No, That AI Tool Won’t Fix Your Marketing
Why strategy will always beat shortcuts, and what AI tools can and can’t do for your brand
There’s a new AI-powered marketing tool popping up every other week.
Blaze.ai, Jasper, Copy.ai - you name it.
Each one promises to be your all-in-one marketing machine.
Need social posts? Done.
A newsletter? Click.
A brand strategy? Apparently that too.
The promise is simple:
No skills required. Just click, copy, and grow.
But here’s the truth no one wants to say out loud:
No tool will save your marketing if you don’t have a strategy, or even a clue.
Not Blaze. Not Jasper. Not ChatGPT. Not the next shiny platform.
Because the problem isn’t the tools.
It’s the belief that a tool will do everything for you.
The Tools Are Fine. The Promise Is the Problem.
Let me be clear. I love trying new tools. Especially AI ones. But most of these marketing platforms aren’t built for marketers. They’re built for people with no marketing experience.
And so they’re sold to people with no marketing experience. People who feel overwhelmed, under-equipped, and time poor. People who desperately want to believe a tool will “just do it all.”
That’s not a red flag on its own. But what makes it dangerous is the way these tools are marketed - positioned as miracle workers instead of what they actually are: decent tools that still need a brain behind them.
We’ve Been Sold This Shortcut Before
This isn’t a new story. We’ve chased shortcuts like this before, just with different packaging.
Remember the Shake Weight?
It promised toned arms with just a few minutes of shaking a day.
It sold millions, sparked memes, and ended up in charity shops everywhere.
Just because it was marketed as easy didn’t make it effective.
The juicer and blender boom was another one.
The promise: drink smoothies, change your life.
And for some, it worked if they also had a bigger health plan behind it.
But most of us ended up with a bulky appliance in the cupboard and no real lifestyle change.
Then came the “one-click funnel” dream.
Tools that told you to plug in your offer and watch the sales roll in.
They made it sound like the tech would do the selling for you.
But funnels without a clear message or thoughtful offer are just landing pages with good UX.
We keep coming back to the same idea:
If you give people a tool but not the thinking behind it, they’ll get more noise, not more results.
So, What Can AI Actually Do?
Let me say this: I use AI nearly every day. I like it. Some AI tools are part of my workflow.
But they don’t replace my thinking.
They don’t know my clients’ audience.
They don’t understand empathy, tone, or nuance, unless I show them.
I don’t know a single experienced marketer who says, “Oh yeah, I just use this one AI tool for everything.”
Because that tool doesn’t exist.
Instead, most of us have a small stack of tools that work for specific tasks, layered on top of brand strategy, positioning, tone of voice, and message clarity.
And yet, clients often ask me:
“Have you tried this new tool?”
“Is Blaze better than Jasper?”
“Will this write my blogs for me?”
My response is almost always the same:
“Have you done the groundwork first?”
Do you have a message that’s actually clear?
Do you know who your audience is and what they care about?
Do you know what makes you different?
Because if you haven’t done that work, AI won’t fill the gap.
It’ll just multiply the confusion.
You Don’t Need to Be a Marketer to use AI - But You Do Need a Strategy
Just like you don’t need to be a graphic designer to use Canva, you don’t need to be a marketer to use AI.
But you do need an eye for what good looks like.
Canva is full of beautiful templates, but there’s still a noticeable difference between content made by someone with creative experience, and someone just clicking through options. You might not spot it consciously, but your subconscious brain definitely does. And that part of your brain? It's the one making decisions in a split second - whether to stay, scroll, click, or buy.
AI content works the same way.
You can technically generate all the right formats - a blog, a post, a headline - but if the message is off, if the tone feels robotic, if there’s no clear point... something will feel wrong. Your audience won’t stick around to figure out why. They’ll just move on.
Because our brains are wired for emotional connection, relevance, and clarity. That’s not something you can automate.
AI is powerful.
But it’s not a miracle cure.
And if you don’t know what “good” looks like, you’ll assume the tool is broken, when really, it just had no direction.
The biggest mistake isn’t using AI.
It’s skipping the hard work that should come before you generate anything.
So no, that AI tool won’t fix your marketing.
But getting your story straight?
Understanding your audience?
Building trust, not just content?
That will.
