I run a zero-employee marketing agency entirely with AI tools — here’s how

A few years ago, I was head of content at a health insurance company — a role that required a team of full-time employees and freelancers to get the job done. But once ChatGPT hit the scene, I realized I could strike out on my own.

Managing people is hard, messy, and expensive. I wasn’t always doing the part of the work that I enjoyed. When I saw what AI could do, even in the early stages, I thought, “Wait, what if I can just do this myself without hiring anyone?”

I started small, but even from our first client, I realized it was feasible. Then, with OpenAI’s improvements and the progress in artificial intelligence, I realized that I could scale my agency exponentially with just these tools.

How My AI Agency Works Day-to-Day

Before I go any further, let me explain my agency model. I work with startup founders who have limited internal headcount and time. Many of them don’t have a marketing team, so I am it.

I need to make content that would normally take an army of creators to produce and actually deliver results. Here’s how I do it.

1. I build workspaces with ChatGPT Projects.

I never just open ChatGPT and start asking it for content without context. Instead, I use ChatGPT Projects to create a custom GPT page that actually reflects the brand I’m working with.

I give the GPT project details and information about the brand’s voice, style, product, and idiosyncrasies. I even feed it a master Google Doc with writing-style samples, so it can get the voice and tone right. That may include work the brand has already published or pieces from a publication they really like.

I also add general information about the company and the product. The goal here is to train the model on everything that it could possibly need. That way, once we start writing something, it already has a lot of context, and I don’t need to include all that in the prompt.

2. I start with material that already exists.

Every piece I make…