The Rise of AI in Marketing: Innovation, Efficiency, and the Trust Factor

Image courtesy of DOVE campaign

By Ana Cruz - Founder & Chief Editor

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is no longer a futuristic concept—it is already reshaping how brands communicate, create, and connect with audiences. From generating images and videos to producing complete advertising campaigns, AI has become a powerful tool in modern marketing. But with this rapid adoption come important questions about creativity, authenticity, and brand credibility.

What Is Artificial Intelligence?

Artificial Intelligence refers to computer systems designed to perform tasks that typically require human intelligence. These tasks include learning from data, recognizing patterns, understanding language, generating content, and making decisions. In marketing, AI is often used to automate processes, personalize experiences, and create content faster and at scale.

How Companies Are Using AI in Marketing

Across industries, both product and service-based companies are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence to shape their marketing efforts. AI is being used to generate everything from product images and lifestyle photography to short-form videos and attention-grabbing video ads. Social media captions and blog articles are also being crafted with the help of AI, alongside email marketing campaigns and digital ads, including both copy and visuals.

Beyond individual pieces of content, some brands are now taking it a step further: entire marketing campaigns—from initial concept to final execution—are being partially or even fully produced using AI-powered tools. This shift is transforming the creative process, enabling brands to move faster and experiment more freely, while also raising questions about authenticity, originality, and the human touch in marketing.

Common AI Tools Used in Marketing

Some of the most widely used AI tools include:

• ChatGPT – content creation, copywriting, strategy ideation

• Midjourney / DALL·E – AI-generated images and visuals

• Runway / Pika – AI video generation and editing

• Canva AI – design, layouts, and social media assets

• Adobe Firefly – AI-enhanced creative production

• Meta & Google AI tools – ad optimization and performance automation

These tools allow brands to move faster, test ideas quickly, and reduce production costs.

The Pros of Using AI in Marketing

Artificial intelligence brings a range of advantages that marketers can’t ignore. For one, speed and efficiency are transformative: content that once took weeks to produce can now be generated in a matter of minutes. Costs are also reduced, as brands rely less on large production teams, elaborate photoshoots, or extensive in-house resources.

AI also enables scalability, allowing companies to produce high volumes of content across multiple platforms quickly and consistently. Its data-driven capabilities make personalized messaging easier than ever, tailoring campaigns based on audience behavior to maximize engagement. Additionally, AI fosters creative exploration, giving teams the ability to visualize ideas and experiment before committing significant resources.

For startups and small businesses, these benefits can be particularly game-changing. AI levels the playing field, providing access to tools and capabilities that were once reserved for large, well-funded brands, and empowering smaller players to compete in a fast-moving digital landscape.

The Cons and Risks of AI-Generated Marketing

While AI offers undeniable advantages, it also brings significant challenges that marketers must navigate. One of the most pressing concerns is the potential loss of authenticity—content generated by AI can sometimes feel generic or emotionally flat, lacking the nuance that human creativity provides.

Over-reliance on automation poses another risk. When human insight is removed from the creative process, originality and imagination can suffer, leaving work that feels formulaic rather than inspired. Ethical questions also arise, particularly around originality, copyright, and transparency, which can complicate content creation and distribution.

Brands also face the danger of dilution, as widespread use of the same tools can make messaging across different companies look and sound remarkably similar. Perhaps most importantly, trust is at stake. Audiences may feel misled if they discover that content they believed was crafted by humans was actually generated entirely by AI. Navigating these risks carefully is essential for marketers seeking to balance efficiency with authenticity and integrity.

When Technology Talks, Who’s Listening?

AI vs. Humans: How It Affects Brand Credibility

One of the biggest concerns is how replacing human creators with AI impacts brand trust. Consumers are increasingly values-driven—they care about who creates the content, the story behind it, and the intention.

Brands built on community, culture, storytelling, and human connection risk losing credibility if AI completely replaces real voices. Authenticity is hard to replicate with algorithms, especially for brands that represent lived experiences, diversity, or emotional narratives.

AI can support creativity, but when it replaces humans entirely, brands may appear disconnected, transactional, or inauthentic.

Here Are Some of the Most Recent AI Ad Examples

eToro partnered with Google DeepMind using Veo 2 to create a cinematic, AI-generated ad. With photorealistic visuals and dynamic scenes, the campaign shows how technology can make investing feel more accessible. It also became one of the first brand campaigns produced with Veo 2.

Coca-Cola reimagined its holiday campaign using generative AI, creating festive characters and snow-filled scenes tailored to different regions. The result brought the brand’s iconic Christmas storytelling into the AI era with a more personalized, magical touch.

This one is one of my favorites. Even though Dove used AI-generated images, the campaign reinforces what I believe will be the true differentiator as AI expands across industries: our human touch. With The Dove Code, the brand exposes how AI can reinforce unrealistic beauty standards, while reaffirming its commitment to never use AI to alter women’s images—standing firmly for authenticity, real beauty, and self-esteem.

Finding the Right Balance

The most successful brands aren’t choosing between AI and human creativity—they are finding ways to combine both. AI is most effective when it serves as a creative assistant, a productivity tool, or a testing and ideation engine, helping teams experiment and move faster without replacing human insight.

At the same time, human creators remain essential for guiding strategy and vision, crafting emotional storytelling, and bringing cultural awareness to campaigns. Humans are also crucial for making ethical decisions and maintaining a consistent brand voice that builds trust with audiences. By blending AI’s efficiency with the irreplaceable intuition and judgment of human creators, brands can achieve both innovation and authenticity in their marketing.

My Thoughts

AI is transforming marketing, offering powerful tools that can enhance creativity and efficiency. However, the true value of a brand still lies in its humanity. Technology can amplify a message, but it cannot replace empathy, intuition, and lived experience.

The future of marketing belongs to brands that use AI intentionally, ethically, and in partnership with human creativity—not as a replacement for it.

For more insights on marketing, technology, and the stories shaping today’s digital landscape, subscribe to Rollos de Mujeres Magazine and stay ahead of the curve.