A Short Case Study on AI Usage in Digital Marketing

AI and its development have been some of the biggest topics in the business world over the last decade. Many within the financial sector have been talking about an “AI bubble,” meaning that the development of AI has been overhyped and is due for a collapse. Without saying they are right or wrong, it is undeniable that the development of AI has brought about tremendous changes to our modern business landscape and how things will be done moving forward.

What we are experiencing now feels like the early days of the internet all over again: a revolutionary technology with endless potential yet still surrounded by confusion, fear, and speculation. While every major industry has been touched by artificial intelligence in some capacity, one area where its influence has been especially rapid and visible is marketing. The speed at which AI tools have entered the marketing ecosystem has been staggering, and the ripple effects are being felt worldwide.

AI use within the marketing space has been increasing rapidly since COVID-19, with the release of tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, Meta AI, and others to the public. What was once considered niche software accessible only to corporate giants who could afford proprietary systems has now become democratized. These developments enabled automation at a level never seen before, distributed to the masses through free or low-cost subscription models. For small businesses and individual marketers, that accessibility was game changing. Suddenly anyone could generate ad copy, email campaigns, SEO content, or full branding concepts in minutes.

However, the benefits come with trade-offs as with any major technological leap. While AI has made content creation faster and cheaper, it has also blurred the line between authentic human creativity and algorithmic imitation. In 2025, companies have started using AI-generated imagery and content in their marketing communications. This represents somewhat of a threat to those who work in the industry as it currently stands. Entire marketing teams that once consisted of copywriters, graphic designers, and social media managers are being downsized or replaced by automation systems capable of doing the work of multiple employees. This raises an uncomfortable but necessary question: if the creative process is outsourced to machines, what happens to the human element that makes marketing resonate in the first place?

We need to be conscious as marketers of how AI use within the marketing space moving forward will be perceived by consumers. Research shows that this perception is generally not positive, with consumers currently experiencing much lower trust rates for content marked with AI than for content created by humans. According to a 2024 study by the Nürnberg Institute for Market Decisions (NIM), when participants were shown identical ads labeled as “AI-generated” versus “human-generated,” the AI-labeled ones were perceived as less natural, less trustworthy, and less engaging. People instinctively feel more skeptical toward machine created messages even when the content itself is identical. This suggests that part of what makes marketing effective isn’t just the message, but the perceived authenticity behind it.

The trust gap between AI-generated and human-generated content reflects something deeply psychological. Consumers respond to stories and emotions; these are elements that humans naturally excel at expressing because they’re lived experiences and not simulations. While the result of AI might be polished, it can also feel hollow. When audiences sense that hollowness it undermines brand connection. That’s why brands that lean too heavily on AI may find themselves facing backlash from customers who see the approach as lazy, inauthentic, or even deceptive.

This creates an ethical dilemma for marketers. On one hand, AI undeniably increases efficiency and enables small teams to accomplish more with fewer resources. On the other, overreliance on AI can erode the human creativity and intuition that are essential for genuine connection. The danger isn’t just that jobs may be lost but that the soul of marketing could be lost along with them. Marketing has always been about people: understanding their needs, emotions, and motivations. If we remove human input from that process entirely, we risk creating an echo chamber of algorithmic content optimized for engagement metrics rather than meaningful communication.

As the technology advances, ethical concerns also arise over how we will be able to tell what is AI content versus what is real in the future. Deepfake technology, synthetic voice generation, and hyper realistic imagery already make it difficult to distinguish between genuine content and artificial creations. The implications go far beyond advertising, touching on truth itself. When consumers can no longer tell what’s real, trust in digital media as a whole begins to erode. Marketing is built on persuasion, but persuasion without transparency quickly becomes manipulation.

New legislation will need to be passed to govern how content can be created and consumed in order to prevent the spread of misinformation and the devaluation of human labor and creativity. There have already been early efforts in this direction: the European Union’s AI Act requires disclosure when content is AI-generated, and similar discussions are happening in the U.S. These policies are not meant to stifle innovation but to preserve the integrity of information and the dignity of human work. Without such frameworks, we risk a digital environment where authenticity becomes impossible to verify and where “real” no longer has meaning.

Still, it would be unfair to paint AI solely as a villain in this story. When used responsibly, AI can be a powerful tool for good. It can help marketers analyze data more effectively, predict trends, personalize customer experiences, and even reduce waste in advertising budgets by targeting audiences more efficiently. In this sense, AI doesn’t have to replace creativity but can be a tool to enhance it. The key is about balance and using AI as an assistant, not a replacement. The most successful marketers of the future will likely be those who learn how to integrate these tools while maintaining the authenticity and human insight that machines can’t replicate.

I hope we can devise a solution that is able to address the ethical concerns while preserving the increased productivity we have seen. The future of marketing doesn’t have to be one where humans are obsolete; it can be one where humans and machines work together to create better communications. This will require conscious effort from policymakers, from companies, and from us as marketers to set boundaries that protect creativity and trust.

In the end, the question isn’t whether AI will change marketing, it already has. The question is: What kind of marketing world we want to build from here? We have the opportunity to use this technology to elevate human expression, but only if we remain intentional about how we apply it. The future of marketing will depend on one simple principle: keeping the human touch alive in a digital world increasingly run by machines.

Source:

Consumer attitudes toward AI-generated marketing content | NIM