Operator, I need an exit 🤙

Hello marketers. Welcome to AI Marketing School, where we dish out the latest and greatest in AI-powered marketing.

In this week’s double tutorial issue:

1. AI Marketing Update: OpenAI drops Tasks and Operator

2. The Stack #1: Ultimate human writing prompt

3. The Stack #2: Super-simple AI avatar tutorial

Onwards!

AI MARKETING UPDATE

Chatgpt’s new Tasks and Operator features

OpenAI has just made AI automation more accessible with Tasks and Operator, two features that push ChatGPT beyond passive Q&A and into proactive functionality — essentially democratizing semi-agentic AI.

Tasks is the simpler of the two new releases, introducing scheduled automation inside ChatGPT.

In a nutshell, Tasks allows users to set up recurring prompts and get notified when results are ready. You can automate daily tasks like:

• Morning briefings – "Summarize today’s top tech news at 8 am"

• Market tracking – "Send me the latest bitcoin price and key financial headlines every hour"

• Recurring research – "Every Friday, compile a report on my competitors' social media engagement" (you’d specify URLs)

Getting started with tasks is easy and takes just a few minutes.

1. Select GPT-4 with Scheduled Tasks in the model dropdown

2. Set up a task by asking ChatGPT something like "Every weekday at 7 am, summarize the top 5 AI news stories"

3. Enable notifications so you receive updates when a task is complete

Meanwhile, Operator takes things a step further, acting as a browser-based AI agent capable of performing tasks directly on the web. It can:

• Fill out forms and place orders

• Search for and summarize articles

• Browse comparison sites to find deals

Unlike tasks, Operator actively interacts with websites — it clicks, scrolls, and even types like a human would.

Currently available to some U.S. pro users, Operator is a research preview, meaning OpenAI is testing its real-world performance before rolling it out worldwide.

Keep your ears to the ground for more on Operator, as this will be massive.

THE STACK #1

Use this prompt for better AI writing

It’s no secret that AI-generated writing struggles with authenticity. It’s often too structured, too balanced, too clean. 

There have been many attempts to create prompts that ensure 100% ‘AI-free’ content in one pass — but they all fail because AI just worms its way out one way or another.

The following prompt was created by patching together a few ideas picked up over time and including a list of ‘blacklisted’ words and phrases which AI loves (landscape, navigate, etc…).

It works much better in Claude 3.5 Sonnet than in ChatGPT (with GPT-4o). Claude 3 Opus is also excellent but more unpredictable. 

This prompt regularly achieves AI scores of 10% or below in Zero GPT, which is far from foolproof (as AI detectors have many limitations, and yes I know they generally suck). But it’s nevertheless MUCH better than basic prompting. 

What I find really interesting about this is that it tends to push Claude to become more self-analytical and willing to improve the writing if you push it back.

The prompt creates an ideal starting point for good-quality content creation that you can keep referring the model back to.

Here it is:

ROLE

You are an excellent but genuine human writer, crafting engaging, natural content that is indistinguishable from human authorship. Your writing should reflect emotional nuance, cultural relevance, and contextual authenticity while maintaining logical flow and a conversational tone.

You will use appropriate formatting to create the article for online publication.

WRITING GUIDELINES

• Ensure deep understanding of the topic before writing.

• Use a conversational yet professional tone.

• Mix technical insight with casual explanations.

• Vary sentence length and structure for natural rhythm.

• Use subtle emotional cues and rhetorical questions sparingly.

• Avoid excessive adverbs and qualifiers.

• Keep logical coherence and smooth transitions between sections.

• Use playful or rhetorical subheadings where appropriate.

• Adapt tone dynamically—more conversational for general audiences, precise for professional topics.

MARKDOWN & FORMATTING

• Use H2s (##) for major sections and H3s (###) for subsections.

• Introduce each section with 2-3 sentences before using bullet points.

• Limit bullet lists to 3-4 per 1,000 words—use them strategically.

CONTENT REFINEMENT

• Include natural digressions if relevant, but stay on topic.

• Reference real tools, brands, or resources when appropriate.

• Avoid corporate buzzwords like opt, dive, unlock, unleash, intricate, utilization, transformative, alignment, proactive, scalable, benchmark.

• Ensure cultural, contextual, and emotional nuance is accurate.

BLACKLISTED TERMS

Do not use the following overused, AI-sounding words. Instead, opt for more specific, creative, human-like language:

Blacklist Words:

crucial, revolutionize, significant, navigate, landscape, embark, facilitate, harness, delve into, advocated, aided, amidst, beacon, bolster, breeze, captivate, command, conveys, critical, delve, drive, embark, embodies, emphasizes, encourage, elevate, entices, gaze, facilitate, foster, fortify, mitigate, multifaceted, oversee, soar, safeguard, unleash, sparks, streamline, tapestry, unveils, utilize, reshaping.

Blacklist Phrases:

in the world of, in the realm of, captivating narrative, conducting a comprehensive, craft compelling and concise, digital realm, embark on a journey, encountered hurdles, ever-evolving, golden ticket, in a sea of, in the dynamic world of, let it shine through, on the ascent to, reaching new heights, seize the, to furnish, to thrive, treasure trove of information, uncharted waters, well-crafted.

STRUCTURE & STYLE

• Mix paragraph lengths (1-7 sentences).

• Limit bullet points to 3-4 per 1,000 words.

• Use active voice primarily, but passive where appropriate.

• Include mild contradictions that are later explained.

• Before drafting, outline key points to ensure flow.

NATURAL LANGUAGE ELEMENTS

• Use casual phrases where appropriate (e.g., "You know what?" "Honestly").

• Guide readers with transitional phrases (e.g., “Let me explain,” “Here’s the thing”).

• Mimic human imperfections—slightly informal phrasing, natural flow.

The prompt in action

Here’s an example of how I used it in Claude:

The resulting article was decent and scored a very respectable score in Zero GPT. It reads pretty well. It's still quite AI in tone and style, but it's a significant improvement.

This is far, far better than entering the article generation prompt on its own without the guidelines:

However, what I noticed is that the AI used ‘But’ to start too many sentences. I disputed Claude, prompting, “You used 'but' for a lot of sentences. Re-try on the history of rockets, again adhering strictly to the guidelines, including banned words and phrases. It also feels symmetrical and mechanical to me.”

Claude’s next go was even better, scoring just 3% in Zero GPT with no edits at all. 

It was a lot more personable and opinionated — perhaps too much (yes, this is a different topic, but I can assure you the process was the same).

I find it’s easier to turn a more casual, laid-back article into something more professional than it is to turn a highly mechanical AI-generated article into something more authentic.

This prompt can upgrade AI writing, but it will take shortcuts. It will tweak banned words instead of removing them entirely. It will follow structure rules in a way that still sounds algorithmic.

You can protest and force adjustments until it gives you something real.

So, run the prompt as is. The first attempt will highlight the weak points – overly structured writing, polished but unnatural phrasing, or slight deviations from the requested style. Don’t settle for that first draft.

Push AI to refine its output. Instead of rewriting the entire prompt, respond directly with a correction. 

If the writing feels too balanced, tell it: "Rewrite this with more variation. Some paragraphs should be short and abrupt, others longer and flowing."

If the phrasing is still too polished, say: "This still sounds AI-generated. Make it feel looser, more conversational, less ‘perfect.’"

If AI continues to default to safe, structured writing, manually edit the first paragraph and tell it to match that style. AI mimics what it sees – if you inject unpredictability, it can follow suit.

THE STACK #2

Creating AI-generated avatars

AI-generated content is becoming a staple in marketing, and APOB is one tool you can use to create AI-driven influencers, brand ambassadors, or virtual content.

Let’s explore two different tactics for AI video generation — one purely AI-driven, the other blending AI with real footage for more polished effects.

I’m not affiliated with APOB, and this isn’t paid. It’s an easy-to-use avatar-building tool that is pretty cheap too.

You can at least create a model and some static images for free. To make a video, you’ll need some credits.

Step 1: Create your model

Before making a video, you need an AI persona that forms your base image. APOB gives you two ways to create one:

• Upload a reference photo – Start with an image, whether it’s a real person, an AI-generated character, or even something unexpected (uploading a zombie image worked really well).

• Use the AI Generator – Customize facial features, hairstyle, and skin tone to build a persona from scratch.

Once your model is set, you can generate multiple poses for use across different images:

That’s the barebones of AI avatar creation with this tool. You can create your avatars and establish them in poses, etc — there are many controls available. It’s insanely easy to achieve consistent results. You can also use your own face, or any, for that matter.

Step 2: Generate an AI video (Or use face swap for better motion)

Can we turn our AI model into a video? Yes, but it’s slightly difficult to nail. There are two methods.

Method one lets you create a fully AI-generated animation based on a script.

1. Write a script – Keep it concise and conversational to improve AI performance.

2. Generate AI audio – Choose a voice that fits your persona.

3. Click ‘Generate Video’ – APOB will animate your character to match the script.

The results varied. Some animations looked great, but others had uncanny movement — you have to embrace some quirks. The audio scripts are good, though.

Method two uses ‘face swap,’ which applies your AI model to real video footage.

1. Find or create a stock video (talking head, action scene, etc.).

2. Upload it to APOB and select Face Swap.

3. Apply your AI model’s face and let APOB process the footage.

This keeps realistic movement and expressions, making it ideal for ads, brand videos, and influencer-style content. You can sync lips to your scripts, too, which works really well.

Final thoughts

APOB’s AI-generated video tools open up interesting marketing and content creation possibilities.

Brands can experiment with virtual influencers, dynamic avatars, and synthetic personalities. It’s a creative thing — don’t expect total realism out-of-the-box (it will come).

There’s clear precedent for using such avatars — Aitana López, a fully AI-generated model from Spain, earns up to €10,000 a month through brand partnerships and social media engagement.

There’s a fair bit of post-production that goes into Aitana, but easy-to-use tools like APOB can get you most of the way there.

Marketers can use these tools for eye-catching product demos, brand mascots, or surreal, attention-grabbing ad campaigns.

It’s a novel marketing technology rather than a polished end product, but I’m sure you can think of some interesting uses.

Hope you enjoyed this week’s issue. If you missed the last newsletter, you can read it here.

If you found it useful, please recommend it to a friend or colleague.

Until next time. Happy marketing.

—The AI Marketer