AI won’t replace good marketers. But marketers who use it well will have an edge over those who don’t. I use Claude Pro, 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 marketing experience with AI, and my ground rules that keep my work rigorous, on-brand and authentically human.
1. Why I use AI at all
The most valuable parts of marketing are insight, strategy, creativity and relationships – and that’s where I believe my curious approach excels. The least valuable, and most frustrating, are the hours spent formatting documents, reworking the same copy and video captions for five channels or trawling through spreadsheets and data sources to connect insights. AI gives me those hours back, so I can spend more of my clients’ budgets on the thinking that makes the real difference.
2. Where AI helps
Research and synthesis
Pulling together competitor messaging, audience feedback or hundreds of online reviews intro structured insight that I can evaluate and understand. AI is great at spotting patterns. I still decide what the insight means – but I get to it a lot faster that I would if I was doing it manually.
First drafts and editing
Turning my notes, interviews and frameworks into a first draft of a story or case study, then tightening, restructuring and adapting it for different channels. Every piece is shaped and signed off by me, in the client’s voice, but AI speeds the editorial process up. For me, it’s like having a very skilled editorial partner to consult with, bounce ideas off and give me feedback and suggestions on my work.
Audits and consistency
Checking a website for missing page descriptions, broken structure or inconsistent case studies, or even grammatical errors, and making sure messaging, tone and formatting line up across every page.
SEO and AIO
Identifying where meta data is missing or where content and tools can be improved to optimise appearance in search engines and AI systems based on target keywords and searches.
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, email and social media systems, AI 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
Of course, I have oversight of everything that’s happening, providing clear briefs and checking and approving everything before it goes live.
- Strategy. AI can suggest different strategic options, but choosing the right one for an organisation, its people and its future takes real-world judgement and experience.
- Real insight. The most powerful insights come from talking to people – students, supporters, customers and staff. AI can tell us what is happening but to understand the why behind it so we can respond in the right way needs human conversations. No tool can sit in that room for you.
- Brand and creativity. AI is good at the expected, on what’s already been done, but great brands are built on the unexpected, and on a deep understanding of what makes an organisation genuinely different. This is only something a human with the right experience can bring to the table.
- Accuracy. AI can be confidently wrong. I check every fact, figure and claim before anything is published. I also ask for references on all external data, ensuring I check out the source before including it in my decision-making mix.
- Relationships. Bringing stakeholders along with you when it comes to important decision-making is often what turns a good plan into great results. This is firmly a human job as unexpected concerns or ideas – things you and your AI system may not have thought of – may arise as a result of having human conversations.
4. My ground rules
So, I have some important ground rules when using AI, that I would encourage you to adopt too.
- 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 from the client.
- Check everything. Every fact and figure is verified against its source before using.
- Keep the voice real. Copy has to sound like the brand, not like a machine. each brand is different and it takes a human to shape an authentic brand voice.
- Be open about it. I’m always happy to explain how and where I use AI on a project. I’m also always learning. AI moves fast and it takes time and testing of different tools and approaches to understand which tools are the right fit.
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.