Every marketing tool now has “AI-powered” in its description. Most of it is window dressing—a chatbot slapped on top of existing features.

But some AI tools have fundamentally changed how marketing gets done. I’ve been running campaigns for a decade, and my process looks nothing like it did two years ago.

Here’s what actually works.

Content Creation at Scale

Let’s start with the obvious one. AI writes marketing copy now.

Jasper is the standard for marketing teams. It understands brand voice, generates campaign copy across formats, and integrates with workflows you probably already have. The output is solid—not spectacular, but solid.

Copy.ai is similar but more affordable. For smaller teams or individual marketers, it’s often the better choice. The templates for ads, emails, and social posts are particularly strong.

Claude and ChatGPT work better for longer content—blog posts, whitepapers, case studies. They require more prompting skill but produce more nuanced output. I use Claude for anything that needs to sound less like marketing and more like genuine insight.

The honest truth: AI-written copy still needs editing. Raw output is maybe 70% there. But going from zero to 70% in seconds instead of hours changes everything about how you allocate time.

SEO: Research and Optimization

Surfer SEO uses AI to analyze top-ranking content and tell you exactly what to include. Word count, headings, keywords, related terms—it’s like a recipe for ranking.

Clearscope does similar analysis with a cleaner interface. I prefer it for editing existing content; Surfer works better for planning new pieces.

Semrush and Ahrefs have both added AI features. Keyword clustering, content gap analysis, competitor research—tasks that used to take hours of manual work now happen automatically.

MarketMuse goes deeper on content strategy. It maps your entire site, identifies gaps in topical coverage, and prioritizes what to create next. For content-heavy sites, this strategic layer matters.

The pattern: AI handles the research and analysis. Human creativity still determines the actual angle and voice.

Paid Advertising

Google’s Performance Max campaigns are essentially AI-driven advertising. You provide assets and objectives; the AI handles targeting, bidding, and optimization across Google’s properties.

Results are mixed. Some advertisers see dramatically better performance. Others find the black-box nature frustrating—you don’t really know why it’s making decisions. I use it for broad campaigns and keep manual control for precise targeting.

Meta’s Advantage+ works similarly for Facebook and Instagram. AI handles creative testing and audience finding. Again, less control but often better results.

For ad creative, AdCreative.ai generates variations from your brand assets. Upload your logo and some product images, describe your offer, get dozens of ad variations to test. Not all are good, but the hit rate is high enough to be useful.

Pencil specializes in video ad generation. It’s surprisingly capable for simple product videos and can generate dozens of variations for testing.

Email Marketing

Klaviyo (for e-commerce) has AI features that write subject lines, predict send times, and segment audiences automatically. The predictive analytics—“these customers are likely to churn”—enable proactive campaigns that weren’t possible before.

Mailchimp added AI throughout their platform. Copy suggestions, send time optimization, audience insights. It’s more basic than Klaviyo but works for general email marketing.

Seventh Sense optimizes send times at the individual recipient level. Instead of picking one time for your whole list, each subscriber gets emails when they’re most likely to open. Open rates typically increase 15-20%.

For B2B, Lavender coaches you on email effectiveness as you write. It analyzes your draft and suggests improvements based on what actually gets responses.

Social Media Management

Sprout Social and Hootsuite both have AI features for content suggestions, optimal posting times, and sentiment analysis of mentions.

Buffer focuses more on content suggestions and scheduling. Their AI can generate post variations and suggest edits for different platforms.

Lately does something clever: it analyzes your long-form content and generates social posts from it automatically. Feed it a blog post, get a month of social content.

Brandwatch and Mention use AI for social listening—understanding not just what’s being said about your brand, but the sentiment and context behind it.

Analytics and Insights

Google Analytics 4 uses AI to surface insights automatically. “Traffic from organic search increased 20% last week” shows up without you having to look for it.

Mixpanel and Amplitude have AI features for product analytics. Ask questions in natural language, get answers without SQL.

Heap captures everything automatically and uses AI to identify important patterns. “Users who complete this action are 3x more likely to convert” emerges from the data without you configuring anything.

Obviously AI can take your marketing data and build predictive models without data science expertise. “Which leads are most likely to convert?” becomes answerable.

The Workflow That Actually Works

Here’s how I integrate AI into actual marketing work:

Research phase: Use Perplexity AI to understand the landscape. Semrush for keyword research. MarketMuse for content gaps.

Planning phase: ChatGPT or Claude for brainstorming angles. Generate multiple approaches, evaluate them with human judgment.

Creation phase: Jasper or Copy.ai for first drafts. Surfer SEO for optimization guidance. Canva AI for visual assets.

Distribution phase: AI-optimized send times. Multi-platform scheduling. Automated A/B testing.

Analysis phase: Automated insights from analytics tools. AI-identified patterns. Predictive modeling for next steps.

The human work is in the decisions between phases. What angle to pursue? Which creative direction? How to interpret results? AI handles execution; humans handle strategy.

What AI Can’t Do (Yet)

Brand voice. AI can mimic a voice, but defining what that voice should be—its personality, boundaries, evolution—remains human work.

Creative breakthrough. The campaign that goes viral, the positioning that redefines a category—this still comes from human insight. AI can iterate on proven approaches; it can’t invent new ones.

Relationship marketing. Your top customers, key accounts, strategic partners—these relationships require human attention. AI can support but not replace.

Crisis management. When things go wrong, human judgment and empathy are essential. AI might draft a response, but the decision of what to say and when requires human consideration.

The Stack

My current marketing AI setup:

• Claude Pro for strategy and long-form: $20/month
• Jasper for campaign copy: $49/month
• Surfer SEO for optimization: $89/month
• Semrush: $130/month (though you may already have this)
• Canva Pro for visual assets: $13/month

Total: about $300/month for AI-specific tools

This represents maybe 40-50% time savings on execution. For a marketing salary, that’s substantial leverage.

The Competitive Situation

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: if you’re not using these tools, your competitors probably are. The baseline for marketing execution has risen.

But here’s the opportunity: most marketers are using AI badly. They’re generating generic content, publishing without editing, automating without strategy. The gap between “using AI” and “using AI well” is enormous.

The winners aren’t the marketers who adopt AI first. They’re the ones who integrate it thoughtfully—automating the tedious parts while doubling down on the creative and strategic work that AI can’t touch.

That’s where marketing careers are heading. Get there early.

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Marketing AI evolves monthly. I’ll keep this updated as the landscape shifts.