How AI Actually Fits Into Your Practice's Marketing

Most of what group practice owners hear about AI falls into one of two camps: either it's going to write your marketing for you, or it's not to be trusted with anything that matters. Neither one is how I actually use it. The useful version is narrower and less exciting than either camp promises: it's a research assistant and a second pair of eyes, not a replacement for the judgment you already have about your own practice.

I've written before about where AI fits on the systems side of your practice: onboarding, supervision, team documentation. This one's about the other half, the research, content, and numbers side of running the business.

Here's what that actually looks like, area by area.

Research: Who You're Actually Competing With

You can ask AI directly to identify the top group practices in your area that serve your niche or provide the services you provide. Then ask the follow-up that actually matters: what are they offering, or not offering, that you do? That gap is what you lead with when a prospective client is comparing you to three other options in a Google search.

The same approach works for figuring out where your ideal client actually spends time. Ask what platforms they're likely on, how often, and what kind of content tends to land there. A referral source scrolling LinkedIn during a workday wants something different than a parent searching for a child therapist at 9pm. Knowing the difference changes where you put your time, not just what you say.

This is also where you find out what you're not doing that competitors are, or the reverse. Maybe every other practice in your area is running Google Search Ads and you're not. Maybe none of them have a clear page for the one niche your team has actually built real expertise in. Either answer is useful, but you only get it by asking directly instead of assuming you already know your market.

Finding What To Write About

Instead of guessing at blog topics, ask what your ideal client is actually searching for right now, given your team, your niches, and the clients you already serve. This is different from a generic content calendar template. It's specific to your practice's associates, your specialties, and the questions your intake calls actually get.

Ask for three topics at a time, not thirty. A shorter list forces you to pick what's genuinely relevant instead of working through a pile of ideas that could apply to any practice.

Writing It Yourself First

This is the part I'd push back on if you asked AI to just write the blog post for you. Start with your own material: the actual topic, your own take on it, a few sentences in your own words. Then ask AI to expand that into 1,200 to 1,400 words, and ask it specifically to check two things: is this searchable, meaning would it actually surface for someone Googling this or asking an AI assistant the same question, and does it still make sense to a real client reading it, not just to an algorithm.

That order matters. If you start with the AI draft and try to edit your voice back into it afterward, you're doing more work, not less, and it usually still doesn't land right. If you start with your own material and use AI to build it out, you keep the parts that make it yours and get help with the parts that take the longest: hitting a real word count, making sure it reads clearly, catching what search engines and AI tools are actually looking for.

Reading Your Website The Way A Client Would

You already know your ideal client. What you can't always tell is whether your website actually sounds like something they'd recognize themselves in. Ask AI to read through your site and flag what might need to change so a prospective client hears their own situation reflected back: what questions are unanswered, what language feels off, what's missing entirely.

The way you ask matters here. Say directly: don't write anything for me, I just need the facts. You want information, not a rewrite. The wording on your site still needs to be yours, the same voice, the same judgment about what a client in crisis needs to read versus what a referral source needs to see. AI's job in this exercise is to tell you what's there and what isn't, not to hand you new copy.

Turning Numbers Into Something You Can Actually Use

You can take your Jane reports and your CRM data and ask AI to build you a metrics report. That part is genuinely fast. The part that isn't fast, and can't be skipped, is understanding what those numbers mean before you ask for the report. If you don't already know what a drop in intake conversions or a shift in no-show rates should tell you about your practice, a clean-looking report won't teach you that on its own.

Be clear on what you want to know before you start. What decision is this report supposed to help you make? Then actually read what comes back, study it, sit with it, instead of glancing at a summary and assuming you now know where your business stands. Looking at your numbers clearly, instead of avoiding them or skimming them, is what actually lets you make hard decisions without operating from fear. AI can build the report. It can't do that part for you.

I'd rather an owner ask AI to help her understand one number she's genuinely confused about than hand over her whole Jane export and ask for insights. The first gets you somewhere. The second usually just gets you a longer list of things to worry about.

When You're Stuck

The lowest-stakes use of all of this: when you're blocked on a topic, a theme, or an idea for a team event, ask AI for options. This is the one place low precision doesn't cost you anything. You're just trying to get unstuck, not produce a final answer.

Where To Start

• Pick one area (research, topic ideas, your website, or your reporting) and try it once this month instead of all six at once.

• Whatever you ask AI to do, keep your own material and your own judgment as the starting point, not the follow-up.

• Before you touch your numbers, write down what question you're actually trying to answer. That's what makes the report useful instead of just fast.

If you want to talk through how this fits into your practice's systems with other owners doing the same work, the Group Practice Connection is where that conversation happens. (And yes, AI helped me fill out this blog article :) )