Can artificialintelligence make us more real? What if AI could prompt us to be better humans? Only 21% of employees are engaged at work worldwide—that means four out of five are disengaged, not finding work fulfilling, not finding meaning in it. But there's a philosophy emerging that challenges everything we thought we knew about AI in marketing: building love into scalable systems. This isn't about automated email sequences or generic social media posts. This is about using AI to create authentic emotional connections that drive 306% higher lifetime value than satisfied customers.
- The BLISS philosophy: Build Love Into Scalable Systems—a framework for creating compassionate, repeatable marketing processes
- Emotional connection in marketing generates 306% higher customer lifetime value compared to merely satisfied customers
- 64% of consumers say shared values are the primary reason they have a relationship with a brand
- AI can amplify what you're doing 10x, but you need guide rails that align with your higher purpose and values
- Authentic differentiation comes from owning emotional territory, not just features and benefits
1. The BLISS Philosophy: Building Love Into Scalable Systems
BLISS stands for Build Love Into Scalable Systems, and it's really about how can we build love into any part of our business that's like a system so that it's repeatable and something that if you're no longer there it's going to happen anyway. Because as we grow, you go through business, you're going to go from this scale stage to systemizing stage. You don't want to lose your culture or your empathy in that process, which happens so much. We see this all the time.
Having this as the core while going through that process, you're just going to continually be asking yourself this question: what can I do that would be compassionate for our employees, for our customers? The more you do that, little by little, little becomes a lot and you suddenly you've built this living organism in your business versus the cold soulless machine that I think a lot of people are familiar with.
Going through that process, continually asking that, there's just all kinds of ways you can impact your business. It's not the random act of kindness thing—it's this more systematic act of kindness. Really caring about the people I work with and helping empower them, fulfilling purpose in their lives and meaning in their lives and understanding all that.
2. How AI CMO Brings Philosophy Into Marketing Technology
What if we built a chief marketing officer that had a philosophy around higher purpose and telling a story that had a little bit more meaning? We think we can do it. So what we were able to do—it's been a couple years in that process—is really bring together all these things that we've done as an agency over the years and kind of train and build tools within that platform that really do bring out more meaningful stories and really do emotionally connect with people.
We know if you can get that emotional connection to marketing, you're going to have 306% higher lifetime value than over a satisfied customer. So the ROI is there to do it. If you need the stats, if you just think "hey building empathy and love in the business whatever but I need ROI"—it's there.
The Methodology Behind Ethical AI Marketing
Really a lot of it is kind of our methodology as an agency on how we work with businesses in digital marketing. But as we're asking that BLISS question—how do we scale this love—we're bringing in all these things. With our AI product, we're bringing like a hundred different marketing expert techniques in there, stuff that you don't know, that didn't even exist probably, right? As even the best marketers don't know all of that.
So we're bringing in all this expertise into this jazz session for you so that you don't have to worry about what you don't know, what you don't know. So it's going to be elevating your marketing game regardless. There is this collaboration that's going on with AI.
Training AI to Understand Your Voice and Values
You've got to give it guide rails to sound like you. One of the things that we do is we're going to your website, we're spidering the whole thing just to make sure we know exactly every page on that site, every word you put out there—this is your voice. So that's a fairly easy thing to do. We're trying to bring in a lot about you so that we can help stay on those guide rails that sounds like you, which is definitely not easy with AI if you're just a basic ChatGPT user.
We're trying to make sure we understand exactly your values, your higher purpose, and then let's go into a cool brainstorming session about campaigns that we can produce that align with that. Because we know if we can bring that higher purpose together, you're going to be able to connect with another person that just vibes with that same thing. This is where you really do get that greater connection in your business.
| Component | How It Works in AI CMO |
|---|---|
| Voice Analysis | Spiders your entire website to understand every page and word you've put out—capturing your authentic voice |
| Values Alignment | Identifies your higher purpose and creates guide rails so marketing campaigns align with your values |
| Expert Techniques | Integrates 100+ marketing expert techniques that elevate your game beyond what you know |
| Emotional Territory | Helps you find differentiation through emotional connection, not just features and benefits |
| Jazz Session Collaboration | Interactive back-and-forth where AI prompts you to be better humans while executing campaigns |
Ready to transform your marketing with ethical AI?
Explore AI CMO3. The Business Case: Why Emotional Marketing Drives ROI
Harvard Business Review said 64% of consumers say shared values are the primary reason they have a relationship with the brand. So pulling all that together so that you're always marketing with your values and marketing with your purpose, you're going to be sharing that with the right people. You're going to be attracting the right people. These are the people that are going to be very emotionally connected to you that are going to go and tell their friends about your product, your business and all that—the word of mouth that happens when you get to that type of connection with the relationship with the customer.
It's really very important and it's something that a lot of companies struggle with with their marketing because they've got one person over here doing something, one person over here doing another thing, and often times the marketing just ends up disjointed a bit. It's not all rowing in the same direction, especially in small business. Big brands, they've got brand playbooks, they've got things that has got to go through committees and legal and all that. But small business or mid-size business, you've got—if you're lucky—a few people working on things. If you're not lucky, it's you and you're ignoring it half the time.
Again though, this is where AI can like 10x your output for sure. But you got to make sure that you've got all this stuff going in there that's helping with those guide rails so that it does kind of authentically come through consistently so that it connects with the people you really want to connect with.
The Reality of Employee Disengagement
If we can tell more meaningful stories about the businesses that we work on—because we're all helping people in some way or another, we just haven't really articulated our higher purpose a lot of times—that's really kind of where we start with the platform: trying to figure out or pull out your higher purpose that you may not have really articulated and then using that as part of guide rails with all the marketing techniques and all that stuff that we do really well.
Now worldwide only 21% of employees are engaged at work. That means four out of five are disengaged. They aren't finding work fulfilling, they aren't finding meaning in it. So if we can tell more meaningful stories about the businesses that we work on, suddenly now your employees—they're going to find more meaning in their work.
The Good & The Bad
✅ Pros
- Drives 306% higher lifetime value through emotional connection versus satisfied customers
- Integrates 100+ expert marketing techniques you wouldn't know otherwise
- Maintains your authentic voice by analyzing your entire web presence
- Aligns all marketing with your values and higher purpose automatically
- 64% of consumers prioritize shared values when choosing brands to support
- Can 10x your marketing output while maintaining quality and authenticity
- Helps employees find more meaning in their work through better storytelling
❌ Cons / Warnings
- Requires self-examination and commitment to actually walk the walk, not just talk the talk
- You need to do the work to articulate your higher purpose—AI can't invent it for you
- If you're not authentic, the marketing will fall flat eventually
- Requires ongoing collaboration—it's a jazz session, not a set-it-and-forget-it tool
- Won't work if your only goal is profit without caring about people or planet
4. The Authenticity Challenge: Walking the Walk
You don't want to be telling a story that you don't live. You don't want to be just talking the talk—you need to walk that. Because in marketing, we've seen it a few times where some big company gets on the latest social cause trend and they're there for a second then they leave and it just—it's very flat. None of us believe it, it's not authentic. That's greenwashing or something. We've all seen examples of that. I think people kind of revolted. There was a Pepsi commercial way back when. We've all seen a lot of examples of that.
But we've also seen companies that really do walk the walk and they're advertising—they could have done something 15 years ago and it still holds true today because that's what they're about. They didn't shift and change with the trends. This is what they've always been about.
Part of the story that we're telling is we want you to be better humans, we want you to act this way, we want you to market around a higher purpose. But we do a lot of education and interviewing of business leaders really about that—how to build that authentic business, how to build empathy into your business, how to build compassion into your business and bringing that together as part of just the education alongside of what we're doing. Because we know if you aren't walking the walk, it's just going to fall flat at some point.
So you really do need to do that. But this is kind of an artful way of getting you to think of a higher story that you can tell because you're probably helping people, you're probably in service to people in some way that you just really haven't articulated yet. And as soon as you latch on to that, you're going to be able to build into these other parts of your business, build that love into these other parts of your business. You're going to be able to audit your business by your purpose, and so that's when you start living it—is when you're auditing every little step of your business by that, whatever your higher purpose is.
The Jazz Session Approach
Can artificial intelligence make us more real? I think it can if it's prompting us to be better humans. So we consider how we're prompting AI all the time. But what if we had AI—it's kind of this jazz session with AI where we're working back and forth where it's prompting us to be better humans?
So it absolutely can do that. I do think—yeah it does sound a little contradictory but it isn't. This is a collaboration. This is a collaboration. We got to have this jazz session. We got to tell it "hey this is what's important to us is yeah profit but people, planet, and this higher purpose that we have in our business." And that way it's prompting us to "okay these are the rules. I'm gonna optimize toward those things." It's going to help you in that regard.
Owning Your Emotional Territory
There's so much noise out there. We are the most marketed to than any generation of people has ever been. And how are you going to cut through that noise if you aren't making some kind of really deep connection? Because you can shout louder, I don't know. But you can shout a lot but there's a lot of other people doing that same exact thing. They're all talking about features and benefits.
But can you own an emotional territory with your product or business? Is there something that your competitors aren't doing or showing the way they're showing up that you can own that emotional territory to differentiate yourself? So people don't think about differentiation that way. They often think about speed and features of a product or whatever. But there's a differentiation that can happen with the emotional territory.
You don't need now to have a whole team helping you with this. Now we've got like these AI products and stuff that can really help you find that differentiation and do it on a very high level, which is exciting because it's not easy if I'm wearing different hats and I got to think about what emotional territory that I'm— No, we've got expert tools that it's going to come in there and help you find that space you can carve out to really set yourself apart. And people are going to feel that. That's what it's all about is them feeling it, not just hearing more noise in your marketing, which we're just constantly bombarded with that same stuff all the time.
5. Final Verdict: AI as a Tool for Amplification
I'm hoping that it's instead of displacing a lot of people—and I know this is true in at least in our vertical in marketing—is that it's going to like 10x you. Like you're just going to get more done. Amplify what you're doing. It's going to amplify whatever we're doing in a lot of ways. So it's going to displace people and we're going to go through some hard times, some dark nights. I think there's just no way around it. But at the same time, I do think it doesn't have to be that way always with how it's coming. But it is—it's going to make for some interesting times for sure.
We really do want you to have a good agenda—like a greater good to what you're doing. Because like I said, AI is going to amplify what you're saying, what you're doing. Is it going to speak to your better angels or your inner demons? Is it going to amplify your inner demons or is it amplify your better angels? So make sure you're using it for good.
We're in the foundational stages of AI right now and it's learning about us and we're learning about it. But the more good we can put into it now, the better we will be in the long run.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is ethical AI marketing and how is it different from traditional AI marketing tools?
Ethical AI marketing focuses on building authentic emotional connections with customers by aligning marketing campaigns with a company's higher purpose and values. Unlike traditional AI tools that simply automate content creation, ethical AI marketing systems like AI CMO incorporate philosophical frameworks (like BLISS - Build Love Into Scalable Systems) to ensure marketing messages maintain empathy, authenticity, and genuine human connection. This approach drives 306% higher customer lifetime value compared to traditional satisfied customer relationships because it creates deeper emotional bonds based on shared values.
How can small businesses implement AI marketing without losing their authentic voice?
Small businesses can maintain authenticity by working with AI tools that analyze their existing content to understand their unique voice and values. The key is providing the AI with "guide rails"—your brand's higher purpose, values, and existing content—so it can generate marketing that sounds like you rather than generic AI-generated content. This involves spidering your website, understanding your vocabulary and tone, and creating a collaborative "jazz session" where you and the AI work together rather than simply automating everything. The goal is amplification of your authentic message, not replacement of your voice.
What is the BLISS philosophy and how do I apply it to my business?
BLISS stands for Build Love Into Scalable Systems. It's a framework that asks you to systematically incorporate compassion and empathy into every repeatable process in your business. Rather than random acts of kindness, BLISS creates systematic acts of kindness by continuously asking "What can I do that would be compassionate for employees and customers?" As you scale and systemize your business, this philosophy prevents you from becoming a "cold soulless machine" and instead builds a "living organism" that maintains culture and empathy. You apply it by auditing every business process through the lens of your higher purpose and values.
How do I find my business's higher purpose for marketing?
Your higher purpose is likely already there—you just haven't articulated it yet. Start by asking: Who are you helping and why does it matter? You're probably serving people in some meaningful way beyond just selling a product. Look at the transformation you create for customers, the problems you solve, and the values that drive your business decisions. Your higher purpose should answer why you exist beyond profit. Once you identify this, you can use it as guide rails for all marketing decisions, ensuring your campaigns consistently communicate what you truly stand for and attract customers who share those values.
What are the risks of using AI for marketing automation?
The biggest risk is that AI will amplify whatever you feed it—whether that's your better angels or inner demons. If you optimize solely for profit without caring about people or planet, AI will make decisions that reflect those priorities. Other risks include: creating inauthentic marketing that doesn't match how you actually operate (walking the walk vs. talking the talk), losing your unique voice if you use generic prompts, and creating disjointed campaigns if multiple people use AI without aligned guide rails. The solution is establishing clear values and higher purpose before implementing AI, then using those as constraints on what the AI produces.
How does emotional marketing improve customer lifetime value?
Emotionally connected customers generate 306% higher lifetime value than merely satisfied customers because they form deeper relationships with brands based on shared values rather than transactional features and benefits. When 64% of consumers say shared values are the primary reason they have a relationship with a brand, creating emotional connections becomes essential. These customers become advocates who tell friends about your business, remain loyal through challenges, and see themselves as part of your brand community. Emotional territory differentiation—owning a specific feeling or value proposition—helps you cut through marketing noise and create memorable, meaningful connections that transcend price and features.
Can AI really teach businesses to be more empathetic?
Yes, if designed properly. AI can prompt businesses to be better by asking questions and creating frameworks that encourage empathetic thinking. When AI is trained to consider higher purpose, values, and emotional connection in every marketing campaign, it forces business owners to articulate and align with those principles. It's a collaborative "jazz session" where AI challenges you to think beyond features and benefits to the emotional territory you can own and the authentic story you can tell. However, AI can only amplify what you put into it—if you're not genuinely committed to empathy and purpose, the AI will reveal that inauthenticity. The technology is a mirror and amplifier of your intentions.
Final Thoughts
We're in the foundational stages of AI right now and it's learning about us and we're learning about it. But the more good we can put into it now, the better we will be in the long run. Make sure you're using it for good.
To learn more about building love into your marketing systems, visit AICMO.io or listen to the Bliss Business Podcast where Steven Sakach asks business leaders "What role does love play in your business?" every week.
Disclaimer: This content is based on a transcript from the Small Biz Stories podcast featuring Steven Sakach, founder of AI CMO. All quotes and insights are preserved from the original conversation. The views and strategies discussed represent the speaker's experience and philosophy. Results may vary based on individual business implementation and commitment to authentic, purpose-driven marketing practices.
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