Artificial intelligence (AI) can absolutely streamline your marketing efforts. But it can’t replace you, or what makes your business and its marketing uniquely yours.
AI is one of the most popular tools in the business world right now. It’s a hot topic for a variety of reasons, and depending on who you ask, it’s either the future of marketing or the end of authenticity.
Ultimately, though (like most things), I think the answer lies somewhere in the middle.
The best way to use AI within your business is as a support tool. It’s not going to replace your efforts (or at least, it shouldn’t). But it can change the way you approach your marketing, saving you time and boosting your creativity.
The give-and-take of AI in marketing
The prevalence and accessibility of AI in recent years have resulted in an influx of content online. It’s made it easy for anyone to hop onto ChatGPT, enter a quick prompt, and receive an endless supply of generic captions and graphics.
As a result, more content is published every day than anyone could possibly consume in a lifetime.
These outputs are perfectly structured, properly formatted, have the right hooks, are “optimized,” sure. But at the same time they’re lacking something. They feel icky. They’re just a little too perfect, a little too similar to everything else.
There’s a lack of diversity in the photos. There’s an almost identical structure to each caption. On the surface they’re fine, but there’s a disconnect. Something feels off, even when people can’t pinpoint exactly what it is.
This disconnect means that more often than not, audiences are scrolling faster through content to find something that actually resonates with them. They’re wary to trust brands and people hiding behind this facade of polished content.
What’s missing in this AI-generated content is the human element.
While it’s hard to describe, this is a certain feeling behind the words and photos. It’s a sense of uniqueness that allows people to connect with you and what you stand for. Because it’s not perfect or so deliberate. It’s a little quirky. It’s you.
Now, I’m not saying there’s no room for AI within your marketing strategy. In fact, I’m a huge proponent of small business owners taking advantage of these tools to streamline their efforts and conserve resources.
At the same time though, you need to be intentional with how you’re using it and what you’re using it for.
There’s an art to using AI as a support tool, without relying on it so heavily that you lose your sense of authenticity.
How AI can help small business owners
Used thoughtfully, AI can save an incredible amount of time.
For small business owners juggling endless administrative, client, and marketing tasks, time is a limited resource, and it’s easy to feel so stretched thin you don’t have the capacity for anything else.
You sit there staring at a blank page, waiting for inspiration to strike, but your creativity has been drained.
It’s in these instances that AI can be a great support tool.
Here are 5 ways it shines.
Idea generation.
If you know you need to show up online but just aren’t sure what to post, AI can help you with your brainstorming.
With an intentionally curated prompt, AI can generate 20+ relevant ideas for you in seconds. The important part is resisting the urge to use all twenty ideas. Instead, identify the two or three that genuinely make sense for your audience and goals.
Try this prompt today: Ask AI to review online sources (including your current accounts), customer questions, and competitor content for gaps and opportunities you could address.
With the list of content ideas the platform provides, narrow it down to a couple of topics you want to tackle next. Be sure to add your unique perspective and thoughts to the generic ideas it has spit out for you.
Generating first drafts.
Starting with that blank page and blinking cursor can feel extremely overwhelming. After looking at it for too long, it’s easy to get discouraged and abandon your efforts altogether.
Sometimes all you need is a rough starting point to get your thoughts flowing, and AI can provide that initial framework.
With this output as your starting point, you can dedicate your time and energy to refining and rewriting the provided content.
Try this prompt today: Enter a comprehensive overview of your business, goals, and brand voice in your AI tool of choice. Then, give the tool a blog idea you’ve been procrastinating on. Share your unique perspective on the topic, capturing all of your thoughts in point form. Don’t overthink it. Ask AI to turn these notes into a blog post that helps fulfill your business goals.
After the tool provides this initial draft, take it and make it your own. Bulk up the paragraphs, adding more specific details, insights and anecdotes based on your life and business. Change any wording or formatting that doesn’t sound like you. Add your unique flair. Infuse the post or blog with how you talk. Continue to refine until it feels like “you.”
Repurposing content.
Content repurposing is a strategy far too often overlooked by small business owners. Chances are you already have a great bank of content ideas and perspectives to share with your audience.
Yes, you’ve already shared them, but it’s unlikely that everyone in your audience has seen them. Or they’ve forgotten about them. Or they could use a reminder.
The world is a noisy place, so even when it feels like you’re repeating yourself, chances are no one else will notice.
Rather than recreating everything from scratch, AI can help you identify opportunities to extend the life of content you’ve already created. For example, a blog post can become multiple social media posts, newsletter content, and video outlines.
Use this prompt today: I recently wrote this blog post/email/social media post: [insert content]. Help me repurpose it into [insert what you’d like to create]. For example, an email newsletter, 2 LinkedIn posts, and/or a short video script. Maintain my conversational tone and avoid repeating ideas word-for-word.
Make sure to edit the output AI gives you!
SEO & metadata editing.
I also regularly recommend AI for tasks like writing meta descriptions, creating alt text for images, and drafting page titles.
These website elements play an important role in helping search engines and AI tools understand your content. While they are visible to users in some cases, their primary purpose is to provide structure and context to the platforms crawling your website.
Because they aren’t as forward-facing, these pieces of content don’t need to showcase your humour, personality, or storytelling abilities in the same way as a blog or social media post. Their job is to clearly communicate what a page or image is about, while naturally incorporating relevant keywords and phrases your audience is likely searching for.
Many business owners struggle to write this type of content because it can feel awkward or overly technical. AI excels at organizing information and identifying opportunities to improve clarity and search visibility.
Try this prompt today: Review my website titles, meta descriptions, and alt text. Identify opportunities for improvement and rewrite them when necessary. My business is: ______. My ideal audience is: ______. My goal is to: ______. Naturally incorporate keywords, phrases, and questions that my ideal audience is likely searching for. Ensure the language is clear, concise, and aligned with SEO best practices while still sounding professional and approachable.
Administrative scheduling and batching.
Administrative tasks are necessary parts of being a business owner, but they can feel repetitive and time-consuming. When you use AI to compress your admin time, you’re able to show up more consistently in the parts of your business that will make the biggest impact.
Consider using AI to organize your ideas into a content calendar or to assist with batching and scheduling your content.
These are important tasks, but they’re rarely the best use of your limited creative energy. If AI can help you complete them more efficiently, that’s time you can reinvest elsewhere.
Try this prompt today: Here are 15 content ideas I’d like to share over the next month. Help me organize them into a realistic content calendar based on these themes:
- Educational content
- Behind-the-scenes content
- Personal stories
- Testimonials and social proof
- Promotions
Suggest a posting schedule I can realistically maintain as a solo business owner.
The human connection problem
While AI can be an incredible tool, there’s a point where efficiency starts to work against us.
Instead of using AI as a starting point, many business owners begin using it as their entire process. They take the output at face value without making edits, and rely so heavily on the tool that their own voice slowly disappears from what they create. The result is content that feels flat and empty.
At the same time, we’re entering a stage where audiences are developing what I like to call “background noise tolerance.”
People are scrolling past content that looks just like content. The posts that stop them tend to be the ones that feel most human.
Think about the last social media post that genuinely caught your attention.
- Was it the perfectly optimized caption? Or was it the business owner who shared a photo from a real job site and wrote a couple sentences about what went wrong that day?
- Was it the AI-generated graphic? Or was it a real photo of the business owner, sharing a lesson learned after a failed product launch?
- Was it the Reel filled with stock videos, or the local shop that posted a video of real employees interacting and serving their customers?
This applies to comments and messages too. Avoid responding with generic, AI-generated replies that lack personality or authenticity. When people take the time to connect with you, it’s important that you reciprocate with a genuine response.
When everything around us is AI-generated, authentic, human content stands out more than ever because it’s becoming increasingly rare. In many ways, authenticity is becoming a competitive advantage.
People don’t buy from brands, they buy from people they trust. And that trust is built through stories, opinions, experiences, humour, vulnerability, and personality.
These are things AI can imitate, but not genuinely create.
Volume versus voice
One of the simplest ways to think about AI is to separate volume from voice. AI is excellent at handling volume. Again, it can help you:
- Generate endless ideas
- Create first drafts
- Repurpose content
- Assist with editing and refining endless amounts of research
- Organize information
- Streamline repetitive tasks
- Support SEO efforts
But what AI struggles with is voice.
Your voice comes from lived experience. It’s unique to you, based on the lessons you’ve learned, the opinions you have about your industry, the reasons you started your business, the values that influence your decisions, and the things that frustrate or inspire you.
These are often the most compelling parts of your marketing, because they can’t be recreated. They’re based on a unique compilation of your experiences, opinions, motivations, and lessons learned.
Infuse your content with your actual opinions. Respond to comments personally. Show up in photos and videos whenever possible. Those are the things AI simply can’t replicate.
Red flags that you’re relying too heavily on AI
Allow AI to support your efforts, not replace you entirely. Here are some common warning signs you’re relying too heavily on AI tools:
Your content sounds professional but doesn’t really sound like you.
There are words within the captions you wouldn’t use naturally, the content sounds too formal or too relaxed, there’s an abundance of emojis, em dashes, or “…” that didn’t exist within your content before you started using AI.
You rarely share personal stories, examples, or opinions.
AI can’t create these for you, so they tend to be missing from AI-curated content. Don’t forget to infuse your own experiences into the generic content AI creates.
Every post follows the same structure and tone.
If it’s too polished, it’s not realistic.
You publish more content than ever, but aren’t seeing meaningful engagement.
Chances are, your audience is seeing something within the content that isn’t resonating with them.
You find yourself copying and pasting AI output with minimal editing.
Please don’t do this! Over time, you’ll slowly erode the trust and authenticity people associate with your business. People follow you because they want your perspective, not ChatGPT’s.
Your audience could remove your name from a piece of content and struggle to identify who wrote it.
Your content should be mostly identifiable by those who follow you closely. If it feels like anyone could have copy-paste-sent it, chances are it’s missing something important.
Your comments and DMs are auto-generated.
This will indicate to your audience that you aren’t invested enough in your business to take the time to authentically comment or respond back, which can unintentionally signal that you’re less invested in building relationships with your audience.
If any of these feel familiar, it may be time to bring more of yourself back into your marketing. Use the tools, but don’t allow yourself to disappear within them.
A quick checklist
If you’re looking for a practical starting point, here’s what I’d recommend.
Use AI for:
✓ Writing first drafts
✓ Repurposing existing content
✓ Generating content ideas
✓ Creating metadata and alt text
✓ Scheduling and batching
✓ Repetitive administrative tasks
Infuse the human element by:
✓ Sharing real stories (aim for one per week)
✓ Expressing genuine opinions on topics you care about
✓ Responding to comments and messages personally
✓ Appearing in photos and videos as often as you can
✓ Communicating the things only you can say
Final thoughts
AI is very good at streamlining your marketing, and as a business owner that can be of invaluable benefit. But if you want to remain relatable and trustworthy, establishing real, authentic connections with your audience is key.
Use AI tools to help with tasks that drain your energy. Use them when you’re staring at a blank page, lacking creativity and just need a little spark of inspiration. Use them to support with admin tasks that don’t require your unique voice.
But don’t rely on AI tools so heavily that your unique voice and perspective is lost or undetectable within your content. Don’t rely on it to “replace you” because it’s not capable of doing so effectively.
In a world that is increasingly using AI, the brands that will stand out are the ones that resist the pull to offload their creativity entirely. The ones that still feel human. The ones that still have a real human answering comments, and real people in their photos and video content.
It’s less about quantity, and more about quality and authenticity.
If you’re trying to figure out where AI fits into your marketing strategy, or you’re wondering whether you’re relying on it too much or not enough, I’d be happy to help.
Let’s have a conversation about what’s working, what’s not, and where technology can genuinely support your business without replacing what makes it unique.
