Most marketers have a transactional relationship with AI, A. Lee Judge says. They put in a request. They get out an asset. They edit it until it sounds like their voice or their brand’s. Then, they repeat.
But Judge, founder of B2B content marketing and production company Content Monsta, explains AI isn’t meant to replace human content creators; it’s meant to elevate them.
Too many marketers, though, still treat AI as a content factory instead of a powerful thought partner. It’s time for a mindset shift: What if you stopped only using AI to write like you and instead leveraged it to think with you, too?
AI is a better thinking partner than most marketers realize, Judge says. His approach reorients the relationship from production to collaboration: using AI to extract expertise from thought leaders, surface strategic insight, and help teams build messaging that's more precise and more human.
Brain Siphoning
He calls this "brain siphoning": the discipline of using AI to pull out brilliance that already exists within an organization and scale it with purpose. The premise is that the most valuable thing AI can do for a content team isn't writing the draft, but helping the strategist think more clearly before the draft exists.
This connects directly to what the 2026 State of AI for Business Report found when it asked more than 2,100 professionals, 86% of whom are B2B marketers, what AI training they actually want.
Only 15% said prompting. This was once the most-requested topic, but it’s near the bottom of the list now.
What did survey respondents ask to learn instead?
Professional want to receive training on:
- Integrating AI into existing workflows (58%)
- Using AI agents (51%)
- Building no-code tools (45%).
The workforce has moved past "how do I talk to AI" and is asking something closer to what Judge is teaching: How do I work with it as a genuine thought partner?
Judge will speak at the AI for B2B Marketers Summit on June 25 on the topic, Content with a Human Edge: How AI Makes You a Better Marketer. To learn more and register, visit: https://www.marketingaiinstitute.com/events/ai-for-b2b-marketers-summit
Cathy McPhillips
Cathy McPhillips is the Chief Marketing Officer at SmarterX and Marketing AI Institute