Hey guys! Molly here.
OpenAI just released its newest model, ChatGPT-5.
And to find out how it affects us as marketers, business owners and just as people in the world, we at Smart Marketer reached out to our local AI expert (and all-around best bud) Russ Henneberry.
Russ broke down the major implications of GPT-5, including:
- His #1 takeaway from this new model (and why it’s not its intelligence)
- Why this model should massively accelerate AI adoption, and what that means for the future of your business
- And how GPT-5 will affect the content you create and how you promote your brand
Russ also shared his predictions for the (near) future of AI, and why “Agent Mode” could change everything about our daily workflows and how we use the Internet.
Here’s what you need to know.
Russ Henneberry’s Top 3 Takeaways from ChatGPT-5
1. It’s Not Just Smarter—It’s Built to Think for You
Yeah, GPT-5 is smarter.
According to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, if GPT-3 was like talking to a highschooler and GPT-4 was like talking to a college student, GPT-5 is like talking to a PhD in any topic you like.
Russ: “Personally, I don’t think the change is that significant—though I do think it’s smarter with greater emotional intelligence. But that’s not the biggest change to this new AI.”
According to Russ, the biggest change is that GPT-5 isn’t just a new model; it’s an entirely new system.
It’s a router that decides how much “brainpower” to use based on your request:
- Ask a simple question? It uses a smaller, faster model.
- Ask for deep reasoning or complex analysis? It switches to a heavier, more powerful model.
So no more choosing between GPT-4 for speed or o3 for reasoning. The AI just handles the task without being told how.
Russ: “Most marketers use LLMs every day now, but the average person doesn’t know how these different models work—and they don’t want to. They just want an amazing experience.”
(The new, streamlined experience will be a major theme in this post.)
2. It’s Free (and That’s a Big Deal)
Yep, OpenAI’s newest model is even available to free-tier users.
Russ: “This move signals a land grab: OpenAI wants to be the next Google—the default front page of the internet.”
They already own 80% of the market share, and they’re coming for more.
Here’s how it affects us:
- By making GPT-5 free (and more accessible to the casual user), this will rapidly accelerate adoption of AI.
- And as late-adopters start using this tech, we’ll see even greater change to how we run our marketing, build our sites, etc.
Here’s where Russ sees this going:
“AI itself—the raw tech that can answer questions, write copy, or generate images—is quickly becoming a commodity. It’ll be free and built into everyday tools.”
The real “product” will be what’s built on top of that: things like high-powered Agents helping you with your workflows.
More on that later.
3. Top-of-Funnel Content is Disappearing
In the past, most brands used ToF content to reach new customers.
We’d use educational content to target people still in the research stage—folks who weren’t product-aware or sometimes even problem-aware—usually by focusing on common pain points.
Then, deeper in the funnel, we’d shift to our business and our offers.
Russ: “Now, AI is replacing much of this ToF content—and the traffic it used to drive is disappearing. People will surely start bringing these early research questions straight to their AI.”
So what should we do instead?
Russ: “Focus deeper in the funnel.”
- Create best-in-class pages about your specific business and offers.
- Cater to AI search tools: make your brand trustworthy to these tools by acquiring reviews, citations, and even old-fashioned PR.
(GPT-5 was pre-trained on data up to October 2024—but while its base knowledge stops there, it can also search the web for newer information.)
The (Near) Future of AI: How “Agents” Will Change Daily Life, and How the Internet is Built & Consumed
Russ: “With something evolving this quickly you can’t just think about where it is, you have to also be thinking about where it’s going—because it’s going there rapidly.”
Agent Mode is the Quiet Game-changer
If ChatGPT-5 is mostly about accessibility, Russ believes Agent Mode is the real game-changer.
Agents are like virtual assistants that can browse the web, fill out forms, create spreadsheets, etc.
And they already exist—right now they’re clunky and slow, but they’re learning.
Russ: “Every day, people like me are using Agent Mode. And just like Google learned how to beat the world’s top chess players by consuming tons of matches, ChatGPT is also learning from our sessions and it’ll get very good very fast.”
Here’s where Russ thinks this is going:
- Soon, you’ll have Agents running in the background observing your habits.
- These agents will proactively offer to do things for you. They’ll say “Hey, I notice you do this every day—want me to do it for you?”
- In the near future, you’ll have dozens of Agents handling different business operations (and personal tasks).
This will completely optimize our workflows.
Russ: “It will be like having multiple of the world’s best personal assistants, but ones with total visibility into everything you do.”
Prepare for AI Traffic (Not Just Human Traffic)
Just like marketers will be using Agents for our workflows, customers will be using them to gather info.
That means a chunk of your website traffic will be AI.
Russ: “Some percentage of your site traffic is already AI Agents—and we can expect that number to skyrocket very soon.”
Here are some questions to start asking:
- What’s the value of an Agent visit?
It might be higher than a human visit, if it leads to a purchase recommendation.
- How can you optimize your site for Agents?
What’s the best website experience for an AI? Is it the glitzy product page that was built for human eyes—or does it look like something else entirely?
- How do we prepare for Agent-to-Agent communication?
What happens when my AI in charge of customer support interacts with a customer’s AI looking for product recommendations? These protocols already exist (similar to an API), and will evolve rapidly.
The Future is Here!
Wild times, y’all.
This tech is evolving so fast—and as a hesitant AI adopter myself, I have to admit that we marketers have to stay on top of this stuff.
To summarize:
- Yeah, ChatGPT-5 is smarter—but it’s more geared toward accelerating AI adoption and incorporation into daily life.
- We’re seeing a shift away from traditional search and ToF content toward a focus on MoF and BoF while catering to AI search tools.
- AI Agents are going to completely change our everyday workflows, and how we build our sites and deliver information on the Internet.
If you want an easy way to use AI in your marketing, check out our free AI tool: The Smart Marketer AI Hub.
It’s an amazing library of customizable prompts to help with ad copy, creative and more.
Okay—thanks for reading!
