AI in Marketing: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

The way I felt about AI when it first rose to popularity a few years ago is quite dissimilar from the way I feel about it now; it’s also true that what’s really going on with AI in marketing is different from the way I feel about the entire ordeal. So what’s really the deal with AI in marketing, and how much should it be steering your marketing ship? In this blog, I’m diving into the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to AI’s role in marketing.

The Good

I use AI regularly; it does a lot of good when it comes to the efficiency side of things. Here’s where I’ve found AI excels.

Fast Answers to Detailed Queries

When it comes to large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT or Claude, I like how detailed my queries can get. Instead of simply Googling, “Why are my videos uploading to Instagram all blurry?” I can prompt AI with, “My videos are uploading to Instagram all blurry. I’m using CapCut, I am exporting at x frames per second, and I have already tried x, y, and z. What do I do now?” This makes getting answers that are relevant to me a much faster process.

Level 100 Brainstorming

Brainstorming is an important part of the content creation process, and I still start this process off by opening a blank Google doc and typing out everything I think would be relevant to a content piece. However, then submitting that to an LLM and inquiring what’s relevant and irrelevant in my list has helped to steer me in a more clear direction.

The Bad

AI is far from perfect. Here’s exactly why.

Made Up Information

LLMs “hallucinate.” They scrape the internet for what information can be found on your query…and what can’t be found, it makes up. If you aren’t a subject matter expert who can’t tell whether it’s “hallucinating” or not, this can result in bigger problems down the line (depending on what you use its made-up response for). False statistics for a social media post could result in a damaged brand reputation, and a poor AI-generated marketing strategy could result in years of wasted time and thousands of wasted dollars.

Non-Unique Content Generation

Just because AI’s output is fast does not mean it’s good. This blurb should come as no surprise, but the amount of AI-generated captions, images, blogs, and so on and so forth that have flooded the internet have trained people to recognize AI-generated content in a second…and the public’s response is that it’s unoriginal and lazy (and I agree).

The Ugly

The ugly part of AI in marketing isn’t really AI itself. It’s what happens when businesses start treating a tool like a replacement for the people who are supposed to be doing the thinking.

Employee Replacement

AI can only work with the context it's given, and the only people who know what context is required for it to generate a solid output are dedicated specialists. But the reality of the situation is that a lot of businesses are using AI without the dedicated specialist behind it. Instead, they’re prompting it, crossing their fingers, and using whatever output it generates…even when the output is ultimately terrible (which they can’t tell if it’s terrible or not because they aren’t experts on the matter). It’s one issue to lean on a bad output here and there…but it’s a whole other beast to run your business that way. And we’ve seen the results of this already (case 1, case 2, case 3).

Loss of Complex Thinking

The problem isn’t using AI; it’s allowing AI to do the thinking for you. Marketing requires you to consider your goals, audience, competitors, and a thousand other pieces of context before deciding which direction to take. When that whole thinking process is immediately outsourced to AI, we lose opportunities to question assumptions and make connections…and arrive at conclusions that are mediocre at best.

In Conclusion

So, how much should AI be steering your marketing ship? Truthfully, it shouldn’t be steering it at all. AI is a tool for making marketers more efficient, but faster doesn’t always mean better…and generating an answer isn’t the same thing as making a good decision. Use AI to brainstorm, research, organize, and execute faster, but always keep an expert behind the wheel.