13d • The Weekly Stack
Hot Take Friday: Is Using AI Cheating?
Using AI in your agency isn't cheating. It's the new baseline.
And if you're still debating whether it's "authentic" to use it, you're already behind.
I keep seeing agency owners tie themselves in knots over this. They're using AI to write copy, build strategies, or analyze data, and then feeling guilty about it, like they snuck an answer sheet into an exam. Some are even hiding it from clients.
Let's be real about what that guilt actually is: it's a pricing anxiety problem dressed up as an ethics problem.
Here's the thing. Your client isn't paying for your keystrokes. They're paying for outcomes. They're paying for your judgment, your experience, your ability to know what good looks like and what bad looks like.
A lawyer who uses legal research software isn't cheating. An architect who uses CAD isn't cheating. A surgeon who uses robotic assistance isn't cheating. They're doing their job better, faster, and with fewer errors. So are you.
The "cheating" narrative conveniently benefits the people who haven't figured out how to use AI yet. It reframes their inefficiency as integrity. Don't buy it.
AI doesn't replace your taste, your strategy, your client relationships, or your ability to ask the right questions. If you're pumping out garbage at scale and calling it a service, that's not an AI problem. That's a you problem. The tool doesn't make weak agencies strong. It makes strong agencies faster and weak agencies more obviously weak.
The real question isn't whether to use AI. It's whether you're using it to genuinely deliver better work or just to cut corners while billing the same rates. One of those is good business. The other will catch up with you. Your clients don't care how the sausage is made. They care whether it tastes good.
Do you agree or disagree? Are you transparent with clients about AI use and do you think you should be?
Drop it below.
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Hot Take Friday: Is Using AI Cheating?
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