AI Is a Time Reducer: How Content Creators Are Using AI to Scale Faster

This episode of AI Profit Machine features a powerful conversation between Chris Wiser and content producer Trent Knox, diving deep into how AI is reshaping content creation, marketing, and business growth. 

Trent shares how he leverages AI tools and platforms like Replit and Lovable to build communities, scale content production, and drive engagement, especially in the gaming and esports space. From repurposing podcast clips using Opus Clip to streamlining workflows, this episode highlights how AI is becoming a true “time reducer” for entrepreneurs.

Key insights from this episode:

•  Why short-form clips are dominating platforms like YouTube, Twitch, and Kick
•  How AI improves efficiency without replacing teams 
•  The rise of “agentic AI” and what it means for the future of work 
•  Why entrepreneurs must move beyond using AI as just a chatbot 
•  The importance of adopting paid AI tools to unlock real business value

Whether you're a small business owner, content creator, or scaling entrepreneur, this episode breaks down practical ways to use AI to increase productivity, grow your brand, and stay ahead in a rapidly evolving digital landscape. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

All right, everybody. Welcome back, South by Southwest live AI Profit Machine House. My name's Chris Weiser here with a special guest. We got Trent Knox here from Austin, Texas. What's up, buddy? Doing well. It's a great event so far, man. You brought out people. Pretty cool. Yeah, we got to bring in the heat tonight. It's pretty exciting. We got Noah Hunting here this afternoon. We got Chingy here. You just did a little networking out there on the front on the front desk. I came in and out, but I caught it. Yeah, I like it. I like it. So tell us about yourself. We got a whole crowd here watching tonight. Tell us about yourself.

SPEAKER_01 0:35

Yeah, so people probably know me as a content producer. I produce content for you know different people in small business, podcasts, live streams, webinars. I'm interested in the event because I became a builder. I work with a lot of people on lovable, replit, you know, these platforms. And built my biggest community is in the gaming and esports space. And so we built on we built on lovable and work with Annie Gravity and Claude Coat and those things.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

Okay. So what do you see from your standpoint? Where how is AI changing your side of things? Like obviously you're talking about lovable and replit and some of the some of the baseline builder platforms. Yeah. But what does it look like from your standpoint? How is this making you more profitable today?

SPEAKER_01 1:18

Yeah, in terms of marketing side, like the the biggest brand we work with is Opus. Opus does most of like the content repurposing. Clips are the main thing. I mean, if you think about Twitch or Kik or any YouTube or whatever, like the big thing that drives the most traffic is going to be those clips. So we do a lot of clipping, especially for podcasts and live streamers.

SPEAKER_00 1:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:39

So from your standpoint, you talk about clipping, you talk about profitability, you talk about growth. How does that how does all the AI side does it make you more efficient? Does it make you better? Like looking at from a you know, and and what's your role in your company? Just so I'm clear. So I'm the operator. I remember you are the guy. I knew that, but I just want to make sure everybody knows. Yeah, yeah. So from your standpoint, how does it make you more efficient? How does it help you make your team more efficient?

SPEAKER_01 2:04

Well, so I was actually talking to someone else at the event earlier, and like I feel like in the beginning of the year, it's very much personal brand driven. So like a lot of it right now is my team is focused on me. Yeah. And then secondly, like once that we get over the like, oh, New Year's resolutions or whatever, then people start thinking about business and and like that's a really that's actually a really good point about the new year and that kind of stuff. Yeah, that people start to focus on themselves much more than like their operations or what they're doing. And so then when it comes back around, then they start thinking about oh, what can I do with my e-commerce brand? What can I do with you know, my new venture or whatever have you? And so, but to more directly answer your question, I think AI is a time reducer. So the the it'll speed you faster to the new copywriting you have to do on your website or the clips that you have to create. It's gonna reduce the amount of time that you have to create, new forms of content or new packaging or yeah, the leverageability factor that scale, the leverageability and scale factor helps you next level.

SPEAKER_00 3:04

How many people do you have in your team right now? Well, it depends on what you talk about, like partners and everything like that. So let's just say full-time staff. Let's just say full-time staff. Three. Okay. So, you know, it makes you, and and what is what does part-time staff look like?

SPEAKER_01 3:17

Oh, so you know, we work with people in India, we work with people. In that regard, but in terms of like more like part-time, full-time, we have somebody in A AI that's based in Chattanooga, and then we also have somebody who's in in India.

SPEAKER_00 3:33

So does that from your standpoint as a leader, and this is where I was going with that question, does it help you like massively increase their workload and make them more efficient from your standpoint? Or is it from your standpoint, are you trying to potentially not necessarily replace them? And and I I'm really trying to take people away from the replace people standpoint to how do we make them more efficient and better, right?

SPEAKER_01 3:57

Yeah, for sure. Well, so there's a couple things. One, they are one of them is not as AI powered as the other. The one's much more of an entrepreneur, you know, very much motivated to do his own things. So that's really great. But actually, I was like, as I was walking up here, I heard somebody say something like, Agentic is not like, oh, who's using agentic? You know, and that blows my mind.

SPEAKER_00 4:19

That's almost kind of comical if you really think about it.

SPEAKER_01 4:21

Yeah, and I think a I think it's actually probably a lot true right now. Yeah, but as manis, as these open claws and things like that evolve, there will be more opportunity to replace your virtual assistants and your I think to me, like the agentic is a is a joke mindset.

SPEAKER_00 4:37

It's kind of like I understand what you're saying. It's not perfect right now, but how early are we? Very we're so insanely early, right? Like it's so insanely early that maybe right now it's not perfect, but it's definitely coming and we're getting to the point where but agentic is the future, yeah, right?

SPEAKER_01 4:53

I mean it is, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 4:55

So I think from you know, from my standpoint, it's looking at it like you have to be a forward-thinking leader. It sounds like your mindset is around that as well. Set a crazy squirrel going nuts here. Well, is it a black squirrel? Because we we have black squirrel. Is it a brown squirrel?

SPEAKER_01 5:10

Oh, it's a brown squirrel.

SPEAKER_00 5:11

Live video, folks. So from from that standpoint, where's your head around the AI first leader mindset? Is that something like you're sounds like you're fully embracing that? Well, I just surround myself with builders.

SPEAKER_01 5:23

I think right now you have to.

SPEAKER_00 5:24

Yeah, I think.

SPEAKER_01 5:25

But I'm in Discord communities, I'm in, you know, uh school groups, these things, just looking for the next person who's building something that's gonna you know influence me or motivate me, yeah, or make me, you know, uh a much more of a like a predator in a video space over here. Yeah. Uh, you know, producer, editor.

SPEAKER_00 5:42

That's why I saw my Jeff over here hanging out, sitting here all day just working with us, waiting, waiting for shit to happen. Yeah. So as we kind of wrap up here, we got short little bursts here, little episodes, a little shorts here at South by. We're live at AI Profit Machine House here at South by Southwest 2026. What's a couple tips you can give to somebody that is maybe a smaller entrepreneur or a new entrepreneur, or maybe even a legacy seasoned entrepreneur. How do we use AI and believe it?

SPEAKER_01 6:09

Well, I would just say, you know, I give credit to your event. I've met people at all different, you know, stages right now. I I think when I bring up agentic, not everybody's really talking about it. They don't get it yet, they don't really get it. But I think people who are maybe entrepreneurs or working in their organization, or even if they're entrepreneurs, getting started with and I almost say this like people who have like a fear or not a fear, but an aversion to paying for a subscription or subscription fatigue, just figure it out. Like I just yeah, you have to buy into these programs because there are features there that are going to organize the way that you do your work, and they're only subscription right now. You can build them yourself, you know, with open source models and whatnot, but it's really complicated. So I would say to get started, you just need to have a relationship with a chat, whether it's OpenAI or Claude or it's Grok or whatever it is, just to start to establish that relationship on a commercial level. Yeah. If you're an entrepreneur or you're an entrepreneur, a lot of people are just using it as consumers right now.

SPEAKER_00 7:14

Well, and so many people are just using it as a chat, almost a chat bot, right? Exactly. So it's kind of like taking this off. How many of your girlfriends do you have? So I think you know, a good lesson for everybody, take it past the chat bot stage. Yeah. You're maybe not agentic yet, which you know, for the most part, an agentic mindset is think of an employee. Could you hand over something to an agent or to an AI bot and just let them work? Yep. You really can't yet, maybe, but I think certain things are getting there. You might have to buy an AP. 100%. 100%. But as we go, I think that's a really good advice. So all right, Trent, good to see you, buddy. Great to meet great chat conversation and AI Profit Machine House here at South by Southwest Live. We'll see you guys soon. Take care of the