Any blog or online article like this one may have been written by Artificial Intelligence (AI), or it might’ve helped in the editing process, and you’d have no idea (don’t worry, this article is all human intelligence). The same goes for a lot of content we consume nowadays. There are hundreds upon hundreds of AI platforms out there to help with digital marketing tasks, the most well known ones being Chat GPT, Motion, or Google Analytics’ AI tool, and it is a contentious topic within multiple industries. A common question being: when can you go too far with it?
Whether it’s your go-to, you’re on the fence, or get freaked out by the thought of robots stealing your job, it’s safe to say it’s here to stay. In this blog we’re sharing whether AI actually helps in the digital marketing process, and different ways of using it.
AI is a Digital Marketing Assistance Tool, not an Employee
Hootsuite’s 2025 trend report answered the common debate of whether AI is needed within marketing in one sentence: as marketers, we’re in a space where using it is no longer an advancement, but an expectation.
While this may not apply for all marketers and small business owners doing their own marketing, there are definitely examples of ways using it can make it easier to manage your time. For instance, it cuts the time spent analysing data and planning budgets in half, and is relied upon by many for optimising content strategies. Google Analytics uses AI to uncover patterns, predict trends, and generate insights that would take marketers hours to analyse manually. From anomaly detection to predictive metrics, AI helps identify which marketing channels drive the most engagement and where customers drop off. On the other hand, marketing is a highly psychological field and AI lacking empathy means relying on it too heavily could produce marketing campaigns that your target audience can’t relate to.
Often, marketers who do use AI know how to use it so it delivers the best results for clients and doesn’t take away from their knowledge. Many keep up with courses on ways to use it from an ethical and credible perspective and have specific goals for each platform they operate.
AI is an assistant, not a replacement. The key to using it strategically is knowing where it adds value without replacing the expertise that makes your marketing stand out. The best marketers will use AI to work smarter, not to shortcut the skills and insights that set them apart.
Does Using AI in Marketing take Away from Creativity?
AI isn’t perfect, and using it for copywriting or generating content ideas will likely result in unoriginal, generic responses. AI can only create what already exists, it can’t come up with new ideas. And with marketing being one the industries leading creatives among multiple fields, innovation is essential.
That said, this brings us back to our discussion of how marketers can use it in a way that enhances their creativity rather than takes away from it. Using it to assist with admin tasks means they can spend more time on refining strategies and creating content for your brand. Also, they understand the intricacies of platforms and which prompts will deliver the best results. For example “Provide me with 15-20 trending hashtags” is not as solid as “Provide a list of 15-25 trending Instagram hashtags related to [insert topic]. Ensure the hashtags are relevant to current digital marketing trends in 2025 and avoid outdated terms like “Throwback Thursday.” Format them in a single paragraph without additional text in between.”
While using AI makes ticking through your to-do list quicker and there’s no way to stop people from using it out of laziness or convenience, using it in a strategic way definitely takes time to perfect.
Limitations to AI in Digital Marketing
Technology moves fast, but it still has its blind spots. Most AI tools we use today fall under narrow AI, which means it’s highly skilled at specific tasks but lacks the adaptability and intuition of human intelligence. The idea of General AI, where machines can think and reason like humans across any task, is still a distant concept with plenty of challenges to overcome. For example, a lot of AI platforms are still way behind when it comes to generating images. You might remember us sharing these images in the past:
While we can sometimes get a laugh at these AI fails, the limitations certainly prove that it can struggle to interpret information given to it, and should always be fact checked.
AI cannot replace human creative thinking, possess an ethical and moral compass or common sense, and it only feeds off of what is given to it. As it lacks these extra capabilities, it merely predicts what word is most likely to come next, which can create innocent errors or even defamatory lies. When AI systems produce results that are nonexistent or nonsensical, this is called AI hallucinations. While this can be quite harmless or even amusing in some cases, it can also have catastrophic consequences for people’s lives. There are multiple media reports about made up sexual harassment scandals, false bribery accusations and alleged child molestation.
Viewing AI from an Accessibility Standpoint
AI also can struggle to interpret images, meaning if you’re relying on it for alt text or image descriptions, these messages can be incorrect to what is happening in the picture. We recommend independently checking your content’s accessibility to not risk incorrect or inaccessible information going out.
“Human-Made”
Despite AI’s limitations, fears of it taking over creative sectors has no doubt been spreading, with the predications of “human-made” being the new “hand-made” trademark. The rise of AI in art, writing and design has caused a lack of trust on what art has been made by a real person and what hasn’t. Just as mass production led to the commodification of “hand-made,” AI is becoming the norm, meaning “human-made” content is being seen as a luxury and a marketer of authenticity, effort and credibility.
Wrapping Up
Using AI for digital marketing can be a powerful assistant, but should always be used with consideration to its limitations. While it can enhance workflow, it will never replace a human’s work to a substantial level. Looking for other tools you can use to help with your content marketing that do not involve AI? Our team shares weekly bite-sized marketing tips in our paid email subscription, Little Lessons. We blend the freshest social media news, content ideas, and actionable tips into a compact package you can read in minutes. Visit our Little Lessons page to learn more.
