AI won’t replace good marketers. But marketers who use it well will have an edge over those who don’t. I use Claude, an AI assistant made by Anthropic, every day – not to do my thinking for me, but to give me more time to think. Here’s how I combine my experience with AI, and the ground rules that keep the work rigorous, on-brand and human.
1. Why I use AI at all
The most valuable parts of marketing are insight, strategy, creativity and relationships. The least valuable are the hours spent formatting documents, reworking the same copy for five channels or trawling through spreadsheets. AI gives me those hours back, so I can spend more of my clients’ budgets on the thinking that makes the difference.
2. Where Claude helps
Research and synthesis
Pulling together competitor messaging, audience feedback or hundreds of reviews and spotting the patterns. I still decide what the insight means – but I get to it faster.
First drafts and editing
Turning my notes, interviews and frameworks into a first draft, then tightening, restructuring and adapting it for different channels. Every piece is shaped and signed off by me, in the client’s voice.
Audits and consistency
Checking a website for missing page descriptions, broken structure or inconsistent case studies, and making sure messaging, tone and formatting line up across every page.
Data and reporting
Working through campaign data, building simple dashboards and testing different ways of looking at performance, so decisions rest on evidence rather than instinct alone.
Getting things done
Connected to tools like WordPress, Claude can help make updates directly – publishing drafts, tidying page structures and fixing search settings – with me reviewing every change before it goes live.
3. Where I stay firmly in charge
- Strategy. AI can suggest options. Choosing the right one for an organisation, its people and its moment takes judgement and experience.
- Real insight. The most powerful insights come from talking to people – students, supporters, customers and staff. No tool can sit in that room for you.
- Brand and creativity. AI is good at the expected. Great brands are built on the unexpected, and on a deep understanding of what makes an organisation genuinely different.
- Accuracy. AI can be confidently wrong. I check every fact, figure and claim before anything is published.
- Relationships. Bringing stakeholders with you is often what turns a good plan into great results. That will always be a human job.
4. My ground rules
- Human-led, always. AI supports my work; it never replaces my judgement or sign-off.
- Confidentiality first. I don’t share sensitive client information with AI tools without permission.
- Check everything. Every fact and figure is verified against its source.
- Keep the voice real. Copy has to sound like the brand, not like a machine.
- Be open about it. I’m always happy to explain how and where I use AI on a project.
What this means for you
Combining human expertise with AI means I can move faster, test more ideas and deliver more within the same budget – without losing the senior judgement, creativity and care that good marketing depends on. The result is work that’s both smarter and more human.
Curious how AI could make your marketing work harder? Get in touch – I’d love to talk it through. And if you’d like your team to build these skills too, my training and coaching can include how to use AI smartly as part of your projects and campaigns.