Programming Note: Welcome to the debut of Media Shot, a new weekly post on media training and storytelling for founders and investors. On Mondays, I’ll share lessons to help you communicate your narrative more clearly, from pitch decks to interviews to real-world examples drawn from my work as a media training consultant and longtime journalist.
Earlier this summer, I was invited to serve as a judge for the inaugural SiliconANGLE TechForward Awards, reviewing two categories:
Enterprise AI Solutions
AI-Driven Personalization & Customer Experience
You may be familiar with some of the top names for the awards, such as MaintainX, RingCentral, Typeface. But what stood out to me wasn’t who won. It was the difference in storytelling quality and Clarity across the submissions.
The best were the ones that clearly explained the problem they solve and why their AI approach matters. Even among nominees with brand recognition and proven products, the gap between well-positioned tech solutions and generic marketing was wide.
Instead of breaking down the winners, I want to share what I noticed during the judging process and offer a few tips for founders, as well as marketers, who are trying to position their AI products today.
Because this post isn’t just for award hopefuls.
Whether you’re applying for award recognition, pitching to customers or preparing to meet a journalist for an interview, how you tell your AI story matters.
The strongest submissions made their AI story obvious by answering two questions: what specific problem do they solve, and how does AI make that solution better, cheaper, faster or smarter?
Beyond that, they grounded their story in reality.
They showed a clear go-to-market plan, not just a vague “talk to sales” page. They included real customer examples or anonymized metrics that proved adoption. They explained how long deployment takes and what the time-to-value looks like.
And most importantly, they described what the AI itself does. The strongest ones also showed honesty about maturity, separating what exists today from what’s still on the roadmap.
By contrast, some entries read like they’d been generated from a prompt: “write like an AI company.” They leaned on jargon and lofty claims instead of explaining real use cases.
For instance, AI was described as a “co-pilot,” with no clarity on what it was actually helping with. Automation was called “AI-powered” but without details on inputs, outputs or results. A few leaned on award wins or partnerships as proof, but skipped over customer impact.
To be fair, SiliconANGLE’s core readers are more technical and can often parse insider jargon. But I came at this judging process with a more generalist lens, thinking about how a story lands with enterprise buyers, reporters and investors outside the inner AI circle.
From that perspective, missing segmentation (ops teams vs. developers vs. frontline workers) made some entries feel too broad to resonate.
Enterprise buyers are skeptical by default. So are journalists. If your story feels like a buzzword cloud, you’ll quickly lose the sale and the narrative.
The biggest takeaway? The entries that stood out pitched a clear solution that just happened to be powered by AI.
If you’re a founder or storyteller trying to land with enterprise audiences, here are four simple steps that make your AI story more credible and compelling:
🔶 Start with the problem — who has it, why it matters
🔶 Describe the job to be done — where human effort, time, or accuracy is a challenge
🔶 Show how AI changes the equation — without pretending it’s magic
🔶 Share what improves over time — does your model adapt, personalize, retrain?
Above all, treat your AI story like a product story, not a science experiment. Flashy tech is nice, but buyers care more about fit, friction and outcomes.
And media folks like me just want a simple and engaging narrative that avoids corporate speak.
That’s your Media Shot for this week. Make yours count.
I work with founders and investors to sharpen pitch decks, prep for media interviews, and build stronger stories for customers and backers. If that’s on your plate, let’s talk.
And thanks again to SiliconANGLE and theCUBE for including me in the judging process. It was fun and educational.
