How Tables Break Your AI’s Brain

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SPEAKER 1

Ever order a pepperoni pizza and it shows up well without the pepperoni? That's what it's like when AI reads your product messaging on a page, but it completely misses your challenges, your value props, and your core differentiators. Elements can write code, poetry, and even answer esoteric questions,

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but give them a table and a PowerPoint and they can't see a damn thing. So when your messaging lives in those tables that AI can't see, the AI creates off-message content. It makes up fake proof points. It makes up fake customer quotes. And it loses the plot entirely. The fix is what I call the doc approach.

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Create an AI version of your messaging on a page framework in plain old text or markdown. That way, your AI assistant can actually see what matters. Because if AI can't find the pepperoni, all you got is plain old crust. Check out my blog below, follow me for more snappable insights,

How Tables Break Your AI’s Brain

Your messaging is right there. So why can't your LLM see it?

David Sweenor

Apr 05, 2025

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Your AI assistant might be brilliant at writing code, generating content, and answering obscure trivia—but give it a table full of key messaging, and it fails spectacularly.

In this week’s Tidbit video, I discuss one of the most overlooked causes of off-message AI-generated content.

Here are 3 key takeaways from the full article:

1- Tables and AI don’t get along.
LLMs process text sequentially—not spatially. So when your product messaging lives in a table, it’s flattened or skipped entirely. The AI just... doesn’t get it.

2- Format matters—more than you think.
Markdown, plain text, and even simplified HTML tables are far more digestible than PowerPoint slides or PDFs. The way you package your messaging determines how well the AI understands it.

3- The fix is simple (and scalable).
Adopt the Doc Approach: create a parallel version of your marketing tables in LLM-friendly formats. It’s low effort—and unlocks high-impact results.

Here’s the full blog.