Since AI has evolved into a global phenomenon, it’s so easy to ask a quick question and have a reply within milliseconds. Need a packing list for your next holiday? LLMs have got your back.
For Marketing professionals, whether you’re working in-house, agency or consultancy, AI has disrupted the Marketing space. At Your Marketing Team, we’ve seen some good and some not-so-good examples of when AI has been used over the last year. We’re leaning into AI and believe it is a tool we should use to aid us, without losing sight of the human touch ‘superpower’.
Our team of qualified Marketing professionals have offered some advice for using AI in Marketing tasks.
Miguel, Marketing Assistant
AI is a big part of how I work. When utilised well, it’s a massive advantage. For copywriting, SEO, content repurposing, and blog structures – it speeds up the foundations and frees you up to focus on other tasks while it runs in the background. The difference between a mediocre AI output and a great one usually comes down to how well you prompt it. Being specific about tone, audience, context and what you want to avoid gets you somewhere usable and quickly.
The don’ts for me are less about what AI can’t do and more about how people misuse it. Things go wrong when you paste in sensitive client information, skip the edit before sending to a client, or let it do the strategic thinking for you. AI doesn’t replace knowing your client, understanding their audience, or having a point of view on what works. The human element is what makes the difference.
Laura A, Graphic Designer
The creative AI tools I use most are in Photoshop, particularly Firefly’s Generative Expand and Remove tools. They have become invaluable to my workflow. In the past, expanding an image required manually extending the canvas and recreating content with the clone tool. Now, I can simply expand the canvas and let AI continue the scene, often without even needing a prompt. Although it occasionally requires adjustments, it works accurately most of the time.
The Remove tool is equally impressive, allowing unwanted objects to be deleted and replaced with a realistic interpretation of what should appear behind them. These tools do not conflict with my values as a designer; they save time, improve efficiency, and allow me to focus more on design rather than retouching.
While there are now many AI tools capable of generating logos and images in minutes, they are still far from replacing human creativity. AI can create something that looks good, but it cannot determine whether a design is right for a client, resonates with the target audience, or communicates the intended message.
Strong branding and communication are built on human understanding and interaction. Effective design comes from discussing a client’s goals, understanding their audience, and researching competitors. AI is useful for generating ideas and speeding up processes, but it cannot replace the strategic thinking and human insight required to create meaningful, effective design.
Katie, Marketing Administrator
I will be honest and say I have probably barely scratched the surface of what can be done with AI in an administrative role. One of my main tasks is to check and proof copy, data or websites and I’ve found that AI can provide a very useful sanity check when deciding what changes to make while editing text. I only do this in small amounts, both to safeguard potentially sensitive information and because AI can’t replace a personal touch. It’s great for writing generic template emails or documents too, though it’s best to keep this as a starting point for further human edits.
AI also can save a lot of time when searching by compiling the results from multiple different sources into one easy to read list. However, writing a good prompt is an art and, if not quite right, the results can either be too vague or end up generating an avalanche of information to wade your way through to find what you actually wanted to know. This can take a bit of time to hone through trial and error, though it’s all good experience for use in future searches. We’ve also recently tried using it to generate a list of data for us using specific parameters. While this did initially save time, manual checking revealed that not all of the data was correct, so it’s important to give the final results a once-over each time for accuracy.
Joel, Senior Marketing Executive
AI is a useful tool for enhancing or accelerating plenty of Marketing tasks. It’s great for research, data analysis, or even things like turning old, grainy photos into HD. But it shouldn’t be writing copy for you.
The problem with AI copy is that it all sounds the same. It can be good for sparking ideas or suggesting improvements, but no matter how detailed your prompt, AI writing isn’t original. There are usually clues: the overreliance on em dashes and ‘rule of three’, the emojis (🚀), the recycled sentence structure and rhythm, the sign-off. It’s talented at using many words to say very little.
Originality is important, and sounding like anyone with a ChatGPT account won’t differentiate a brand from its competitors.
Curious, I asked ChatGPT to improve my section. This is what it had to say:
AI is a powerful tool for speeding up and enhancing many marketing tasks. It’s great for research, data analysis, summarising information, and even restoring old, low-quality images—but when it comes to writing copy, it should be used with caution.
The issue is that AI-generated copy often sounds remarkably similar, regardless of the prompt. It can be useful for generating ideas, overcoming writer’s block, or suggesting improvements, but it rarely produces genuinely original work. There are usually tell-tale signs: an overuse of em dashes, the predictable “rule of three”, unnecessary emojis 🚀, repetitive sentence structures, and often lengthy conclusions that say very little.
Strong brands stand out because they have a distinct voice. If your copy sounds like it could have been generated by anyone with a ChatGPT account, you’re not creating differentiation—you’re blending into the crowd.
Steph, Senior Marketing Executive
The idea of using AI is an idyllic one. Can it create a report in 5 seconds that would have taken me 1 hour to produce? The answer is yes. But actually no. In reality, producing a high-quality report cannot be done by solely relying on AI. Using it to pull the stats from a campaign will save me time and make me much more efficient. However, it stumbles when insights, rationale and recommendations are required to enrich the report. This is where we add value as human marketing professionals.
The LLM doesn’t understand what our client is trying to achieve and the nuances behind each decision within a campaign. LLMs scrape information that’s readily available online and might make conclusions using paid social media campaign recommendation articles that shouldn’t be pasted into a report without a second thought. All of our clients have a marketing strategy with a unique target audience, and to reach them, all campaigns need specific recommendations to improve and get the most out of their investment.
Although not an LLM, Grammarly is an app that has been a lifesaver, and I recommend it to anyone who struggles with writing and spelling. It does use machine learning and is technically AI-assisted editing. It detects spelling, grammar and punctuation and has been a great tool to assist me with writing and proofing tasks.
Lisa, Digital Marketing Consultant
For me, I find AI can be a useful tool when running Google, Meta and LinkedIn advertising, in that it’s great at doing the heavy lifting in terms of research. It’s great for discovering keywords and suggesting target audiences and to a lesser extent, drafting ad copy.
That said, always check that the suggested keywords have meaningful search volume and that the target audience can be effectively reached through the chosen advertising platform. It’s also important to check ad copy for brand tone of voice.
You can’t assume AI fully understands your business, customers, or current market trends. So, the best strategy is to combine AI’s efficiency at speeding up the process, with human creativity and experience to create ad campaigns that are not only effective, but authentic.
Beccy, Marketing Consultant
I am increasingly using AI for research. It is a great time-saver when gathering facts for a blog, insights into a prospect’s competitive landscape or benchmarking historic campaigns. However, it’s important to acknowledge that this just gives me a starting block. Whilst valuable, I will always use an AI response as a springboard for extended research, going back to the original reference links cited and applying my own marketing knowledge for application to ensure credibility.
Recently, the tables were turned when a client sent me their AI research into a campaign we were planning. Initially, I must admit that I was a little put out that they had sent it at all! But, after a strong coffee, I ran through the document and discovered that there were elements of the response that could be useful. Could it plan the campaign from start to finish? In theory, yes. In practice, absolutely not. Whilst there were some interesting elements we hadn’t considered, the feedback didn’t fully grasp the nuances of the brand tone of voice, or understand the subtleties and specifics of our target audience, nor could it translate the uniqueness of British humour. Could this be down to the quality of our client’s prompt? Possibly. Regardless, I firmly believe that AI cannot replicate the skill of a human who has honed expertise over a number of years. For me, it should always be used with a ‘human in, human out’ approach.
Sue, Marketing Consultant
One of my biggest “please don’ts” is using AI-generated headshots on websites or LinkedIn. Try looking at a real photograph of someone and then comparing it with an AI-generated version of the same person. It feels completely different. There’s a much stronger emotional connection when you’re looking at a genuine photograph. AI creates a polished, artificial version of you, attempting to improve what’s already there, but in doing so it loses the human connection. It just leaves me feeling cold.
This week, I was asked to provide a headshot for a business conference flyer advertising a workshop I’ll be running. Time was short, and I was partly tempted to use one of the new AI image generators. But I’d rather people see the real me. I have over 30 years’ marketing experience, which inevitably means I’m over 50, and there’s no hiding it. I have deep lines, wrinkles, and hair that’s becoming a bit grey and wiry. That’s normal and natural. It’s simply evidence that I really do have 30 years of industry experience under my belt. I don’t see the point in hiding behind an image that presents a younger, smoother version of myself. If we can’t be real about who we are, how can our clients trust that we offer a marketing consultancy service with integrity?
Recently, I’ve suggested to two of our clients that they replace their AI-generated LinkedIn profile pictures with real photographs. One looked like a US Congressman or a megachurch leader, while the other had somehow acquired a suit, tie and a George Clooney level of smoothness. Neither image created any real emotional connection, and both were a long way from the truth. It doesn’t cost very much to ask a professional photographer to take some good, relaxed headshots to show the real you. Over the past eight years we have worked closely with local photographer Caroline Pocock at Fable Photography.
Laura T, PR Consultant
When used with human governance AI can provide a fantastic additional resource for a PR team to help inspire creative ideas, suggest punchy headlines, research facts and edit copy freeing up time for the humans to focus on what humans do best, strategy development and building relationships with journalists and influencers.
Personally, I use AI to edit copy, sharpen it, or restructure a sentence, but I will re-edit the content to ensure the tone of voice remains consistent, the content is correct and the facts are checked.
It’s also a great starting point for finding B2B media titles when working for a niche industry (e.g tell me who writes about the battery industry) or for lists of media who have recently written about ‘x’ (insert client product / service here).
This provides a very useful starting point of journalists already interested your client/ product or services.
You can also ‘test’ pitches. If you have a high stake once chance pitch, invite AI to be a cynical journalist who hates fluff and see how it rates your pitch email. It can help you sharpen your story with facts, re-structuring the content to garner the best possible engagement.
Where I don’t use AI is to generate copy from scratch, to automate media correspondence or to recommend how to respond to sensitive or confidential client information and issues.
It’s critical to remember that once content is uploaded to an AI platform, it may be stored, processed, and used according to that platform’s terms of service, so organisations should be cautious about uploading confidential, sensitive, or copyrighted material.