When and When Not to Use AI When Marketing Your Business
AI has been extremely useful in all aspects of business as it has evolved tremendously over the years. Although it may be helpful as an occupied business owner/manager, it’s difficult to determine when it’s appropriate and when it’s not. In today’s competitive market, where “time is money,” many businesses turn to AI to speed up advertising and move quickly to the next project. However, authenticity and originality matter most when it comes to marketing. The overuse of AI within marketing has weakened creativity throughout the advertising world, as things are starting to become too similar, bland, inaccurate, and noticeably AI (which isn’t something you want). Genuine marketing starts with you, AI is just an innovative tool to help you along the way.
When AI Should Be Used in Marketing
As mentioned before, AI is great for saving time. It works well for tasks already written, such as polishing social media captions, emails, and perfecting bits of writing. As well as helping create its own writing based on facts, like making product descriptions and summarizing data. These are repetitive and time-consuming tasks that AI can significantly reduce the workload without replacing human judgment. In these roles, AI is used as a productivity tool rather than a creative authority.
AI is also great for data analysis. It can track consumer behavior, help optimize ad targeting (helps put your ad in front of your target audience), and recommend posting times for content (puts your post in front of your followers when they’re most active), all based on user actions. Because one of AI’s primary functions is data recognition, it can help display data that would be difficult or time-consuming for humans to interpret.
Another strong use for AI is as a source of inspiration. AI can also be used as a brainstorming tool to help generate rough ideas, different angles, starting points, headings, or other creative projects. This works well because AI produces options quickly, giving teams more choices to refine and use as inspiration. For example, providing AI with a general concept can open your eyes to new directions or clarify structure, while the final wording, tone, and creative decisions remain guided by human judgment. The value of AI in a creative space lies in influence, rather than using the AI output as the final decision.
When AI Should Not Be Used in Marketing
AI should be avoided when trying to define a brand’s core identity and voice. Brand values, founder stories, emotional storytelling, and any messaging that defines the company should always come from humans, not AI. These important elements rely on human experience and emotion, where AI lacks the authenticity and human connection. Overusing AI in these areas can make your brand feel generic and disconnected, leading to a lack of trust by your consumers. Having the “human connection” part of your brand be AI-generated can even make your consumers believe there isn’t a real person behind the screen, which appears suspicious and a threat to their personal information.
AI should not replace genuine human interaction. Community/social media engagement, personal conversations (emails/DMs), handling sensitive customer issues, and public/private apologies require empathy and judgment that AI is not able to provide. Audiences have become increasingly good at recognizing 100% AI-generated captions, comments, replies, and descriptions. In these moments, human validity matters far more than efficiency when wanting to earn the consumer’s trust.
Finally, AI should not be the final voice in creative and strategic decisions. While it’s a great tool to help with ideas and efficiency, decisions around visual identity, aesthetics, cultural relevance, and social commentary should remain as human-led. As mentioned earlier, AI lacks human authenticity, which is where creative originality comes from. Most “ideas” from AI are usually formed by the gathered data of other users who also use AI. So in reality, much of the output is imitative rather than truly innovative, just a recycled idea used by most likely thousands. Creative choices require accountability, cultural awareness, artistic understanding, emotion, and the ability to combine existing ideas in new ways, which AI lacks the lived experience necessary to understand.
The Smart Way to Use AI
The most effective way to treat AI is as an assistant, not an employee, decision maker, or voice. AI can draft, analyze, suggest, and inspire, but humans need to refine, personalize, and lead in all final verdicts. While AI can do most of the tedious work, humans can provide opinions and direction to make marketing become more productive and real at the same time. So next time you’re using AI to create a graphic or be the voice of your brand, take a step back to see how your business is perceived and consider whether you would feel genuinely connected to it.