"AI will revolutionise your marketing." "Automate everything with AI." "10x your productivity." You read this everywhere. We've been exploring these tools for two years. Here's what we actually observe — far from the promises.
Promises vs reality
What they sell us:
What we observe:
The problem: Many AI marketing tools are repackaged GPT with an interface. You pay $99/month for something ChatGPT does for $20.
The 3 categories of AI marketing tools
After exploring dozens of tools, we see three categories:
1. The genuinely useful
2. The "it depends"
3. The nonsense
Why 100% AI content is a dead end
Google was clear in its guidelines (March 2024): AI-generated content isn't penalised *per se*. But low-quality content is — and most AI content is low quality.
The problem: The majority of AI content is:
What we observe in the field:
Several SEO studies (Ahrefs, Search Engine Journal) have documented sites that mass-published AI content in 2024 and lost 30-70% of their organic traffic after Google's core updates. The pattern is clear: Google doesn't punish AI — it punishes mediocrity at scale.
The real cost of AI (not the one they tell you)
Visible costs:
Hidden costs:
Our observation: For simple, repetitive tasks, AI saves time. For complex tasks requiring expertise and nuance, it often wastes it.
What actually works (our experience)
After two years of daily exploration, here's what we've found useful:
It works:
It doesn't work:
Our rule: If the AI output can be published as-is, it probably doesn't bring anything new.
Our position
We explore AI every day. We see its potential. We also see its limits.
What we think:
AI is an amplifier. It amplifies the skills of those who have them. It doesn't create skills in those who don't.
An SME that uses AI without a clear strategy will produce more mediocre content, faster. An SME with real expertise can go further, more efficiently.
The nonsense is promising that AI replaces thinking. It replaces nothing. It accelerates. And accelerating in the wrong direction is still going in the wrong direction.
Key takeaways
- -Many AI marketing tools are repackaged GPT with a markup.
- -100% AI content is a dead end in the medium term (Google knows it).
- -The real cost includes learning, verification and correction.
- -AI amplifies existing expertise; it doesn't replace it.
- -The nonsense: promising that AI does the work for you.