If you’ve listened to Little Talks for a while, you probably know we’re big fans of Jay Schwedelson. So when Roop and Claudia saw him on the UNBOUND schedule, obviously they had to be there.
This week, they’re bringing some of their favorite takeaways from his sessions back to the podcast, starting with what’s changing in email.
As AI summaries become more common in Gmail, Apple Mail, and Copilot, the actual text in an email matters more than ever. Those tools can’t read words that are part of an image, which means a beautifully designed email could be leaving out some pretty important context. Jay also shared that the average Gmail AI summary is only 29 words, making that first sentence and the way you structure your copy even more important.
The same idea carries over to showing up in AI search. Recent content is being cited more often, listicles are performing well, and regularly updating existing content can give it a better chance of appearing in an AI-generated answer.
But with all this talk about optimizing for AI, Jay also had some advice for sounding less like it: have an opinion, use specific details, show the people behind your brand, and maybe give words like “unlock,” “elevate,” and “leverage” a break.
AI might be changing where our content shows up and how people consume it. That doesn’t mean we have to start writing for robots.
See you next week for more Little Talks.
— Roop, Sam, and Claudia
