Turn AI Into Any Expert in Under 30 Seconds

The Concept: The AI as Your Instantly-Hired Expert

A few months ago, I got an email from Amazon that caught me off guard.

The email said that three Apple Watches I’d ordered would be delivered the next day to an Amazon locker in Michigan.

The only problem was… I didn’t order an Apple Watch, let alone three!

I’d been hacked.

I’ve always done the right things. I use a password manager (my wife’s always complaining that “zkq.pcg!JNU2qbj*ypd” is too hard to remember). I don’t install sketchy software. I’ve got a virus scanner on all my computers. I use a VPN. You get the idea.

But it happened anyway.

So I tell my son, who was 13 at the time, and he’s like: “Dad, you should call someone to find out why you got hacked and how to fix it.”

I laughed and replied: “Son, I’m the person that people call.”

I might not be great at certain things, but I’m pretty good with computers. But every now and then, even I get outsmarted.

Now, I’m sure you’re also good at many things too. It might not be computers, but maybe it’s sales, or maybe it’s marketing. Whatever it is, the truth is that none of us are good at everything.

Sometimes you need to call in the experts for help, and that’s what this prompting trick is all about.

Imagine you could instantly “hire” any expert in the world?

Need to check out your competition? You could hire a competitive intelligence analyst. Need to present data insights? You could hire a data scientist. Need to contribute strategic ideas in a meeting? You could hire a senior strategy consultant.

This is the main idea behind this AI prompting trick. When you start your prompt with the simple phrase “Act as a…”, you tell the AI to stop being a generalist and become a specific professional specialist.

This simple instruction makes the AI tap into the specific knowledge, vocabulary, and strategic thinking that goes with that role. The result? Much more focused and higher-quality answers than you could achieve since you might not be an expert in that area.

The “Act as a…” prompting principle works by tapping into a professional skillset and knowledge base to have the AI be the expert when you aren’t.

You simply give the AI a clear and specific “job title” at the beginning of your prompt.

Act as a senior brand strategist. Analyze our company’s current market position based on the following description…

You’re not a senior brand strategist? Don’t worry about it. The AI can fill that gap and act as one, doing all the things they’d normally do that you might not know about.

You are an expert in B2B lead generation. Draft a 3-part email nurture sequence for new leads who downloaded our whitepaper.

What about a B2B lead generation expert? Not one of those? No worries. The AI can be one if you just tell it to.

Also note that you don’t have to use “Act as a…” but you can mix up the language and the AI will still understand.

Comparison: The “Generic AI” vs. The “Hired Expert”

Let’s see how a generic prompt shakes out when we compare it to an expert role prompt.

Generic Prompt

Our Q3 content showed 15% traffic growth but only 5% lead growth. Give me one strategic insight about this gap that demonstrates strategic thinking beyond just reporting numbers.

The widening gap between traffic and lead growth suggests your content strategy has shifted toward top-of-funnel awareness at the expense of conversion intent. You’re likely attracting more browsers who aren’t ready to engage, indicating either a mismatch between content topics and buyer journey stages, or your lead capture mechanisms aren’t aligned with the new audience segments you’re drawing in.

This points to a critical strategic decision: either double down on conversion optimization for your current traffic mix, or accept lower near-term conversion rates as an investment in brand awareness that will compound over longer sales cycles.

The AI’s response makes sense. It’s saying that while I’m getting lots of leads at the top of the funnel, I’m struggling to convert them because either the intent doesn’t match or my lead-capture process sucks. Got it.

It then recommends I either double down on conversion optimization or suck it up for now and hope for sunshine and rainbows later.

The response isn’t bad, but it’s not something I’d share at a meeting with my boss. It just isn’t that helpful.

Expert Role Prompt

Act as a strategic marketing consultant who specializes in content-driven growth. Our Q3 content showed 15% traffic growth but only 5% lead growth. Give me one strategic insight about this gap that demonstrates strategic thinking beyond just reporting numbers.

Strategic Insight: Content-Audience Misalignment at Scale
Your traffic-to-lead conversion gap signals that your content strategy is successfully attracting volume but failing to attract intent. This typically occurs when content optimization focuses on broad, high-volume keywords rather than qualified, problem-aware search queries that indicate purchase readiness.

The core issue: You’re likely capturing audiences in the awareness stage but not creating clear pathways to consideration and decision stages. This suggests your content mix is weighted too heavily toward top-of-funnel educational content without corresponding middle and bottom-funnel assets.

Strategic implication: Your competitors may be capturing higher-intent traffic with more targeted content while you’re winning the attention game but losing the conversion battle. This puts you at risk of increased customer acquisition costs despite growing reach.

Immediate strategic shift: Audit your top-performing traffic-driving content and reverse-engineer what your converting visitors searched for versus your non-converting visitors. The gap between these search patterns will reveal which content types and topics actually drive qualified leads versus vanity traffic.

This approach treats content as a demand generation funnel rather than just a traffic generation tool.

Now we’re cooking! Adding “act as a strategic marketing consultant who specializes in content-driven growth” to my prompt got me way more from the AI. It’s also much more helpful.

According to the result, the problem might be in my keyword research. I could be missing keywords lower down in the buying funnel that have higher purchase intent.

The AI then gives me a really juicy practical tip. It suggests I reverse engineer what my converting visitors did on my site (the ones who bought). Maybe I can figure out what worked for them and do more of that.

I think this is a much better result, all because I had the AI act as an expert.

Advantages for Marketers and Sales Pros

• Get Instant World-Class Expertise: You don’t need 10 years of experience to think like someone who has it. You can prompt the AI to embody that expertise and get specialized analysis in seconds.
• Receive More Strategic, Less Generic Answers: By embodying an expert role, the AI moves beyond simple lists of tactics and provides genuine strategies grounded in professional perspective.
• Improve the Accuracy and Relevance of Responses: An “SEO expert” will give you much better keyword advice than a generic AI. A “financial analyst” will give you a much more realistic budget critique.
• See Your Problem From Different Professional Viewpoints: Stuck on a problem? Ask different experts. “Act as a CMO and critique this campaign” will focus on brand impact. “Act as a Head of Sales and critique the same campaign” will focus on lead quality.

When to Use the “Act as” Principle

This prompting principle is great for any task that requires specialized, professional knowledge or a strategic point of view.

• Strategic Planning: "Act as a business consultant and perform a SWOT analysis on our market position."
• Sales & Copywriting: "Act as a master copywriter and rewrite this email to focus on emotional benefits, not features."
• Technical Marketing: "Act as an SEO expert and identify content gaps in our blog strategy."
• Financial Analysis: "Act as a skeptical investor and identify the biggest risks in this marketing plan."
• Compliance & Safety: "Act as a marketing compliance expert and review this health product claim for potential issues."
• Team Leadership: "Act as an executive coach and help me frame feedback for an underperforming team member."

Important Notes

• Specificity Matters: “Senior brand strategist” will give you more sophisticated answers than just “brand strategist”
• This works best for strategic and creative tasks: The pattern excels at analysis, writing, and strategic thinking. It won’t improve mathematical calculations or technical accuracy.
• Combine with context: The more context you provide about your specific situation, the better the expert can tailor their advice.

The power of this pattern is that it transforms the AI from a generalist assistant into a specialized consultant. You’re not just getting answers; you’re getting answers from the perspective of someone who’s spent their career thinking about exactly your type of problem.