Over the last few days I’ve reviewed hundreds of product pages on our website. The process has been simple: I copy the URL into ChatGPT and ask it how the page could be improved. One of the biggest areas of improvement has been making product titles longer and more descriptive. That sounds straightforward until you realize we sell ten different tools that all serve essentially the same purpose. Before long every title starts using the same words, and finding ways to differentiate each product becomes surprisingly difficult.

I also learned that AI loves to fill in the blanks. There were probably ten different instances where it confidently told me a product did something it absolutely didn’t do. Every time I had to stop and tell it that wasn’t how the tool worked. The funny part was that while checking one of those products, I looked at a competitor’s website and found they had the exact same incorrect information. Somewhere along the line, bad information had become accepted as fact.

That got me thinking about the six or so SEO companies we’ve hired over the years. The sales pitch is always convincing, but eventually you end up with an egghead who has no understanding of roofing or sheet metal trying to write copy for professional contractors. Eventually you realize the person optimizing your roofing website couldn’t identify a piece of copper if it hit them in the forehead. Today I came across one of our old SEO titles: “Awesome Sheet Metal Cutter.”

At first glance, that doesn’t sound terrible. The problem is our customers aren’t searching for “awesome.” Plus, nobody has ever walked onto a commercial jobsite and said, “Hand me that awesome cutter.” They want to know whether the tool cuts straight, leaves a burr-free edge, works ten times faster than tin snips, or reduces fatigue after making hundreds of cuts. Contractors don’t buy adjectives. They buy results. That’s the difference between someone who understands marketing and someone who understands the customer. It’s a little unsettling when I’m apparently the expert in the room.

What has changed over the last few years is that everyone now has access to AI. The agencies have it. We have it. The playing field is becoming much more level, but AI doesn’t eliminate the need for expertise. If anything, it increases it.

When AI rewrites copy, it’s usually excellent. It removes unnecessary words, tightens sentences, and often says the same thing more clearly. Those improvements are almost always worth making. The same is true with product images. AI can improve lighting, remove distractions, and make products look significantly more professional.

The challenge is knowing when AI has crossed the line from improving reality to inventing it. I’ve watched it move parts on tools, add features that don’t exist, and misuse industry terminology without hesitation. AI never says, “I don’t know.” It has the confidence of a guy who’s wrong but speaks just loudly enough that everyone assumes he isn’t. Someone unfamiliar with the product would probably approve the image or the copy without ever realizing it was wrong. That’s where experience becomes more valuable than ever.

As I’ve spent the last few days rebuilding hundreds of product pages, I’ve thought a lot about the phrase, “If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it.” On one hand, these pages were already generating sales. On the other, we’re spending a tremendous amount of money getting people to visit them. Once they arrive, every title, every image, and every description should do the best possible job of helping them make a buying decision.

There are very few people who can combine product knowledge, customer experience, marketing, and AI into one process. AI can write words, but it can’t tell you whether they’re true. It can improve a photo, but it doesn’t know whether it just moved the handle to the wrong side of the tool. That’s still the job of someone who understands the product.

After spending countless hours working through our catalog, I honestly believe the website is dramatically better than it was just a week ago. The unfortunate part is that our competitors have access to the exact same technology. The good news is that technology has never been the competitive advantage. Knowing how to use it has.

Hopefully they’re still asking ChatGPT to write “awesome” product titles.