn on a new feature, it's like throwing spaghetti at the wall. If you, if you know that reference and just see what. Sticks without a plan, without a systematic way of measuring those. Not only are they not gonna know what's working, they're not gonna be able to, apply that leverage to maybe fund more pilots in the future, maybe, request more testing and more tools, and more trainings. from their management team. So really making sure that we are focused on, building our responsible use case upfront is gonna be your surefire way to have those repeatable wins. And I'm sorry I can't give you exact specifics. on what's the best use case?'cause it really is person to person, you know. saving five hours a week is one of the first activities we do. in my toolkit and with my clients and sometimes saving five hours a week is. Is great for someone, but another person is if they could just cut out drudgery, something that gives them, like, doesn't drain their energy reserves. by doing something manual and offloading that to ai, that can be the biggest. use case for somebody, even if it's not equating a bunch of numbers, sometimes it's that qualitative, benefit that other folks,

Audrey Chia:

may not see. And I think being able to offload the things that you don't like to do to AI is one of the best parts about AI because it. Actually frees up your bandwidth, your mental and emotional capacity to be more creative, work on high level strategic stuff and being able to see things in like maybe a different perspective because now you have just more time Right. To to breathe, to work, to play, to experiment. Yeah. And I think that's the beauty of. Ai, you, you mentioned something about sales and equal one. I know it, you have been super big in this space. Perhaps you could share with us like one example of how teams can leverage AI in their sales processes.

Abigail Merill:

Yeah. For instance. So, I'll give you an example. So sales enablement is kind of like a newer term. Some people are calling it performance marketing, rev ops marketing, sometimes it's just considered marketing operations, right? But, so whatever you call it, it's creating great content that aligns with your messaging that you provide to the sales team. Okay. So. How that can be provided is maybe, it's a really nice flyer one time. I created a whole campaign. It was just a four day campaign, for a client and I used AI from start to finish, right? So, the product team was too busy to give me any information, so I just used what I could, to gather as much information about this new product. I put it into Notebook lm, just throwing out tools and, sorry if that's jibber jabber, but sometimes it might be helpful for people through, all of the sources into Notebook lm, which is a, AI from the, Gemini Labs. And, so that's really great if you just wanna use only the sources that you've been given. And that's really great, especially like I said, in highly regulated industries where you have to be very, very careful about the sources that you're using. Sometimes they're scientists involved sometimes. There's, you know, regulators involved. So through everything I could into Notebook LM to learn what I could about this new product, then I brought all of that information over to chat t and said, here's what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to create a flyer. I'm trying to create, something, you know, that they can actually email out to all of. There folks, I also need to make a, three week campaign with three different emails, you know, at different parts of the journey and I need to make a LinkedIn copy right, that also amplifies this. So those are the kind of things that, yeah, it would take a long time to. Make all of, that copy making sure it's right for each of those platforms, making sure that it aligns with the messaging, making sure it also aligns with what the salespeople actually say and what they find to be beneficial.'cause they know their client, they know the customers better than anybody, so sometimes working with them, that's another part of, sales enablement. And that's why I've never really separated a marketing department from a sales department. I just think it's all together, right? Because marketing is trying to sell and sales are trying to market themselves as well. So they're having those touch points directly with the client. So I really find what they have to say valuable. So I would pull that back in and say, here's what exactly the sales team likes to say. Here's what their clients are used to saying. Of course, you know, I have a very, very long, Chachi pt, highly curated prompt that helps me identify, and create personas for each of these products. So that's another use case, that's really helpful. But, you know, for me, like I just. I just really think that if you have all of these different tools at our disposal, your audience is already using a lot of these. I would highly recommend people document this because, document what has worked, what has not worked, right. when have been the times that you've literally had to go back to chat GBT and be like, that is not what I. Said like all caps, like, like rage typing into, or in other example is when you, pit them off of each other right. When you. tell Claude that, Chachi PT told you this, and then you bring it back over to Chachi PT and say, you know, this is what Claude told me. And it's almost like high school girls like competing for the best prompts. So you play all these tricks, but at the same time, it's like with these experiments, but really not documenting those experiments and not figuring out what works and not figuring out, what's repeatable. Not only are you just, you're just winging it. You forget things, you forget your processes. you've, you know, models change and features update. So then what worked for one model may not work for another. So. What are you able to kind of find that will really work for you long term?

Audrey Chia:

You've shared so many great points, right? First, it's like being able to use different tools and also being able to get them to work alongside us. Each other or be that you know, competitor, right? So that you get to put them in a test and understand their strengths and weaknesses. And then you as a human curator, you become that judge and you synthesize all that information and you figure out what works best for my clients. And then you put on that lens. And I think the second thing you say that is a very important use case for people is if you are in a very technical industry, if you have loads of information you need to quickly digest, then a tool like Notebook, lm or using a tool like Perplexity will help you to quickly find sources, understand the materials you already have, and then build that. Brief so that now AI has that context, that brief, to then work off. And I think that's something that for marketers, or even teams doing sales enablement, you really wanna consider how best to leverage these tools.

Abigail Merill:

Yeah, yeah. And if research is something that is really important to you and quick gathering, all those sources, I would highly recommend, Gemini, deep research. So that's probably the best one out there right now. We do have Chacha BT Deep Research. That is not confusing at all because they're the same names. but the reason why I like Gemini better is only because, it's free and they don't have as many limits, with how many sources that you put in. But I will say it's exhaustive, right? So if you're doing a research paper and you need a ton of different sources. go to Gemini and then maybe take that information and, put it back into chat, GBT, so it's a little bit more digestible. But it, you know, it's funny because these. As an AI trainer, as a consultant, I am constantly being asked by people, you know, what should I use? you know, what's the latest thing? How do I stay up to date on all of this? And, you know, even the actual creators of these LLMs, so like the big ones, you know, gr OpenAI, JG pt, anthropic, bylaw Gemini. You know, they're putting these things out there, these new models out there all the time, and they put it on training data and they have these, capabilities, but it's still a little unpredictable to them as well. So, I hope it's reassuring to the audience to know that even if you feel like you understand it today, it might not be the same tool as tomorrow. it might have changed the model. They might have done a whoopsie, and put out a model that was too. Soon, and it might change all, everything for you. And so, you know, being, creating an environment even for yourself or maybe for your team that is, open to experimentation and open to failing and open and having that gray area and making that okay for if you're a manager, if you're, you know, a business owner yourself. the safety net of having a framework in place. having those safety guardrails, the, privacy and ethics, that's one of the steps that I go over. kind of setting up ahead of time and then letting your people, you know, if they go through the framework, letting them experiment. Maybe they might find something, they might be able to 10 x your work, and, you know, really make some changes. And letting those innovators kinda thrive within your organization and creating that environment is, there's something really beautiful about that.

Audrey Chia:

So, and speaking of frameworks, right, I would love to, you know, take a peek at your framework that you take businesses through so that people now have an idea of. How do they even get started integrating or implementing AI in their

Abigail Merill:

workflows? For sure, for sure. I'm gonna share my screen, Yeah. Okay. So this is, my AI scaling framework. it's just three phases. I've brought it down from four steps to three steps. seems to be really helpful for folks. but really this is a, repeatable process that has built-in compounding effects. That are really going to show your leadership, the ROI that they're looking for. and so whether you are a solopreneur, or an enterprise team, this is gonna work for you. so phase one really starts off with a line and we wanna align our goals. We want to look through our current manual workflows. and see where we might be able to find, you know, find some of those opportunities that we might want to turn into a use case and find that highest impact opportunity that AI might be involved in. and maybe you can offload it to them. Another part of this step is really talking about the safety and ethics. That go into AI and what that means for your business because the goal is certainly to keep, Use safe, your business safe, the information safe. For phase two, we're really talking about how we integrate, right? So this is all about, you wanna integrate quickly and you want to do it responsibly. So we've built some of those guardrails in place from the align step, and now we're ready to integrate one of the most. Important steps that I feel like that people lose sight of is, really, and as I spoke about a little bit earlier, is really looking about looking at the current tools that you already have and maybe some of those hidden AI features that, you know, maybe you just need to turn on. Or maybe you're, you have an IT department. Who hasn't really figured it out, what they wanna do, and maybe they've locked everything down, and that's their, you know, answer to everything. but maybe. That aligned step, being able to offer them that, you know, safety and guidance worksheet might be something that, might help them loosen up the strains, reins a little bit. then we're gonna talk about like actually incorporating that into our workflows. And again, you know, we're talking about what the definition of workflows are because well before there was AI automation, there was just regular automation, right? So like. You know, there was triggers for emails and you know, one thing would lead to another, and so. Really we're taking, going back to like the business acumen side of things, we need to actually document from phase one, we're actually documenting our current steps. So that's like manual steps of like how to send out an email, how many steps does it take, how many people is that touching, how many tools are you using in order to. Send out that email, how frequently are you sending that out and you know, how many hours? So really that's what I talk about. that's what I mean when I refer to workflows is really kind of even pre ai. Let's take that out, let's get that right. First, let's get the manual side right first, and before we start talking about, any sort of integrations or new tools. and then our final step is really about scaling. And so you've done a pilot, you have a use case. That seems to really work. Maybe you can optimize it by adding some, going deeper with maybe some tools. you've had some other amazing, presenters on speakers on this podcast about showing really cool workflows and. You know, using make and, really finding those automations and please go back to that when you're at that step because, those are highly valuable. and can help you kind of advance and take your workflows to the next level. And then again, you know. And the listeners are probably, you know, I'm preaching to the choir right now, but, Audrey, but like continuous training and learning is something that, you know, I. We shouldn't take for granted. And having resources like your podcast, and where people can actually just continue to sharpen their skills, it actually helps rise the tide for, their, you know, fellow. marketers, their team members, maybe from people from other departments and, of course throughout their whole organization. so really this is just a repeatable path, that people can take. So, you know, after we hit scale, we go back to a line because what we're really focused on is, growth and finding something we just continue to build on our successes.

Audrey Chia:

It's very nice that this framework isn't just for marketing teams, right? You can go beyond marketing teams, you can apply in your ops, in your role, correct? even in your sales teams, right? If you get alignment on what is their objective, then you won't be integrating AI in a way that's very haphazard. because the last thing you wanna do is just try, but not have an objective in mind. And then that takes up a lot of time with no clear ROI.

Abigail Merill:

Correct, correct. Yeah. you must have like a scientific. Background or mathematics background.'cause it really is like you have to go into these pilots without, a true objective in mind and really just looking at trying to fix the problem that you have. So, you know, where I feel like a lot of people get hung up. and we didn't talk too much about like the hype and stuff that AI has, but kind of leaning into the hype and just. Saying, you know, AI is gonna replace me or ai, can just automate my entire workflow and. There's not gonna be a need for marketing teams anymore. And, you know, just very, very haphazard kind of comments like that. And what you find is that, a, there's like a lot of fear that goes into it. And then b, it really just doesn't make sense for, if you're really thinking in that business mindset, that we are building something, we're looking, for issues we're looking for. To offset some of that drudgery and finding, ways that we can incorporate AI and in a very systematic way. yeah. So that's kind of the thought process there. Yeah. Wow.

Audrey Chia:

I love it and I love that it's a framework that. You know, not just big teams, right? But small teams can implement and you as an individual can already start thinking, how do I implement this in my workflows? What makes the most sense? Then work, working backwards, figuring out the tools that you need or the systems that you need to get there. And I'm maybe curious, you know, ABI, since you have worked with, you know, quite a number of teams, right? What are some key challenges that businesses usually face? We are trying to implement ai.

Abigail Merill:

Well, I would say, you know what has started off, and I'm just going back to this for a second. The biggest hangup I see is the fact that we have not set up governance in any safety, measures, right? So, I've seen three different approaches. I've seen everything is turned on and, you know, licenses. For all, for Chachi, PT for all. I've seen absolutely, no, nobody is allowed to, you know, use anything blinders on for management going. Our team doesn't use Chachi pt and we're there secretly like using their personal account and then. Bringing everything back over, and then some sort of hybrid of the two where they have unregulated kind of conversations and pilots are happening. Maybe tons and tons of pilots are happening, maybe one or two. and nothing has really been established from that top down. So for me, and there was a study that came out from Deloitte. That found that less than 10% of businesses have an adequate framework to manage these AI risks. So we love chow GPT. Everybody loves it. But at the same time, we do have to be, aware of some of the limitations that all these LLMs have large language models have, and we need to be. Always doing a cost benefit analysis. Going back to the fun business phrases here, you know, it's a risk to use, Chachi PT at all. Right? And so, and what does that risk mean? Okay. Well, there can be a risk of hallucinations, there could be a risk of, you know, the information being biased. It could be an information, where we're not really sure who actually owns some of that data. we're, you know, maybe there's a risk of overreliance. You know, there are a lot of different things in life that are risky. Like even just driving in a car is, can be risky, in comparison to an airplane, right? But we do those analysis on ourselves every day going, okay, well the benefit of me getting to the grocery store to feed my family. And me wearing a seatbelt and having some of these protections in place, those are gonna be the benefits that outweigh those risks. Right? And so no one is saying that, an adequate AI framework and that I teach needs to be 50 pages long, right? it just needs to be enough to keep marketing velocity going, right? Like we know exactly what we're allowed to put in Chacha pt. We know exactly what tools we're allowed to use, for instance. we know, we've trained our people onto like. Do extra checks and for accuracy. and then, but also compliance and maybe legal and maybe our leadership team, feels good about it at the end of the day too, and we're able to protect our brand. So that's one of the biggest hangups I see is, just lack of governance and safety and just kind of just wishing that, you know, we didn't even have to say those. Things talk about the ugly side of it, right?

Audrey Chia:

Yeah, and I think you brought up very important points, right, about having these conversations even before implementing ai, not after. Because if you set like the strong foundations, right? Then when you build on it, everyone in the organization is aligned and you have that matrix to be able to make the right decision. Whereas if it's an afterthought, then by that time you would already have some processes in place. And if you have to then reconsider things like data and security, where does that, you know, come into play? And that was gonna cause some problems. I'm also curious to know, maybe on the fact of like safety and governance, right? What are some things that businesses should do to safeguard themselves when trying to implement ai?

Abigail Merill:

Yeah. So, it really depends on the size of the organization and the risks, right? So, I already kind of touched on training, training your people up front to know exactly where their information is going. So one of the things is training, letting your people know upfront, setting the guardrails in place. what I have found that tech it, if they are even established. Within an organization does not wanna touch this, right? So, there needs to be small factions of people that are like us, like your listeners. that can outweigh the benefits from the risks and clearly define that and help the leadership define the risks. I really encourage within my framework. That, people like us, these experimenters, the folks that are eager to upskill themselves, to stay competitive within the market. These are gonna be the same individuals that are spearheading the pilot programs within their organizations, helping create these safety guidelines, maybe helping their compliance. I heard one company was like. We don't really know compliance department. We don't really know what we're supposed to do with any of this. But if you can just give us recommendations, we'll do that. And so, you know, it sometimes they just don't have the resources. They're not interested in touching it. So your listeners, the people that are, listening to this. Podcast, they are the ones who are gonna be helping implement, and make it safe for themselves, but also and safe for their brand and the data that they're putting in. But honestly, at the end of the day, we also wanna have that competitive Edge, right? So we wanna show leadership that we're taking that initiative. We're building those skills, whether, you know, if it's in our off time or whatever, maybe we're doing a few different pilot programs. I've had clients who have come to me and said, you know, I wanna learn this, but my company really isn't interested in anything to do with ai, so how do I find that balance? and for me, you know, that is a bigger conversation, but at the same time, it's like we have to encourage. That, experimentation and we have to do it in a way that protects ourselves as individuals, protects our brands, and doesn't get anybody in trouble. and you know, sometimes there is gonna be companies that, you know, we're still talking, you know, two to five years out and they might be obsolete because they're not interested. Did in integrating AI safely into their workflows. But it's your listeners. It's the people that are listening to this is our clients. that are taking it seriously and they are gonna have the upskills that they need in order to be transferable anywhere.

Audrey Chia:

Yeah, I love that. And also being able to have that mindset of, even if my company isn't fully supportive or implementing this, I as an individual can still take the initiative to get things done, to learn something new so that when the time comes, I'm then ready to. Lead my team or contribute or even just value it to myself. Right. and that is key. And I think Abigail, maybe one other thing before we wrap up is, what do you think businesses can actually do right now to start thinking about their workflows?'cause we have this beautiful framework, right? And I think for a lot of business leaders, what are some simple steps that they can take, you know, to just get started?

Abigail Merill:

Yeah, for sure, for sure. So, I help people get started and I really focus on making those small steps and finding those small wins. So for your audience, if they're interested, I have a free download. It is the first step in my framework for AI scaling. so we're talking about, and typically I sell this within my AI accelerator toolkit. So this is like a 30 page plus document, but the download is just two pages. and it's safe five hours a week with ai. and this worksheet is gonna help jumpstart safe and responsible AI integration. And like I said, this works for solopreneurs, startups, small businesses. and it's really helping to identify current manual processes, that, that will identify then lead to real opportunities to reclaim five. Plus hours a week, in your schedule. And, Rutgers and, and Google did a study in 2024 that estimated about 122 hours can be saved annually just by, automating some of these drudgery tasks to ai. Right? So I want 122 hours back in my year. I wanna go on vacation. Right? so If you're interested in that your readers or listeners are interested in that, they can download that QR code and I'm sure you can put it in the show notes as well.

Audrey Chia:

Definitely. We'll be popping that in the show notes, so be sure to grab that resource. Thank you for sharing it with us Ambigu, and thank you for sharing so much technical advice for business owners to start implementing ai. So for folks who want to continue to connect with you or explore your AI accelerator, where is the best place?

Abigail Merill:

Yeah, for sure. They can go to growth@partners.com and I'm constantly putting out, free materials and, I'll be launching my B2C course pretty soon. that I've only been reserving for my large enterprise. So it'll be good. Super

Audrey Chia:

exciting. Thank you so much for sharing your resource, and I'm very excited for your launch. If you're listening to this podcast, don't forget to check out Epic Gil's content. And thank you so much for folks for tuning in. Don't forget to hit the bell for more actionable AI and marketing insights. We will see you next week. Take care.