Your Next Hire Won't Be Human - Ben Afia's talk at NCBC 2026

Most people still feel like they’re making AI up as they go. They've had a few good results, maybe use it a few times a week, but there's a nagging feeling they're not doing it right. And a worry - what if it's slowly making everything they write sound like everyone else?

That's the thread running through this talk. Because the risk isn't AI itself. It's using it without training it in your voice, feeding it generic prompts and hoping the output sounds like you. When I trained an AI on my own writing and tone of voice, my 24-year copywriting friend Ang read the result and called it "the best thing you've ever written". I had to confess I used AI (with human editing).

In this session, I show how I built a 14-agent marketing system for a Fortune 500 client. Why brand voice is the thing to protect before anything else. And the four steps you can take to build your own AI assistant, without needing a tech background.