There’s a commercial that Jeep was running earlier this year that I viscerally hate:

It’s completely made with AI, and it is not good. Until last week, I couldn’t fully articulate a better reason for not liking it than, “it’s made with AI.”

But I was talking to a student in the University of Scranton Comp Sci program after my talk about how to stay relevant when AI can write a lot of code for you, and I figured it out.

It’s because they were so lazy and cut so many corners, and a commercial is supposed to help develop trust in the brand.

If you are going to make such an obviously terrible, lazy commercial…if you’re going to cut corners on the thing that’s supposed to help develop trust…then how am I supposed to trust that you’re not going to cut corners in other places?

If Jeep has decided they can phone this in, what are they doing with the things they don’t think we’ll see?

Are the Productivity Games Worth Losing Trust?

The same thing goes for (and is likely more important in) your business. If you decide you’re going to cut corners on craft — writing, thinking, generating ideas for your audience — what else are you willing to cut corners on?

If I pay you for a service and you just use AI to deliver it, why am I paying you? If you can’t articulate what you do well, how can I trust that you’re actually thinking about my problems? If you’re creating a product that is fully AI-generated, how can I trust it will be around in 6 months?

That’s why we need to use AI for tasks, not craft. It’s an incredible tool that has made my life easier. It saves me time and helps me stay more organized.

But if it disappears tomorrow, my core work won’t be affected. My shorts might be a little less polished since I use it to cut silences and add (personally shot) B-roll. I’d have to manually add action items and tasks from email to Todoist.

But my content output wouldn’t change. My writing wouldn’t change. My ability to think about my clients’ problems wouldn’t change.

It Doesn’t Even Work

And I think even the most blue-pilled AI users know that their trust will take a hit. It’s why they’re so adamant that they’ve figured out how to make AI writing sound like them. If they didn’t, why not just give Claude a byline on all of their articles?

It’s also why I’ve seen little measure of results and more measure of “I don’t have to do it.” Because if they had to measure results, they might not like what they see.

If you’re trying to grow your business…especially going into 2027, I think trust (as always) will be the most important currency. And you can’t build trust if you make people feel duped.

This is one of the core tenets of Solo Ops Toolkit Pro: how can you use AI conscientiously? How can you use it in a way that takes tasks off your plate, allowing you to focus on craft and trust-building?

I’m not going to sit here and say I was thinking about buying a Jeep before this. But I can tell you I definitely won’t be buying one now.