By Katie Gray and Meagan Sweigart
It’s been two years since ChatGPT became available to the public. Since then, artificial intelligence (AI) has taken every industry by storm, including marketing. A recent study by The Conference Board found that 87% of marketers have used AI or experimented with AI tools. The study also found that 68% of marketers use AI daily. However, even the most powerful AI models cannot be effective without human collaboration. While AI is reshaping the marketing landscape by optimizing processes and allowing marketers to access insights more easily, our industry’s success still depends on creativity and the human capacity for empathy in storytelling.
Marketers should regard AI as a tool that fundamentally changes how their teams collaborate and connect with their audiences. Research from Harvard Business School, conducted by Professor Gerald Zaltman, suggests that 95% of purchasing decisions are based on emotions and occur subconsciously, meaning that emotional connections drive most buying choices rather than purely rational thought. Successfully implementing AI isn’t just about learning a new technology. It requires a cultural shift to embrace AI as a partner rather than a replacement for human creativity and empathy.
This article will examine how marketers can correctly integrate AI to enhance collaboration, innovate campaigns, and enable brands to keep their audiences engaged without sacrificing authenticity and humanity.
AI AS A CREATIVE ALLY
It’s no secret that AI can streamline once-manual tasks, freeing up a marketer’s time to focus on making a strategic impact.
From a digital media perspective, for example, marketers can focus on developing the most effective channel strategy and leave the placement and optimization of the ads to AI. Through programmatic advertising, AI can process massive amounts of data and automate digital ad placements in real time to ensure the right ads are served to the right audience at the right time, allowing advertisers to capitalize on their ad spending.
AI-powered marketing automation platforms enable seamless integration across the marketing funnel, from lead generation and scoring to CRM data capture, sales handover, lifecycle nurtures, and beyond. AI can also draw on CRM, programmatic, or third-party data to craft custom emails that are triggered to be sent at the right time.
Beyond data processing, paid digital media, and email optimization, AI can help boost creativity. For example, AI tools such as ChatGPT, DALL-E, or Adobe Sensei can help overcome creative blocks or generate fresh ideas.
One significant organizational benefit of AI is that it can streamline workflows and foster collaboration within marketing teams. Leveraging AI to create timelines, assign tasks automatically based on an individual’s bandwidth, and send automated reminders may help to accelerate execution. It also allows multiple disciplines, such as data analysts, content creators, and marketing strategists, to work seamlessly together. This synergy among different teams enhances efficiency.
By using AI in the ways mentioned above, marketers can work faster and smarter, focusing on their top job priorities: critical thinking and storytelling. Because human creativity and empathy shape messages that genuinely resonate with audiences, marketing leaders should position AI to amplify human creativity, not replace it.
BUILDING A CULTURE OF HUMAN-LED, AI-SUPPORTED INNOVATION
Proponents of AI caution that every professional should embrace AI or be left behind by future-forward adopters. Marketing is no exception. Building a culture that champions a human-forward approach to innovation supported by AI requires that marketing teams be coached and empowered to use AI accurately. Healthy collaboration between teams and the technology that supports them can be accomplished in the following ways:
Leaders should coach their teams to use AI in the right place at the right time. It starts at the top. Managers should help teams leverage AI when it makes sense—for repetitive tasks, quick brainstorms, summaries, and other nonstrategic tasks. Equally important, they must clarify when AI isn’t the answer. Overreliance on AI will result in a team that cannot think critically or strategize effectively. AI should be used as a leg up, not a crutch.
Invest in the right tools for your team and business. Leaders should examine gaps in skills and staffing to identify the resources needed to support their teams. AI sales outreach tools can save time for marketing teams that support sales outbound efforts, while generative content engines can support small teams with ambitious content goals. No matter the AI platform, team training is key to ensuring ROI.
Establish cross-functional team collaboration. AI implementation should bring different teams together, from creatives to data analysts, to ensure AI-driven insights enhance rather than dictate marketing and creative strategies.
Start small by piloting AI Initiatives. Rather than overhauling processes overnight, teams should start small, testing AI in content creation, ad optimization, or customer segmentation.
Measure success and adjust. AI’s effectiveness should be continually assessed using KPIs such as engagement, ROI, and audience sentiment.
Effectively supporting marketing teams with AI-driven solutions requires human supervision. While AI can draft content for product descriptions and collateral, human marketers are needed to refine tone, clarity, and emotional impact. Marketers can also train AI to generate content that complies with brand guidelines and reflects the company’s personality and messaging. However, even with a brand-trained bot, humans need to review AI-generated content to ensure it meets standards.
As leaders evaluate the success of their AI tech stack, they should think bigger than the performance metrics outlined above. They must also assess how effectively their AI solutions are supporting their teams. For example, if AI-generated content consistently falls short and requires extensive rework by content managers, a different tool may be needed. While human interaction and direction are expected and necessary in successfully leveraging AI, automation should lessen the burden on marketers, not increase it.
AVOIDING THE PITFALLS OF AI IN ADVERTISING
AI allows marketers to do more with less. However, a cautionary tale about relying solely on AI in advertising occurred with a well-known soft drink company’s recent AI-generated holiday ad. Social media pundits declared it “lifeless” and “creepy,” saying that it “ruined Christmas and their entire brand.”
Removing the human element from the ad removed aspects of festivity and liveliness. It also gave consumers the impression that the company prioritized profit and efficiency over its mission to craft drinks that people love. This misstep is the result of over-automation. By excluding real humans, marketing campaigns can feel tone-deaf and inauthentic, alienating consumers.
If the company had used real humans in the ad and only utilized AI to generate the scenery and ancillary elements, it would have avoided the backlash that destroyed its effectiveness and intention. The lesson learned is that including humans in advertising campaigns meant to resonate with humans is still necessary, even if AI creates the other elements.
EFFECTIVE AI-HUMAN COLLABORATION IN MARKETING
As the example above demonstrates, overreliance on AI can backfire. Additionally, if all content is AI generated, you risk homogenization. Everything will look the same, sacrificing the opportunity to capture audiences' intentions and emotionally connect. Moreover, entry-level marketers may struggle to hone foundational skills as AI takes over fundamental tasks.
So how can marketers and AI collaborate without compromising creativity and the integrity of the marketing profession?
Implement clear AI policies. Organizations should establish a policy on AI use that outlines ethical guidelines to ensure fairness and inclusivity. It should also require a human review of all AI-generated content before publication.
Keep AI focused on repetitive tasks. AI should handle automation while humans remain in charge of storytelling, brand strategy, and campaign vision.
Use AI as a brainstorming partner, not a creator. While AI can generate ideas, human marketers must refine and shape them into compelling campaigns.
AI is a game-changer for marketing, but its full potential can only be realized when combined with human creativity, empathy, and vision. Agencies and brands that responsibly embrace AI can foster a culture of innovation that prioritizes genuine human connection while benefiting from all that AI offers.
The future of AI in marketing is not only about automation—it’s also about transformation. Brands that foster a culture of AI-supported innovation, collaboration, and human-led storytelling will thrive. By embracing AI as a tool for efficiency while maintaining human insight and emotional connection, marketing teams can unlock unprecedented levels of creativity and impact.
Katie Gray is principal, fractional marketing leader, at Kinetic Marketing Communications. As the driving force behind Kinetic, she and her team help mid- to enterprise-level businesses achieve their growth goals through effective, revenue-generating strategies.
Meagan Sweigert is principal, fractional marketing consultant, at Kinetic Marketing Communications. With deep experience across the marketing funnel and specialized expertise in brand strategy, integrated campaigns, sales enablement, and thought leadership, Sweigert brings a dynamic and pragmatic approach to helping clients exceed their business goals with carefully crafted marketing strategies and exceptional execution.