The AI fad has long gone quiet, so now we marketers have to measure its real benefits and try to adopt only tools that improve our business outcomes.
But do we?
Our latest research on generative AI in marketing revealed that only 25% of marketers report strong positive ROI results.
I honestly expected better numbers. The underlying cause is that, in reality, we have yet to build strong AI workflows that fuel marketing growth.
So, let’s learn from real examples how you can leverage AI yourself and where it yields positive results. All data is backed up by 探花精选 research and Jasper’s marketing team.
Table of Contents
How to Use Generative AI in Content Marketing
Find out how to integrate AI tools into your content workflows.
- Understanding generative AI.
- Limitations of AI.
- Rolling out AI to your team.
- And more!
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Click this link to access this resource at any time.
Benefits of Gen AI for Marketing
Generative AI offers very real benefits for marketers — it could even revolutionize the future of business. Here’s what I learned from our data:
Generative AI improves the quality of content they create.
Most marketers say that the content they make with generative AI performs somewhat better than content created without it in all facets — SEO, SMM, email marketing, and non-editorial pages (e.g., ecommerce, landing pages).
The numbers back it up: From 60% to 77% of participants reported that using AI yields a somewhat positive or positive ROI.
Generative AI helps them create content more efficiently.
Of marketers who use AI, 63% say that the most impactful result is that it makes them more productive. However, I don’t believe in vanity metrics such as productivity when it’s not measured.
So, I dug down and sliced the data to pinpoint concrete examples of efficiency or productivity.
And here you go: 53% of marketers, including managerial roles, saw the time saved across teams. At the same time, nearly 35% of respondents reported improved ROI for projects where AI was used.
That’s quite close to the productivity statement.
Generative AI helps them create media content faster and for less.
About 39% of marketers use gen AI to create images, videos, audio, or website embeds. Interestingly, 58% of respondents find gen AI very effective in creating media content, with only 6.57% claiming it is ineffective.
What’s more, it frees up 1 to 3 hours, according to 52% of marketers.
Generative AI helps them make significantly more content.
Around 41% of marketers strongly agree that AI can help them spend less time on manual tasks (like data entry and scheduling meetings), which gives them time to focus on content creation duties.
Marketers also save a significant amount of time using gen AI: one to two hours when using gen AI for content creation tasks like writing copy, creating images, getting ideas, etc. With this time back, we marketers can let go of manual tasks and focus on responsibilities that need our human touch.
Around 26% of marketers strongly believe that AI is effective in helping them create more personalized content, which speaks to consumers’ desire for personalization and experiences directly relevant to them and their interests.
Gen AI can also help marketers feel more satisfied at work, as 66% agree that it helps them spend more time on the parts of their jobs they enjoy the most.
How can you reap these benefits yourself? Let’s dive in.
Generative AI Use Cases in Marketing
AI isn’t just for content creation — let’s see the top five tasks marketers use generative AI for:
- Text-based content creation (blogs, marketing email copy, social posts, etc.) – 52%.
- Research (for market research, to find datasets, to summarize articles, etc.) – 48%.
- Automating direct brand messaging or conversational marketing – 42%.
- Media content creation – 39%.
- Learning how to do things (using generative AI to learn an Excel function, debug SQL code, etc.) – 33%.
The channels marketers most often use AI to create content for are email marketing and newsletters (51%), social media content for audio and video platforms (46%), blog posts or other long-form content (47%), and text-based social media content (50%).
Marketers report positive ROI from using gen AI to create content for audio/visual channels (30%) and search/SEO content (29%). Using gen AI for email marketing, newsletters, and text-based social media content most often yields somewhat positive ROI.
Pro tip: There are many AI tools on the market for small businesses — check them out!
Let’s dive deeper into generative AI marketing use cases, featuring expert advice from , VP of Marketing at , and , head of enterprise marketing.
1. Generative AI For Content Creation
As I mentioned, marketers told us they most often .
They use it to create images for marketing content (with AI art tools) and write copy for marketing content. This makes sense to me because, on the most basic level, all marketing content includes some sort of visual image, text, or both.
Gen AI can also help with more unique marketing tasks, such as generating the most effective and enticing email subject lines based on your historical open rates or translating your content for global audiences.
I like Newton’s example of using Gen AI to repurpose content. He says, “Jasper can transform your long-form content into collateral for any channel. From emails and ads to landing pages and blogs, every piece is tailored and optimized at scale within seconds.”
For example, if I’m converting a multi-page ebook into a blog post, I can speed up my process by pasting the copy into an AI tool and prompting it to list the biggest takeaways. The tool will identify key themes, topics, and ideas, which I can use as a rough draft for my blog. I add my voice and expert perspective, and I’d have a new piece of content that took a fraction of the time to create.
All in all, 63% of marketers say gen AI helps them create marketing content more efficiently. Despite its benefits, most marketers aren’t handing over the reins. They aren’t asking ChatGPT to write an Instagram caption, copying the output into the caption box, and pushing it live. A majority say and recommend marketers use gen AI in their roles but avoid becoming overly reliant on it.
I like to view it as a trusty sidekick. It will give you ideas and help you create your outputs faster, but you make edits and have the final say.
How to Use Generative AI in Content Marketing
Find out how to integrate AI tools into your content workflows.
- Understanding generative AI.
- Limitations of AI.
- Rolling out AI to your team.
- And more!
Download Free
All fields are required.
You're all set!
Click this link to access this resource at any time.
2. Generative AI For Content Ideation
As a writer, there’s nothing worse than staring at a blank document. But these days, you don’t have to wait for inspiration to strike.
Reddy says, “AI really fits at the beginning of the writing process, particularly for content ideation. If I'm writing a blog, I often use Jasper Chat to test new ideas and try different angles, just like I would with a colleague in a conference room.”
AI can help you get the ball rolling even faster than you usually might: Marketers report saving 1-2 hours when using gen AI for brainstorming.
Newton says, “AI isn’t an experiment anymore. It’s becoming the backbone of modern marketing practices, reshaping customer journeys, powering content at scale, and driving next-level efficiencies.”
Tool Recommendation: I regularly use in my writing process. Sometimes I use it to create an entire outline; other times to come up with a section heading. Either way, it helps me kick off my process, whether I’m feeling stuck or not. The tool can also help you write social media copy, fill out your landing pages, and even write your marketing emails.
3. Generative AI for Content Research
A lot of effort goes into writing articles before I even put pen to paper, and 99% of that effort is researching and sifting through information.
Language models have changed the game in this regard. Instead of sifting through search results, tools can help users access information and get answers in record time. For example, prompts like “What’s the difference between [topic] and [topic]?” or “What are the top trends in [industry] in 2025?” can surface specific responses that will help you through your process.
Marketers told us they get back 1-2 hours they’d typically spend conducting their own research using gen AI, so it’s already proven useful.
4. Generative AI for SEO Optimization
As content creators, we want our work to be seen by as many people as possible. One way to get there is by optimizing for SEO.
However, we’re not all experts in technical SEO. For Reddy, this is where AI can really shine. She says, “I’m not someone that grew up in the discipline of content marketing, and I never had a tool to help me with the technical aspect of SEO. That’s where Jasper comes into play. It can help content marketers optimize their articles by automating a lot of SEO tasks.”
In action, a generative AI tool could help you conduct keyword research, classify keywords by intent for more focused content, suggest content clusters for your blog, or help you write meta tags and descriptions to improve click-through rates.
But AI doesn’t end at optimization — it can also work as an editor during the final stages of writing. Tools like Grammarly can detect wordiness, offer alternative phrases, and improve readability. The result? SEO-optimized content that people enjoy reading.
Tool recommendation: As consumers also get more and more usage out of AI search engines, you want to ensure your website is set up to appear in those results. Enter , a free app that quickly analyzes your brand based on what your prospects and customers are seeing across AI search engines, then gives you actionable recommendations on how to improve.
5. Generative AI for Scaling Marketing Campaigns
In an ideal world, there would be a single channel to meet, engage, and convert customers. In reality, marketers need a multi-channel strategy to reach their audience.
Of course, scaling marketing campaigns is no easy feat. As Newton puts it, “Targeting is only one part of marketing strategy, but it’s the content development where teams face bottlenecks.”
However, marketers can use AI to build entire marketing campaigns from one piece of content, which they can adapt to different formats and lengths.
For example, if I create a YouTube video I want to scale into an entire campaign, I can use AI to convert the video script to different formats, like a LinkedIn post, Facebook ad, or newsletter copy. I’ll have a multi-channel strategy rather than a single platform or format. It also helps me strategically ramp up my marketing.
Pro tip: Download our .
The Pitfalls to Avoid When Implementing Generative AI Into Your Processes
1. Removing Creators From the Creation Process
At first glance, AI-written content may look perfect. Yet, many human elements — like humor, empathy, perspective, and cultural context — could be missing. On top of that, generative AI operates with limited data, so the information it collects could be irrelevant, outdated, and even biased.
“When incorporating generative AI, the worst thing you can do is remove someone with a strong creative or editorial eye,” cautions Reddy.
Most marketers told us they’re only somewhat confident they’d know if the information gen AI provides is accurate, but they have similar thoughts to Reddy’s. A majority use gen AI to give them an outline/draft to build off of, and a majority also make significant edits to the text that gen AI produces.
Ultimately, I recommend using AI as your first draft — not the last. It can lay the groundwork, but you still need to elevate the content with your unique personality or perspective.
2. Disconnecting AI From Impact
Every marketing team has a different strategy for creating content, and the same principle applies to adopting AI. While the excitement around AI is undeniable, teams must be strategic and deliberate about how they implement it to avoid gaps in adoption and to ensure it drives measurable results.
Tom Newton highlights this challenge, saying, “ of employees report using AI, yet only half of business leaders see measurable impact. This signals a critical gap between AI implementation and ROI.” This gap often arises when AI is used indiscriminately or without a clear understanding of its most meaningful applications within existing workflows.
The key is to stay mindful of how AI is integrated. It’s about finding high-impact use cases that allow you to close the gap between experimentation and measurable success. For example, a marketing team may have an effective content distribution process, but it could be improved by automating some tasks with AI, like scheduling social media posts and reformatting content for different channels.
AI is most effective when it becomes a bridge that connects innovation with actionable, results-driven execution.
3. Sacrificing Quality For Quantity
As AI continues to speed up the creation process, it’s important to have guardrails in place to maintain quality.
Horizontal AI tools often create inconsistent outputs and lack integration with critical business processes. A domain-specific approach to AI can help marketers maintain brand consistency and create high-quality content that resonates with their audience.
Newton says, “Jasper’s IQ layer is where we embed your best practices, voice, and customer understanding directly into the AI workflow. It’s the driving force behind generating on-brand content at scale.”
Over to You
We marketers are always looking for ways to stay ahead of the curve and embrace new technology that helps us be more effective. Generative AI is a huge opportunity, but as Newton puts it, it’s important to always be realistic about this technology.
Ultimately, it’s about knowing when to push this technology into your workflow — and when to pull back. With this approach, marketers can effectively incorporate AI into their strategies for maximum impact.
Editor's note: This post was originally published in April 2023 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.
How to Use Generative AI in Content Marketing
Find out how to integrate AI tools into your content workflows.
- Understanding generative AI.
- Limitations of AI.
- Rolling out AI to your team.
- And more!
Download Free
All fields are required.
You're all set!
Click this link to access this resource at any time.
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