AI + Human: What Marketing Teams Must Get Right
How marketing teams are staying human—and strategically essential—in the age of AI.
When it comes to AI in marketing: the real battle isn't about adoption—it's about staying strategically relevant.
In AI: The Human Edge in an Automated Work, we explored how AI is reshaping creative processes, examining the tension between technology and human creativity.
Now, let's focus on what this transformation means for marketing teams themselves—their structure, roles, and strategic value. Not the theory, and not the hype—the real deal.
Right now, 62% of marketers are diving into AI both at work and at home, while 29% keep it strictly professional (Ad Age's 2024 AI whitepaper). Those aren't small numbers.
AI in Action
What’s really telling is that while everyone else is talking about AI, the real success stories are already making moves behind closed doors. Smart marketing teams are quietly transforming their operations, leaving the competition wondering what hit them. The numbers don't lie, and they're telling us something big about who's winning and who's falling behind.
Jack Morton, for example, threw an interesting curveball by bringing an "AI intern" into their team a year ago. Smart move? Actually, yes. The cute, robot-headed Xara helps create content and answers user questions, but crucially ensures humans continue running the show.
Google's creative team is using AI to let non-technical creatives build storyboards independently. Sounds great – until you realize that speed isn't everything. Google also concedes that the human touch remains non-negotiable for quality and authenticity.
But while these approaches show promise, not every AI experiment has a happy ending. Coca-Cola faced a sobering reality check during the 2024 holiday season. The brand released a short, AI-generated ad meant to honor its iconic "Holidays Are Coming" campaign. But instead of festive nostalgia, audiences got a cold, uncanny remix that lacked the emotional magic of the original. Critics called it ‘soulless and awkward.’ It was a high-profile example of what happens when brands chase innovation at the expense of authenticity.
Similarly, Spotify's 2024 Wrapped campaign used AI for personalized music stories, but users noticed something missing: emotional context. The turnaround came when human creatives stepped in to refine the AI's output – engagement soared.
The Real AI Advantage
When 67% of marketers see AI as a fundamental shift in how we work, not just another shiny fad, you know something big is happening. Look deeper and you'll see AI reshaping creative work.
Marketing teams are using AI to completely overhaul content (72%), spark fresh ideas (70%), and create original text (77%). And that's just on the surface. The teams updating their strategies weekly are dominating: 92% use AI for content refinement weekly versus 81% of yearly updaters. (Hootsuite Social Media Trends 2025)
Meanwhile, 75% of marketers still rely on outdated research methods, missing AI's ability to spot trends as they emerge and quickly falling behind.
From SXSW 2025, the biggest takeaway was clear: AI isn’t just for automation—it’s a force multiplier for human ingenuity. It frees us to explore what makes us uniquely human: intuition, emotion, judgment, and original thinking.
Keeping Up and Locking In
When the marketing game is changing this fast, your biggest challenge as a marketer isn't just keeping up with AI - it's defending your strategic value.
And marketing teams are feeling it. After all, when marketing teams focus purely on execution, they risk becoming just another service department.
The anxiety runs deeper than just AI adoption:
42% of marketers worry about staying relevant because they're stuck in execution mode
28% see their strategic influence slipping as AI tools become the focus
20% struggle to justify creative decisions in a metrics-driven environment
Taken together, these anxieties point to what’s actually at stake for internal teams:
Your seat at the strategy table - when you can't translate creative decisions into business impact, you lose influence
Budget control - without clear ROI stories, you'll face constant pressure to cut costs and automate
Creative authority - if you don't own the strategic narrative, others will decide what "good" looks like
The smartest internal teams are taking a step back. They're using AI to free up time for strategic thinking. They're building business cases for creative decisions. They're speaking the language of revenue, not just reach.
Why? Because the real risk of over-reliance of AI isn’t what we think it is.
What AI Can't Tell You
Let's talk about what AI can't do.
One thing AI will never tell you is what a consumer is really thinking and feeling. The algorithms can analyze patterns and predict behaviors, but they can't capture the nuance of human emotion or the "why" behind someone's decision or reaction.
The only way to truly know your consumer is to talk to them—to explore the human experiences and practice genuine empathy. This human connection is something marketing teams simply cannot afford to lose in their process.
AI might help you craft the perfect subject line, but it can't sit across the table from a customer, notice their slight hesitation when discussing a feature, or catch the spark in their eyes when something genuinely resonates. It can't build trust over coffee or read between the lines during a focus group.
When everyone else is automating their customer research with surveys and web analytics, the teams who maintain direct human connections with their audiences will discover insights that AI can never access—the emotional drivers, the cultural nuances, the unspoken needs that don't show up in the data.
In a world of automated everything, human connection becomes your most valuable differentiator in your strategy.
What’s Actually at Stake
Here's the problem nobody's talking about: when everyone uses the same AI tools, we risk creating a sea of sameness. Predictable. Forgettable. Dead on arrival.
The fear is real - nearly 9 in 10 marketers worry about keeping up with AI. But they're afraid of the wrong thing. The real threat isn't AI taking our jobs - it's AI making every brand sound like a corporate clone.
That's why 43% of organizations have started experimenting with bold new brand voices this year: standing out becomes more important than ever when everyone has a content generation machine at their fingertips.
From SXSW:
"LLMs will make you average. Real value will come from proprietary knowledge and experience."
Think about that for a moment.
The risks cut deep:
Brands becoming indistinguishable when their AI starts sounding identical
Creative breakthroughs dying before birth because AI plays it safe
Million-dollar mistakes from cultural blind spots
Losing those brilliant accidents that spark game-changing ideas
Notice what isn’t on that list: a robot uprising replacing the whole marketing job market. As discussed in AI: The Human Edge in An Automated World, AI-generated content requires a human foundation because AI-generated content is ultimately for humans.
Take the human messiness out of the picture, and you have a recipe for ineffective marketing: pristine, easy, and utterly boring.
This is your competitive advantage, and this is why the best AI implementation is the kind that gives more space for more human messiness, not less.
What Actually Works
Stop thinking AI vs. human. It's AI plus human.
And the stats back this up: 49% of marketers want AI to boost their metrics and make them look good, while 47% see it becoming part of their core skill set. Even the buttoned-up worlds of healthcare and finance are outpacing other industries in creative AI adoption.
So, while other departments chase efficiency by over-relying on the AI, you can position your team as the bridge between business strategy and brand impact. Leverage AI in the right way–as a tool rather than a team member–and you’re making your role more valuable than ever.
AI shines at:
Data analysis that would normally make your head spin
Getting those teeth-pulling rough drafts on paper
Taking what works and multiplying it
Humans own:
Reading the room and cultural moments
Creating genuine emotional connections
Strategic thinking that matters
As digital strategist David Shing notes perfectly, the real danger isn’t that AI will replace creatives—it’s that creatives might stop thinking originally when they rely too heavily on machines to do the work for them.
Remember this: You're the creative force. The storyteller.
AI is just another tool, like Photoshop or your morning coffee.
AI has already changed marketing's DNA, which means the real winners aren't just mastering AI tools - they're mastering the art of advocating for creative work in business terms.
If you’re a part of the top 1% of AI users, you have to be having different conversations. When everyone else is talking about optimization, you're talking about opportunity.
The real question is: how will you use it to amplify your human creativity? That's how you stay essential, not just efficient.
Final Thoughts: The Questions We Should Be Asking
Now, just because AI isn’t coming for your job doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be concerned about anything where AI is involved. It simply means we need to start having different (and better) conversations about AI and how we will navigate the world with it. And the real questions keeping CMOs awake aren't about ROI - they're about integrity:
How and when do we tell audiences AI helped create content?
How do we stop AI from amplifying stereotypes?
Where's the line between personalization and copyright infringement?
The numbers tell us that 90% of content creators, while admitting AI saves time and money, are haunted by questions of authenticity and trust.
The marketers with the biggest advantage are already having these conversations–not whether or not to use AI, but how to maintain integrity while you do.
The answer to whether AI will be your friend, foe, or frenemy is a resounding, “it depends.” It’s a tool in your hands, and it’s already here. The conversation now must be about how to use it in a way that makes you, your work, and your community better.
Curious if there are specific AI tools you're seeing worst best for these teams, or if its more the AI functions and capabilities within existing multipurpose tools?