Observations
Artificial Intelligence in Marketing: Overhyped Technology?
Artificial intelligence burst onto the marketing scene with big promises: personalization, automation, highly efficient advertising, predicting customer behavior, and, of course, generating content on its own. It sounds like every marketer’s dream. But the reality is a bit more complicated.
Is everything as perfect as promised? Or are we dealing with overrated technology that creates more problems than solutions? If AI is so good, why do email newsletters written by “smart algorithms” resemble spam? Why are chatbots often more annoying than helpful? And why does personalized advertising sometimes offer us things we’ve already bought?
Let’s take a closer look at how AI can genuinely make marketing more effective and where it remains just a trendy tool that doesn’t deliver real benefits.
What do marketers expect from AI?
When the conversation turns to artificial intelligence (AI), marketers start dreaming of a future where everything happens automatically with minimal effort. But what exactly do they expect from AI?
Automation of routine tasks: One of their main hopes is that AI will take over all the tedious work, from email marketing to ad personalization. Algorithms would analyze customer behavior, adjust creative content, and deliver the perfect message at the right time. This sounds amazing: no more sleepless nights over the sales funnel — AI will determine who to nurture, when, and how.
Predictive analytics: Businesses dream of AI peering into the minds of customers and predicting their desires before they realize them. For example, a client visits a website and browses a few pages, and the AI predicts, “They are 83% ready to buy. We just need to offer a personalized deal.” In theory, it sounds like magic.
Content Generation: AI is expected to write copy, create ads, draft video scripts, and produce articles. Instead of receiving random ads, clients would receive “personalized content” crafted specifically for them. Every word is planned and every message is calculated. Or is it?
Ultimately, companies expect AI to deliver automated marketing without human intervention, magical predictive insights, and unique content without copywriters. But does it actually work in practice? Let’s explore where AI truly adds value.
Where AI Truly Helps
Despite the hype, AI is genuinely useful, but mainly in areas where it can work with large datasets, identify patterns, and optimize processes.
AI can process data quickly and offer some personalization.
AI can analyze millions of customer interactions faster than any human. AI can adjust advertising, predict purchase likelihood, and offer personalized recommendations. Online retailers, for example, have long used AI to show customers products that genuinely interest them rather than random selections.
Ad campaign optimization.
Marketers might test hypotheses for weeks, but AI can do so in hours. AI analyzes which ads perform best, reallocates budgets, and determines the optimal timing for posts. Platforms like Google Ads and Facebook Ads are largely managed by algorithms that decide which audience sees an ad and which message they see.
Improving customer service.
AI can analyze customer inquiries, respond automatically to common questions, and predict when a customer might need assistance. When an AI chatbot functions properly, it saves company resources and accelerates customer interactions.
AI excels in situations that require data analysis, pattern recognition, and the acceleration of routine processes. However, marketing involves more than just numbers; it also requires creativity, emotion, and the human touch.
Where AI in Marketing Is Overhyped
Despite enthusiastic forecasts, AI doesn’t always perform as promised in marketing presentations. Sometimes, it creates more problems than it solves.
Take chatbots, for example. They often frustrate more than they help.
Every business dreams of replacing human support with automated answers so customers can solve problems themselves. In reality, though, most chatbots spend years learning only one phrase: “Your request is very important to us.” Rather than providing a quick solution, the bot loops the user around and eventually transfers them to a human agent anyway. Customers end up spending twice as much time, leaving with a negative experience.
Generic content generation.
AI can write text, but let’s be honest—it’s banal. AI-produced articles lack depth, are filled with clichés, and often repeat the same ideas. Copywriters aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. AI can’t create human creativity, nuanced insights, or provocative ideas—it just rehashes existing information.
Predictive models often miss the mark.
AI analyzes data, but it doesn’t understand human behavior, emotions, or illogical decisions. For example, if a customer views a product three times on a website, AI assumes they want to buy it. In reality, they were just comparing specs and had already purchased from a competitor. Businesses end up with polished “demand forecasting” reports, but their actual sales don’t increase.
The Future of AI in Marketing
The market is constantly evolving. New technologies emerge and customer needs change. An Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) that was accurate a year ago may be outdated today. To maintain an accurate ICP, companies must regularly collect client feedback, analyze CRM and web analytics data, and monitor competitors’ changes. It’s also important to periodically review the ICP with the sales team because they are the first to notice shifts in customer behavior.
AI in marketing is not a revolution—it’s an evolution. AI accelerates processes, improves analytical accuracy, and helps manage large volumes of data. However, expecting AI to solve all marketing challenges on its own is a mistake.
The core value of marketing has always been understanding people. Customers make illogical decisions and change their behavior under the influence of emotions, random factors, and social trends. AI cannot predict this because it doesn’t understand people; it only analyzes numbers.
AI improves mechanical processes, but it does not create value. AI can write text, but it cannot generate insight. AI can select a target audience but cannot determine which emotion will resonate with them. AI can choose the optimal creative, but it cannot generate an idea that will go viral.
Therefore, the future of marketing is not marketing without humans; it’s marketing where people know how to use AI as a tool. Marketers who can work with algorithms while maintaining a human understanding of their audience will gain a crucial competitive advantage. Otherwise, if you hand everything over to AI, you risk losing touch with real customers.
