When Marketers Should Not Use AI

The excitement that artificial intelligence (AI) has generated in the online marketing industry is unlike anything we’ve seen in decades. It effectively saves so much time and money that it levels the playing field for many new or struggling entrepreneurs who want to profit from their efforts.

But it’s not all perfect. AI, like other tools and strategies, can be misused – either because of a lack of care and understanding or due to sheer laziness or unwillingness to go the extra mile for your audience.

This message is for niche marketers who take pride in their work and who understand what it means to position themselves as an authority figure. For those who don’t care about customer experience, it will fall on deaf ears.

There is a time and place for the use of AI. I’m not talking about whether you feel it’s ethical to use it for normal content, editing, brainstorming, and analytics. I’m talking about considering the way it affects your customer.

AI is the best tool for many scenarios in your workflow. It can serve as a highly intelligent assistant who works 24/7 and delivers at lightning speed. But if you fail to recognize when a drawback could occur, you might be setting yourself up for backlash.

Don’t Ignore AI’s Warnings About Its Flaws

When you log onto ChatGPT, you see a message in small print that says, “ChatGPT can make mistakes. Check important info.” Gemini 2.0 says, “2.0 Flash Experimental. Might not work as expected.”

It’s not just that it might not listen to instructions, although that’s frustrating for many who use it. From your customer’s point of view, they’re trusting you to tell them the truth. If AI lies on your behalf, that’s your responsibility.

So one problem you want to avoid is using AI when you’re creating content about a topic you, yourself are not well-versed in. If you’re having it create output about topics like health, for example, and it writes something that could be harmful to your readers and you don’t catch it, that’s your responsibility.

Don’t Allow AI to Handle Every Level of Customer Service

AI also sounds like it grasps human emotions, at least when you instruct it to, but it doesn’t always capture the emotional tone of people interacting with your brand. It might respond with something that makes it transparent that you’re relying on a robot to engage with them.

It’s one thing to have a chatbot that can direct people to a FAQ page or give them instructions for simple questions like, “How do I log into my account?” But you don’t want to use it for escalating interactions where the consumer is going to end up frustrated.

A support desk should be handled by humans. If a chatbot gives them options (including the link to get support), don’t use AI as a stand-in for you when it comes to offering support such as assistance downloading an order, buying a product, or helping someone get a refund.

You don’t want them to have to go back and forth arguing with an AI tool before they eventually track you down directly online and explode with anger on you for the lack of oversight.

Don’t Let AI Replace Your Voice in Blog Comments

Being a successful blogger can take time. Once you succeed in getting traffic to your domain and having people read your work, don’t blow it by being absent when someone finally cares enough to comment.

There’s an awful practice happening right now where online marketers use AI to reply to comments. As the person commenting, you’re going to feel unappreciated if the comment is sterile.

For example, if someone was sarcastic and accusatory to you in a fake complimentary way, AI might actually thank them for their comment and that would stir up even more controversy for you.

The quality of comments by itself might vary. AI tends to use patterns, and readers might realize that all of your replies sound the same – or that some sound lacking while others are better, as AI sometimes does.

Worse, someone might ask a question and AI would pull an answer out of thin air, leaving the reader with bad information you weren’t there to oversee. It might be too late by the time you do see it later.

Many people are not onboard with AI yet (and may never be). If they realize you’ve been shoving them aside to be handled by a robot, they won’t be very happy – and your brand may experience backlash in a more public campaign against you.

Don’t Let AI Cripple Your Spontaneity and Creativity

What often happens when people find a tool that handles a task is that they begin distancing themselves from that task altogether. You never want to let your entrepreneurial light dim just because they’re an automated gadget that can handle something, too.

You bring something unique to the table that AI doesn’t – your human experiences and insight as well as your own type of creativity. AI is simply operating off of a readymade loop of information it’s been fed.

As a person, you have a deep understanding of the emotional side of experiences – while AI is left to just scan comments for trigger words and try to piece it all together to come up with something sensible.

There are many times AI can be great representing you. If you tend to have thin skin, then AI can take a complaint and help you craft the right answer to protect your brand from backlash.

You have a moral compass that AI doesn’t have, too. You know what’s in the best interest of your audience and can not only guide them in the best way, but protect them from outside influences that aren’t good.

Don’t Use AI If You’re Working on Sensitive or Controversial Topics

Depending on your niche, you might be writing about a topic that needs human oversight. While you might be able to use AI sparingly in this instance, you never want to just hand over projects like this to AI.

Think about things that are political, religious or even personal struggles like addiction that people turn to you for advice on. Sometimes, other topics might fall under this category – like weight loss, survival, or anti-aging.

You never know what AI might accidentally say that feels cold, controversial and unlike what you, yourself would put out there for your audience. Someone might leave a comment for you and AI responds in an insensitive manner.

For example, let’s say your blog post discusses infertility and someone left a heartfelt comment about them going through this very issue, and your AI bot replies with a comment like: “Thank you for your comment. Please check out my new eBook at [link].”

Don’t Use AI for Thought Leadership Content

There are times when you want to do things unlike anyone else. You want to break out in the marketplace and wow your audience. AI is trained on existing content and ideas, not innovation from scratch.

You run the risk of it being a derivative of someone else’s work – or being too generic to your audience when you were trying to be cutting edge. Give yourself credit for being able to represent unique concepts with what you bring to the table.

Don’t Use AI for Genuine Product Reviews

Using AI to write products in bulk is fine if you’re hoping to project the features, benefits and uses of a product. But there’s a different kind of product review – one where you personally used the product and are reporting back to your audience.

For these, don’t have AI lie to your readers and make claims that aren’t true. You want to have authentic conversations with your readers about your experiences – with detailed insight an AI bot can’t grasp.

This is where personal anecdotes will stand apart from the sterile AI content that floods the Internet. The storytelling that is attached to the review should be yours, not something AI made up entirely.

How to Decide When AI Is Useful

Even with the above scenarios, it’s not an all-or-nothing approach. Sometimes you can lean on AI tools to assist you with things, instead of removing yourself from the equation.

With customer service, it might be fine to allow AI to present the initial list of options, but give your buyers the chance to connect immediately with your human-monitored service desk to open a ticket, too.

For content that’s sensitive, innovative or otherwise important, you can use AI to some degree, like helping you brainstorm or outline, editing and polishing it – but don’t let it run wild on autopilot without your input.

Ask yourself if you, as a consumer, would be satisfied with the level of exchange you’d have with AI – whether it’s interactive or landing on a page representing a brand. If it fall short for you, then don’t subject your audience to it.

AI is a great assistant and virtual tool to help you save time and money. It’s even beneficial for inspiring you with ideas and knowledge you may not have had otherwise. But it’s not a crutch and it isn’t suitable as a substitute for you.

You possess empathy and intuition – and a certain level of creativity that AI can’t capture on its own. Before you get swept up in the allure of automation and hands-off income strategies, make a wise decision about whether or not AI is truly beneficial to you in using it in each situation.

Don’t be afraid to be transparent about the use of AI whenever necessary. Don’t feel like your chatbot has to pretend to be you. It’s okay to let the person know they have the option to get instant answers from AI or wait for a reply from you. This lets them build trust in you and sets their mind at ease.