#139 · How to Run "Smart" LinkedIn Ads for an AI Automation Agency
Building workflows still requires substantial technical ability; the person who recreated the workflow had to understand a lot of crystallized knowledge. You still need someone to build the system from scratch—AI is a leverage multiplier that reduces, but doesn’t eliminate, the need for technical skill.
No, I think AI automation is the concert of several skills. To be a very good automator you need strong attention to detail, which is a skill—not something you're born with. You also need good systems and process thinking. To be a good AI automation specialist you must understand business needs and problems. Many people enter this field from a technical side, deeply understanding systems and first‑principles thinking, but then they spend hours on tiny academic edge cases that businesses don’t care about. Businesses reward solving real problems, not perfect academic cases. So AI automation really is a blend of technical and business skills. I lean heavily toward the business side, which is why I make more money than many technically gifted people in my community. If you extend the idea to running an AI automation company, the owner needs some copywriting, video editing, ads, or SEO knowledge—being a jack of all trades is better than mastering just one. In short, an AI automation company’s value isn’t just in the automation itself; it’s in how the automation works with your business. You need a money‑generating process or flow first, then you add automation to speed it up. I discuss this in yesterday’s video.
That's a great question. Imagine accountants, flight coordinators, or any role being replaced by AI that can do the work better and cheaper. Who knows exactly when that will happen, but the good news is that running your own business gives you insulation - you control where you go, how you move, and how to stay indispensable. In reality, every role faces the same pressure. The world will look very different in 5-10 years, but our specific business model still has at least three years of runway to capitalize on. In fact, our services will be needed to build that AI-driven future, so there's hardly a better industry to be in.
It's easy to get started with AI communication because the companies building these models intentionally make them accessible so anyone can get decent results without being a prompt engineering expert. However, the real advantage comes from skill: due to a power‑law relationship, improving your prompting ability from the 90th to the 99th percentile can roughly double the quality of the AI’s output. In other words, small gains in skill produce large gains in results. While the basics are simple, mastering AI prompting is hard, and because AI is a meta‑tool that enhances all other tools, becoming proficient at it makes you effective across many domains.
AI‑generated automation templates will undercut builders who lack business skills, turning them into mere API endpoints and increasing competition while lowering the barrier to entry. My agency model remains profitable, and for someone just starting, it’s definitely worth the effort to learn and use these tools.