Steve and Trevor dig into the rush of new AI agents and whether they will ever go mainstream beyond tech-forward operators. They talk about why Grok Bot has become a go-to tool, why LLMs feel more and more interchangeable, and what the promise of getting “time back” from AI really means for agencies. Then they shift to Black Friday and Cyber Monday planning, subscription models for e-commerce, and an early report on Steve’s own ChatGPT ads test.
Takeaways
- Every LLM platform is racing to launch its own agent, but clunky launches and gated access make it hard to try them before you buy.
- Steve is leaning on Grok Bot more for day-to-day work, while still reaching for ChatGPT for heavier data analysis.
- LLMs feel increasingly commoditized: models keep leapfrogging each other, and for agency work the differences are hard to notice, so product design and ease of use matter more.
- Agents are already great for agency work, but the idea that everyone will have a personal assistant booking flights and restaurants feels years away for everyday consumers.
- The “AI gives you time back” pitch rarely answers what people actually do with that time, and faster work puts pressure on hourly pricing models.
- Clients still need websites, SEO, and prompt, human responses; the relationship side of a service business is not going away.
- Black Friday and Cyber Monday are stretching into a longer deal season with simpler, consistent offers, which also gives paid algorithms more time to learn.
- Subscription discounts on repeat-purchase products help brands predict cash flow and inventory, as long as the delivery frequency matches real usage.
- In Steve’s ChatGPT ads test, CPCs ran around $5 on a $25 daily budget, and manual bids below that stopped delivery, so he switched back to automated bidding.
- ChatGPT ads reporting and targeting are still basic: no real-time spend view and only broad geo options like a whole state.
- Only about 1 in 10 ChatGPT ad visitors engaged beyond the landing page, far below organic, but a study suggests running ChatGPT ads may lift organic ChatGPT referral traffic.
- Local, immediate-need businesses like personal injury law or HVAC may find ChatGPT clicks far cheaper than Google, making them strong candidates to test.