From AI blah to breakthrough: Innovating marketing in the age of generative tools

By Chad Martin, VP, Strategy

Large language models (LLMs) and generative content tools have followed the classic frontier tech trajectory, but at unprecedented speed. What took decades for previous technologies to accomplish has been compressed into mere years for AI. The pattern remains the same: conceive  develop  deliver  scale, but the timeline has accelerated dramatically.

Just three years ago, ChatGPT was a curiosity. Now, 88% of digital marketers use some form of “AI” in their day-to-day tasks. This isn’t gradual adoption but rather a fundamental shift in how marketing work gets done.

The transformation has been remarkable. Content creation tools that once required specialized skills are now accessible to any marketer with a browser. But without human creativity and curation guiding these powerful tools, we risk drowning in a sea of technically proficient but strategically hollow content.

The content creation revolution

LLMs have fundamentally changed the content creation landscape. Where marketers once faced blank pages and tight deadlines, they now have AI partners that can generate dozens of headline variations, draft entire blog posts, adapt content for different channels, and even create multimedia assets. Tools can maintain a consistent brand voice across thousands of pieces of content while personalizing messages for specific audience segments.

But here’s the paradox: as content creation becomes easier, creating content that matters becomes harder. The barrier to entry has disappeared, and the barrier to breakthrough is higher than ever. Every brand now has access to the same powerful tools, which means differentiation comes not from the technology itself, but from how strategically and creatively it’s deployed.

The scarce resources in marketing, I fear, will become originality and judgment. Ideas are abundant, yet the ability to scale them on-brand, on-brief, and with impact is where true value emerges. Without this, we get a flood of “blah” work. We fall into the trap of using tools as crutches, not partners.

Why creativity and curation are non-negotiable

In an age where AI can generate thousands of content variations in no time, the role of creative curation becomes paramount. Without human creativity guiding the process, we risk what industry experts call “AI slop,” or visuals and content that look and sound “right” but fail to connect with audiences.

Creativity in the AI era isn’t about generating ideas from scratch. It’s about having the vision to see which AI-generated concepts have potential, the skill to refine them into something meaningful, and the judgment to know when to start over entirely. This requires what David Ogilvy called “big ideas.” Singular, sharp promises that can be repeated across channels without losing their power.

The craft of human-AI collaboration

The most effective marketing teams are developing new collaborative workflows that leverage AI’s strengths while preserving human creativity and judgment.

This involves:

1. Strategic oversight: Humans set the creative brief, define success metrics, and establish brand guardrails before AI tools begin generating options. As industry research shows, successful AI projects start with defining the desired output and objectives. AI is the means to achieve these goals, not the goal itself.

2. Creative direction: While AI can generate hundreds of headline variations, humans decide which direction feels most promising, which tone resonates with the brand, and which approach serves the strategic objective. This requires a deep understanding of brand voice, audience, and cultural context.

3. Quality control: AI is prone to what researchers call “hallucinations.” Human oversight ensures that accuracy, brand safety, and ethical considerations are maintained throughout the creative process.

4. Emotional resonance: Perhaps most critically, humans bring the ability to recognize and create emotional connections. I’ve said for a long time that “humans connect with humans, not brands,” and this needs to be considered now more than ever.

   
   

To put this into practice, think of AI as your creative partner. Brainstorm with it. Ask it questions and “hear it out.” But always push back on it. I go back to my days as a creative where my partner and I would be working on a project and we just started talking. A nugget of an idea would come out of nowhere. We would banter and build, banter some more and keep building. Many times, we went too far but used that point to know where the right spot was. Do that with your LLM of choice. It is not creative. You are creative. But LLMs are great at iterating. Put it in the “right seat on the bus.”

Nothing beats your human voice

Innovation isn’t just about bold, frontier ideas. It’s about how you bring them to life with precision, insight, and craft. In today’s marketing landscape, AI and other frontier technologies don’t replace human ingenuity; rather, they handle grunt work so marketers can concentrate on what humans excel at. That’s developing insights, creativity, and storytelling.

These tools should be the scaffolding behind the creative process, not the substitute for it. Generative AI can draft content, analyze data, and even produce multimedia assets, but without someone who understands brand voice, audience psychology, and cultural context, the output risks being generic, soulless or forgettable.

This article appears in our Fall 2025 issue of Trendline: Innovation. Subscribe to get the next issue!