Artificial intelligence is transforming the way businesses operate, and those who ignore it are doing so at their peril. An ever-growing number of tasks can be completed with incredible speed and efficiency utilizing AI, giving those who leverage it a huge advantage.

This goes for marketing as well. From predictive analytics to assisting with content generation, modern marketers must understand the benefits of various AI tools and learn how to incorporate them into their marketing “toolkit.”

However, it is absolutely vital to remember that AI is far from perfect. Just because you can use AI for a particular task does not mean it will provide you with the best outcome – and sometimes doing so can lead to embarrassing results. Businesses that embrace AI blindly risk losing the human touch, strategic insight, and creative nuance that still define effective marketing.

Let’s talk about some of the amazing things AI tools can help with, then shift gears to discuss the limitations of those tools and how to best pair them with human insight.

What Kinds of Marketing Tasks Can AI Handle?

You might be better served asking what AI can’t do. In recent years, tools powered by machine learning have gained the ability to:

• Automate repetitive tasks like scheduling posts or segmenting audiences
• Personalize customer experiences based on behavior and preferences
• Analyze large volumes of data quickly to uncover insights
• Generate written and visual content for blogs, ads, emails, and more

When used thoughtfully, AI can save time, improve efficiency, and even help deliver better results. It’s not just a productivity boost – it’s a competitive edge.

Did you catch the key word in that paragraph, though? “Thoughtfully.” Let’s explore that a bit.

Better Question: What Kinds of Marketing Tasks Should AI Handle?

If you’ve been paying attention to what we say for a while, you’ve probably heard the phrase “marketing isn’t magic.” With all apologies to Field of Dreams, simply building it (or, in this scenario, publishing a blog or posting on your socials) does not mean that “they will come.” In almost every case, marketing takes clarity and consistency, and it builds – slowly, but hopefully consistently – over time.

In a different but related way, AI also isn’t magic. Just because you decide to use AI tools in your marketing doesn’t mean you will suddenly find amazing success. Moreover, these tools should never serve as a replacement for strategy, creativity, or judgment. Whether that means you or your marketing team, someone needs to be the guiding force behind how the tools are used.

What kind of bad things can happen if you trust AI to essentially run your marketing? Some of the risks include:

• Bland messaging
• Misaligned campaigns
• Lack of authenticity (which prevents audience connection)

Why do these issues tend to occur when AI is given the reins? Despite how truly powerful and amazing the technology is, here are a few key limitations to keep in mind:

AI lacks context. Sure, generative AI can process data, but it doesn’t always understand nuance. We’re talking about things like sarcasm, cultural moments, or shifting human emotions, which tend to matter a lot in effective marketing.

That sounds… familiar. AIl AI does is compile and remix ideas. While human beings necessarily do the same thing, we also filter those existing ideas through our unique beliefs and experiences. In other words, human minds are still the only place to find truly original thinking.

It doesn’t know your brand. Unless you’ve trained an AI specifically on your brand voice and values, it will likely produce content that sounds generic or off-brand. And even if it has been trained on material specific to you, there’s still the above “remixing” issue. Nothing new; just more of the same.

AI still needs human oversight. Tech leader Don Sesler from Sageplan Technology described it best when he said that AI tools are like a smart college intern: full of knowledge and energy, but lacking in real-world experience and judgment. They might be able to do more than a seasoned employee, and do it faster, but that doesn’t mean they’ll do it correctly – or that it was even necessary to begin with. Likewise, AI can generate outputs at scale, but someone trusted still needs to act as quality control, reviewing and editing to ensure quality and accuracy.

So, what does all this mean in terms of how businesses should use AI in marketing?

Don’t Replace People – Support Them

The businesses that will benefit most from AI are those that use it strategically rather than blindly. That means understanding where AI adds value – and where human insight is still irreplaceable.

Let AI handle the things it does well: repetitive tasks, data crunching, and helping with tasks like brainstorming, proofreading, or organizing ideas. Some will argue that it saves time to have AI generate first drafts of content, but we’ve found this to be hit and miss. Yes, AI can generate content much faster than a human. However, we often spend significantly more time editing and fact-checking AI-generated work than content created by our human team, so the time savings tend to disappear.

Regardless of the tasks you assign to AI, the next step should always be to have your team step in to refine, guide, and inject the kind of thinking only people can provide. Said another way: use AI to support your marketing, not to define it.

The future of marketing isn’t human or machine. It’s human plus machine – a smart blend of automation and authenticity, data and empathy, scale and strategy.

Embrace AI. Use it wisely. But remember: it doesn’t have all the answers. And it doesn’t have to. You do.

Interested in learning more about how we will – and won’t – use AI to market your business? Set up a free consultation.