Cut Through with AI

Feeling overwhelmed by AI content? So were we.

In this episode, we share why we both took a step back from using AI – and what it taught us about creativity, marketing, and critical thinking. From copywriting and outreach to domain expertise and conferences, we explore when AI helps… and when it just creates more noise.

📝 Show notes

Key discussion points:

• Why we paused our AI usage – and what changed when we did
• The MIT study making rounds: what it actually says about AI and critical thinking
• What “AI slop” is and why it’s flooding your feed
• Just because you can automate and scale doesn’t mean you should
• Why good marketing still needs humans, nuance, and focus
• Gil’s brilliant low-tech but high-impact conference strategy
• The trap of relying on ChatGPT for marketing plans if you lack domain expertise
• Why companies need AI guidelines – not just OKRs about “using AI”
• How follower count and content volume often miss the real business outcome
• The balance between effective AI use and staying proud of your work

Notable quotes:

“I was chopping down trees all day, but at the end of the week, I wasn’t proud of what I’d made.” – Gil

“There’s no substitute for domain expertise – AI can’t think critically for you.” – Nihal

“Creativity and collaboration are still uniquely human.” – Gil

Tools mentioned:

• ChatGPT
• Clay.ai
• Midjourney 

Related resources:

• MIT study on AI and critical thinking (referenced in conversation)

Have AI questions? Connect with us on LinkedIn – we’d love to help you cut through the noise and start getting real value from AI.

Connect with the hosts:

• Nihal Salah
• Gil Chan

How are people really using AI day to day – beyond the hype?

In this episode, we share the specific ways we use AI in our personal and professional lives. From planning and strategy work to home repairs and supplement research, we talk through the tools and tactics that help us stay focused, move faster, and avoid overwhelm.

📝 Show notes

Key discussion points:

• Why AI helps Nihal manage ADHD and stay structured in her strategy work
• The underrated power of voice mode for messy thinkers
• How Gil uses his own app, Mira, for weekly brain dumps and task tracking
• The difference between asking AI to do the work vs helping you think better
• Using AI for daily prioritisation, task triage, and accountability
• Travel planning workflows that cut hours of research
• Using AI to source credible health supplement recommendations
• Grok for news summaries and staying current without the doomscroll
• AI in DIY and home repairs – the £150 mistake Nihal avoided
• Product ideation and edge case exploration using AI as a thought partner

Notable quotes:

“I don’t ask AI to create the strategy – that’s what clients hire me for. I use it to structure my thinking.” – Nihal

“AI helps me think about what I’ve missed, especially when scoping new products.” – Gil

“When it’s free, you’re the product.” – Nihal

“We don’t need more AI slop. We need more content that adds real value.” – Gil

Tools mentioned:

• ChatGPT Voice Mode
• Claude
• Perplexity
• Grok on X
• Mira – Gil’s custom productivity app
• Librarian (app for Slack digests)

Use cases discussed:

• Strategic thinking & planning
• Weekly task prioritisation
• Personal coaching-style reflections
• Travel planning with constraints
• Supplement research with clinical backing
• News curation
• DIY and home improvement fixes
• UX and product flow ideation

Have AI questions? Connect with us on LinkedIn – we’d love to help you cut through the noise and start getting real value from AI.

Connect with us on LinkedIn:

• Nihal Salah
• Gil Chan

What if your most productive collaborator wasn’t human?

In this episode, Gil and Nihal share how they’ve used AI to build, ship and stay focused. From using Claude to refine product strategy, to spinning up prototypes in hours with Claude code, they dig into the overlooked power of AI as a thinking and building partner.

Key discussion points

• Why Gil built an AI productivity app called Mira – and how he dogfoods it daily
• Using Claude as a thought partner for strategic planning and product development
• How Gil created a working prototype in 3 hours using Claude code and Claude’s understanding of prior transcripts
• The difference between organising thoughts vs. organising execution – and how Mira bridges both
• Nihal’s experience building a simple lead magnet quiz with Claude code (as a non-technical user)
• Why most people fail when trying to build with AI – and how to avoid the same trap
• Replit, Cursor, Claude Code – what works best and why it depends on how your brain works
• The power of starting small, staying scrappy, and iterating quickly with AI

Notable quotes

“The mistake I kept making was going too big too soon. But the moment I built something simple, everything clicked.” – Nihal

“Mira helps me decide what to work on when I’ve got just 10 minutes in the car – that’s the real productivity win.” – Gil

Tools and links mentioned

• Claude Code by Anthropic
• Replit
• Cursor
• Vercel
• GitHub

Have AI questions? Connect with us on LinkedIn – we’d love to help you cut through the noise and start getting real value from AI.

• Nihal Salah
• Gil Chan

Struggling to really understand your audience without spending a fortune on research? In this episode, Nihal and Gil unpack one of the most overlooked use cases for AI: customer research. We share how founders and marketers can now use AI to uncover deep insights -faster, cheaper, and more effectively than ever before.

Key discussion points:

• What synthetic research is and how one AI company is using it to replace traditional methods
• How Nihal used AI to completely shift a client’s positioning through forum analysis and review mining
• A breakdown of qualitative vs quantitative research - and how AI makes both more accessible
• Tools, prompts and LLMs you can use right now to run deep research
• Why knowing where your audience hangs out (e.g. Mumsnet vs X) changes everything

Notable quotes:

• “I truly believe that any solid marketing strategy is built upon a deep understanding of your customers.”
• “There’s gold in reviews -and AI can mine it for you in minutes.”
• “Most small businesses skip research because it’s time-consuming and expensive. But that’s exactly what AI can now change.”

Tools and tips mentioned:

• Claude for deep research and analysis of forum conversations
• ChatGPT for live web research and survey creation
• Grok (X) for communities active on Twitter/X, especially Web3
• Use Amazon reviews and forum posts to uncover pain points
• Use CRM data, live chat logs, and inbound messages to train LLMs

Have AI questions? Connect with us on LinkedIn – we’d love to help you cut through the noise and start getting real value from AI.

• Nihal Salah
• Gil Chan

In this episode, we share how AI can sometimes do more harm than good, especially when it comes to strategy. Gil and I reflect on moments when AI tools sent us in the wrong direction, what went wrong, and how to use AI more effectively (without letting it derail your priorities). We also touch on the importance of downtime, domain expertise, and why process still matters- AI or not.

📝 Show notes

Key discussion points:

• The productivity paradox of AI: why doing more doesn’t always mean doing better
• Gil’s story: how using Claude and ChatGPT to identify marketing blind spots wasted a week of his time
• The missing link: AI outputs without a clear business strategy or priorities
• Nihal’s experiment: comparing ChatGPT, Claude, and Grok to generate a marketing strategy (and why none really nailed it)
• Why great outputs still depend on domain expertise and a clear process
• The underrated power of using AI for research and audience insights
• What to do before you prompt and how to anchor AI in actual goals and frameworks

Notable quotes:

Links mentioned:

• Claude by Anthropic
• ChatGPT
• Grok by xAI

Connect with the hosts:

• Nihal Salah
• Gil Chan

Have AI questions? Connect with us on LinkedIn - we’d love to help you cut through the noise and start getting real value from AI.

Do you have a folder full of saved prompts or templates you thought would make AI work better- but never actually use?

In this episode, Gil and I share how relying on prompt templates and “perfect prompts” often limits what you get out of tools like ChatGPT and Claude. We break down the mindset shift that helped us go from copy-pasting prompts to having real conversations with AI-leading to better learning, faster results, and outputs we’re actually excited to use.

Key discussion points:

• Why prompt libraries and templates can actually hold you back
• The difference between prompt engineering vs. iterative thinking
• How to structure AI conversations to learn while doing
• Using AI to fill knowledge gaps and test your understanding
• Why ending your first prompt with a question improves results
• The surprising role of system prompts in shaping AI behaviour
• How mindset and frameworks beat tools in the long run

Notable quotes:

• “The biggest mindset shift? Stop trying to ‘prompt engineer’ your way out of thinking.” – Gil
• “I’ve paid for prompt packs and never used them—because once I started just talking to ChatGPT like a teammate, I got much better results.” – Nihal
• “AI gives better answers when you start with better questions—and a conversation, not a command.” – Gil

Links mentioned:

• Anthropic’s Claude system prompt 
• Cursor
• Opus Clips 

Have AI questions? Connect with us on LinkedIn – we’d love to hear from you!

• Nihal Salah
• Gil Chan

In this episode, Gil and I talk about where AI helps—and where it just frustrates the hell out of you. I share why I spent 20 hours trying to automate part of this podcast and then decided I didn’t even want to. Gil talks about switching from Cursor to Claude for code generation and what he’s learning from building his own AI assistant. Lots of honest chat about tools, burnout, and the emotional side of learning.

What we get into:

• Why I scrapped my newsletter automation even though it technically worked
• The tools we’ve been experimenting with lately: Claude, Cursor, Replit, Opus
• Why your skills (and brain wiring) really matter when working with AI
• How to spot when you’re trying to automate the wrong thing
• Gil’s building an AI assistant—and has probably sunk over 100 hours into it
• The problem with all those “1-click AI app” videos on social
• How education (and parenting) might need to change in the AI era
• Why it’s OK to suck at first—and why that’s part of the process

Notable quotes:

Tools mentioned:

• Cursor
• Claude
• Replit
• Riverside
• Opus Clip

Connect with us:

Have AI questions? Connect with us on LinkedIn – we’d love to help you cut through the noise and start getting real value from AI.

• Nihal Salah
• Gil Chan 

In this first episode of Cut Through with AI, co-hosts Nihal Salah and Gil Chan kick things off with an honest, behind-the-scenes conversation about how they’re actually using AI — not just to work faster, but to think more clearly, get ideas out of their heads, and reshape how they build.

They cover:

• Using tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, and Replit to automate and accelerate real work
• How AI is helping them turn messy ambition into focused execution
• Why voice notes beat “perfect prompts”
• How AI can act as a thinking partner — especially when your brain’s wired a little differently
• And the ADHD diagnosis Nihal recently decided to talk about publicly — and how AI’s changed the game

This one’s real, a little raw, and intentionally unscripted. If you’re overwhelmed by the hype and just want to know how ambitious people are using AI day-to-day — you’ll feel right at home.

AI tools mentioned in this episode: 

1. ChatGPT – https://chat.openai.com
2. Claude – https://claude.ai
3. Replit – https://replit.com
4. Cursor – https://www.cursor.so
5. Lovable – https://lovable.dev/ 
6. Riverside – https://riverside.fm
7. Opus Clip – https://www.opus.pro
8. CapCut – https://www.capcut.com