The 5 High AI Challenges in Advertising and marketing (and The right way to Resolve Them)
AI was speculated to make life simpler.
Your group’s churning out extra content material than ever—however half of it reads like polished-up rubbish. It’s truly taking longer to handle, edit, and approve. You’ve bought instruments for every little thing, however workflows are breaking. Everybody’s experimenting, however nobody’s aligned. And someplace alongside the way in which, “effectivity” began turning into further work.
Sound acquainted?
You’re not alone. As AI shifts from shiny new toy to on a regular basis device, entrepreneurs are coming throughout a brand new wave of issues. The challenges of AI in advertising aren’t simply technical—they’re organizational, strategic, and (at occasions) downright irritating.
On this publish, we’re breaking down 5 of the commonest AI challenges in advertising—plus what to truly do about them.
1. You’re utilizing AI, however your content material nonetheless seems like everybody else’s.
AI has made it simpler to create extra content material, sooner—however that velocity typically comes at the price of originality. Many manufacturers are unknowingly publishing bland, robotic materials that blends into prospects more and more crowded feeds as an alternative of standing out. In case your content material isn’t reflecting your model voice, it’s not AI’s fault—it’s yours.
The right way to repair it:
Codify your model voice (and educate it to the AI)
Doc your model tone, values, vocabulary, and character traits. If it isn’t clearly outlined, then AI isn’t going to face an opportunity making an attempt to copy it. Create a easy model voice information with examples of on-brand content material, and feed it immediately into your prompts (or use it to fine-tune customized GPTs).
Cease settling for first drafts
AI is fast-but it isn’t one-prompt-and-done. Whether or not you’re drafting a marketing campaign transient, summarizing analysis, or utilizing an AI article generator for content material creation, deal with the output as a place to begin, not a completed product. Layer in nuance, specifics, and character. Ask your self: “Would solely our model say it this fashion?” If not, preserve modifying.
Ditch basic prompts
Prompts like “write a weblog publish about web optimization developments” are assured to sound like everybody else (and get flagged as poor high quality content material by the SERPs). As a substitute, present AI with specifics in your viewers, tone, stance, most well-liked construction, and previous content material examples.
2. You’ve added 5 new AI instruments (and damaged three workflows)
AI instruments promise effectivity—however too many entrepreneurs are piling them on with no plan. The consequence? A cluttered tech stack, damaged processes, and groups spending extra time switching between instruments than truly driving outcomes. What was speculated to streamline your work is now slowing it down.
The right way to repair it:
Audit your stack
Listing out each AI device in use throughout groups. What does the device do? Who’s utilizing it? What downside is it fixing? You would possibly uncover you’re paying for instruments with overlapping capabilities, or worse, instruments that nobody’s utilizing successfully. Get rid of overlap and don’t be afraid to chop an underperforming device.
Automate strategically
Establish high-effort, low-value duties first. Don’t simply add AI onto what you already do. Sketch out your best workflows (ex. weblog manufacturing, marketing campaign planning), then establish the precise steps the place AI can save time or add worth.
Designate device house owners and doc use circumstances
Each AI device in your stack ought to have an inner champion. That particular person owns coaching, onboarding, and documenting greatest practices. Centralize this in a shared AI playbook so your group doesn’t waste time reinventing the wheel.
3. You’re automating the flawed issues.
Entrepreneurs love effectivity. However, in case you’re automating content material ideation whereas nonetheless manually pulling reporting each week, one thing’s off.
Don’t rush into automating no matter appears best. Most of the greatest issues with AI in advertising come from making an attempt to automate with out clear priorities—give attention to what truly drains time or slows down outcomes. Take a step again to map the place AI can truly take advantage of influence on your group or group.
The right way to repair it:
Monitor your group’s time
For one week, have group members log the highest 3 duties they spend time on every day. Sure, you’ll in all probability get pushback for asking everybody to do that, nevertheless it’s crucial to have the ability to spot patterns.
Rank duties by influence v. effort
Create a easy grid evaluating the influence and energy of duties. Low effort/excessive influence duties (like repurposing weblog content material into social posts) are your fast wins. Keep away from automating advanced, high-effort processes till you’ve constructed a basis.
Create reusable immediate templates
In case your group is manually writing new prompts each time, that’s one other inefficiency. Construct a immediate library for repeated duties (ex. social caption technology, title variations, publish outlines) and retailer them in a central doc or device.
4. AI isn’t serving to you develop.
Prompting is nice, however does it enable you to discover new market alternatives? Whenever you solely use AI to rephrase what you already know, you miss its potential to floor what you don’t. AI development comes from uncovering new buyer wants, whitespace alternatives, and higher strategic bets (not from simply rushing up your weblog calendar).
The right way to repair it:
Shift your AI prompts from “create” to “examine”
As a substitute of “write a publish about X,” ask “what unmet wants do prospects in [niche] have?” or “how are rivals positioning round [trend]?” Use AI as a analysis analyst, not only a author.
Feed AI actual information.
Enter CRM insights, top-performing content material, buyer critiques, or previous marketing campaign metrics. Then ask AI: “What patterns stand out?” or “What’s under-leveraged in our present technique?” That’s the place actual alternative begins to emerge.
Contain AI early within the funnel
Most groups use AI once they’re already locked right into a plan. As a substitute, deliver it in throughout brainstorming, viewers mapping, or marketing campaign planning to widen your pondering earlier than narrowing your execution.
5. Everybody’s experimenting and no one’s aligned
It’s not nearly utilizing totally different instruments—it’s that each group has a distinct imaginative and prescient of what AI is for. Content material sees it as a velocity hack. web optimization desires higher scale. Product desires to automate help. And management simply desires to say “we’re utilizing AI” in board conferences.
With no shared north star, AI efforts drift. One group’s success story doesn’t ladder up. One other group’s failures get repeated. Everybody’s shifting—however not collectively. This isn’t a tooling subject. It’s a strategic alignment subject.
The right way to repair it:
Outline your AI mission
Get management and group leads collectively and agree on the position AI ought to play in your advertising org. Is it about velocity? Personalization? Price effectivity? Innovation? You don’t want one reply—however you do want readability.
Make “why” a part of each AI rollout
Each new experiment or device ought to be launched with a one-sentence objective: “We’re utilizing this to [XYZ].” That readability helps groups prioritize, monitor worth, and consider success on the identical phrases.
Align on shared use circumstances
As a substitute of every group selecting their very own journey, align round 2–3 cross-functional priorities the place AI could make the largest distinction—like marketing campaign manufacturing velocity, multilingual web optimization, or first-draft automation.
Wish to take it additional?
In case you’ve began tackling these issues, really feel caught on what to attempt subsequent, or need assistance shifting ahead, be part of Highlight on October 29 in Amsterdam.
Mastermind periods are the place entrepreneurs dive into actionable techniques whereas networking with specialists. These small, expert-led roundtables are designed that will help you sort out actual challenges, get tailor-made recommendation, and stroll away with subsequent steps you may put into observe instantly.
Listed here are some really useful periods to beat the hardest issues with AI in advertising:
Drawback: You’re utilizing AI, however your content material nonetheless seems like everybody else’s
→ Answer: Stefan Maritz (CXL) – Let’s Construct a Customized GPT for Your Model Voice
Drawback: You’ve added 5 new AI instruments (and damaged three workflows)
→ Answer: Luis Guzmán (n8n) – 5 Ranges of AI Adoption to Reach Advertising and marketing
Drawback: You’re automating the flawed issues
→ Answer: Jeremy McDonald (Kaizen) – Pioneering Advertising and marketing By AI: Automation Strategies to Maximise Output
Drawback: AI isn’t serving to you develop
→ Answer: Kevin Indig – The right way to Establish Market Progress Alternatives With AI
Drawback: Everybody’s experimenting and no one’s aligned
→ Answer: Liz Lohn (Monetary Instances) – Constructing AI-Powered Merchandise: Methods to Flip Innovation Right into a Progress Driver
Tip: And in case you work in web optimization, Semrush’s first-ever bootcamp on October 28 will enable you to design smarter, sooner workflows and automate large-scale web optimization duties utilizing Semrush’s newest AI instruments. You’ll be able to turn out to be a Semrush skilled and take your web optimization technique to the subsequent stage.
AI isn’t going anyplace—however the way in which we use it has to evolve.
Most advertising groups aren’t quick on instruments. They’re quick on technique, alignment, and readability about the place AI can really make a distinction. Whether or not your content material feels off-brand, your workflows are getting messier, or your automation efforts are misfiring, it’s not too late to course-correct.
Begin by fixing the foundations: outline your voice, streamline your stack, select what to automate (and what to not), and align your groups round a shared AI mission.
