124 - Our Thoughts on The State of AI in Digital Marketing

Zac: AI is everywhere in marketing right now, and depending on who you ask, it’s either revolutionizing everything or completely overrated. In this episode, we’re sharing our honest thoughts on where AI is helping, where it’s falling short, and how marketers can realistically use it without losing the human touch.

Rich: All right, so we are back with another episode and we are talking AI again. It continues to be a topic. We brought it up in our Super Bowl review—there were some AI-generated ads or AI-augmented ads that we really kind of hated, so we’re real happy with that.

Rich: I’ve also been playing with AI for a friend of mine. He’s got a small business—not really a client—but he needs to take his product and put it in different settings or make videos and those kinds of things. There are a bunch of tools out there for it, and it’s been really hit and miss. A couple tools we were like, these suck. And a couple were like, okay, this is pretty good—as long as you prompt correctly.

Rich: AI is everywhere, right Zac? We’re talking about it. It was all over INBOUND last year. People use it in different ways—some are streamlining things, some are using it just for research. And then where it gets stickier is when people try to go from blank sheet to finished creative.

Zac: Which we’ve talked about before—that’s never the way to go. Obviously you can use it as a starting point or for outlining, but if it’s your finished product, it’s probably lacking and not going to perform well anyway.

Rich: Yeah, and you’re going to have issues because it still hallucinates. I even had HubSpot’s AI assistant hallucinate steps that literally don’t exist in the platform. So even a self-contained AI can have issues.

Rich: Today we’re talking about what it’s doing well, where it’s overhyped, and hopefully helping you find the right balance between automation and authenticity.

Zac: But before we do that, we’re going to discuss today’s cocktail: the Italian Cookie. This was an interesting one I found on Liquor.com, and it made me think of you, Rich, since you talk about Italy all the time.

Zac: It’s a rum-based drink from New Orleans bar 3 Muses. It’s an ode to the sprinkle-covered treats found in cookie tins and grandmother’s homes everywhere. Best served as a nightcap—sweet, creamy, definitely a dessert cocktail or fun birthday shot with colorful sprinkles.

Rich: Yeah, this is interesting. It sounds sweet, but desserts in Italy tend to be less sweet than in the U.S. They lean into almonds, anise, ricotta, citrus—more nuanced flavors instead of pure sugar bombs. So I’m curious about this one.

Rich: Here’s the build: 1½ ounces black magic spiced rum—or something similar like Cruzan Black Strap—1 ounce heavy cream, ½ ounce Herbsaint liqueur, ⅓ ounce crème de noyaux, ⅓ ounce lemon juice, 2 tablespoons fig preserves, and 1 teaspoon sprinkles.

Rich: Everything goes into a blender with ice. Blend until smooth, pour into a highball glass, garnish with Italian sprinkles—also known in Australia as “hundreds and thousands.” Straw optional, umbrella optional.

Rich: It’s basically a blended cookie drink. Interesting dessert option.

Zac: Definitely a fun one.

Rich: All right—should we get into AI?

Zac: Let’s talk AI.

Rich: All right, we’re back. The pressing question: is AI making marketing better—or just faster?

Rich: I read an article this morning saying AI is actually making employees work more, not less. Not shortening work—adding to it. Probably because as people get more efficient, companies just give them more work.

Zac: Oh wow.

Rich: Think about it: if you finish your work by 2 p.m., most companies don’t say “great, go home.” They say “here’s more.” So that’s part of the dynamic.

Rich: But back to the question—better or just faster?

Zac: I think it depends how you use it. If people are using it as the finished product, then it’s faster but not better. But if you’re using it to improve your process—like outlining or refining—then it can be better.

Zac: With the Super Bowl ads we talked about last week, most weren’t better. Probably faster and cheaper—but not better.

Rich: Exactly. De-aging has existed for years without AI—it just took longer. Now it’s faster, but the quality isn’t always there.

Rich: So yeah, AI is definitely faster. But the quality? Not always.

Zac: For what it’s worth—we are talking about those ads two weeks in a row. So they were memorable.

Rich: Fair point. Bad ads can still generate attention. Aldi literally leans into lawsuits because the publicity is worth it.

Zac: That’s a whole other episode.

Rich: Totally.

Rich: But where AI does shine is research. If something normally takes two hours and AI gets you there in 30 minutes—that’s a win. Same with tools like Grammarly that refine writing and learn your voice.

Zac: And beating writer’s block. Getting unstuck.

Rich: Yes—but prompting matters. I always want options from AI. Ideate. Give me variations. Not “write the next paragraph for me.”

Zac: Because then you get locked into its thinking. It narrows your creativity.

Rich: Exactly. AI should get you over the hump—not make you dumber.

Zac: Which leads into where AI should stop and humans should take over. For blogs, use AI for outlines or keyword ideas—but the actual writing needs your voice.

Zac: Like with keyword research—I might have AI generate a list, but I still validate it in SE Ranking to check search volume and difficulty.

Rich: That’s the right approach.

Rich: There’s also a big debate: should AI write your first draft, or refine your final draft? I used to be more open to first drafts, but now I lean toward using it at the end—cleanup, grammar, spotting gaps.

Zac: Same. I’ll ask AI things like “what’s missing?” or “how could this improve?” but I don’t want it rewriting my voice.

Rich: Exactly. Use it as a second opinion.

Rich: Another area where AI could help more: ADA accessibility. We have scanners that flag issues, but AI could actually explain fixes in plain English. That back-and-forth would be huge.

Zac: It’s still lacking in a lot of areas. And some people get so caught up in time savings that they lose their edge.

Rich: Sharpen the edge—don’t dull it.

Rich: I tested one tool that animated a product photo into video. The second the model moved, the brand became unreadable—looked like alien text. That’s where the hype doesn’t match reality yet.

Zac: Which brings up the big question: is AI leveling the playing field?

Zac: Does it help smaller teams compete with larger companies?

Rich: I think it helps solopreneurs more than it helps small teams compete with big enterprises. Volume and scale still matter.

Rich: But for a one-person startup—huge advantage. Someone with an iPhone and AI tools can now produce decent marketing assets.

Zac: But it still won’t define your brand or voice. You have to feed it good inputs.

Rich: Exactly. Prompting is the new skill. And that’s controversial—is prompting AI similar to learning Photoshop? Interesting debate.

Zac: It is controversial—but learning prompting now probably gives teams an advantage later.

Rich: The other big issue: rights and likeness. If you upload someone’s photo and animate it with AI—do you have permission? Hollywood is already dealing with this.

Rich: There are contracts now that explicitly cover digital recreation.

Zac: How long until we see fully AI-generated movies?

Rich: Honestly, probably sooner than we think. Animation might go first. You can imagine studios feeding entire catalogs into AI.

Rich: But disclosure is becoming important. YouTube already asks whether AI was used in content creation.

Zac: And you can tell in some places—especially mobile game ads—that AI is everywhere already.

Rich: And ironically, authentic screen recordings often perform better anyway.

Zac: This is definitely a big evolving topic.

Rich: So to wrap it up—we’re mixed on AI. It has a place, generally not as the final product. Transparency matters. And if you’re hiring an agency, you should understand how they’re using AI.

Rich: For solopreneurs, it’s powerful. For full end-to-end marketing replacement? We’re not there.

Zac: Hopefully not anytime soon.

Rich: We’d love your feedback. Is anyone successfully using AI end-to-end? Zac—tell them how to reach us.

Zac: As always, you can find our agency at antidote71.com and all of our socials are there as well. If you have a question or want to respond to Rich’s question, head to ctapodcast.live to shoot us an email—or even better, leave us a voice message at 402-718-9971. Your question might make it into a future episode.

Rich: Absolutely. We’ll see you next week with something new.