How AI Has Improved My Work as a Strategic Marketer
Since completing an AI course last year, I’ve woven tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity into my daily workflow so seamlessly that I hardly think about them anymore. Things like: summarise this book (so I can have a better conversation with its author in a meeting); compare these companies and show me how they stack up against each other; review my presentation and tell me how I can make it better. These are examples of things that would have taken hours (days?) before and now I can review what my mates ‘Chat’ and ‘Perp’ say (we’re on first name terms now) and then make my work better. This is the point: it isn’t just saving me time, it’s improving what we are doing.
AI Has Transformed the Research Stage
One of the biggest shifts for me has been in the research phase of marketing strategy. It’s often a tricky part of the process: clients aren’t always keen to invest in formal research because, understandably, they already feel they know their clients, market and people better than anyone else. And often, they do.
But, we know, as marketers, that the research isn’t just there to provide validation, it can reveal gaps, generate ideas, identify trends that when you’re in the ‘thick of it’ are harder to see. Getting the data to prove our hypotheses can be satisfying and seeing data that helps tell a different story that creates standout is even better.
Using AI for desk research, competitor analysis, identifying market perception and trend forecasting means we don’t need to compromise on this crucial step—even when budgets are tight. Of course, it depends on what’s already publicly available (and yes, I do occasionally feel like I’m benefiting from someone else’s hard work). But in the ‘thinking’ stage—the analytical bit—we can now do much more, more quickly, and with greater perspective.
We Even Built Our Own AI Tone of Voice Tool
One of our more bespoke applications of AI has been developing an internal tone of voice tool—built with some clever prompting, if we do say so ourselves—that helps us review whether client content sounds like them.
It comes into its own during full website rewrites, or when we run brand audits to check for consistency. Many of our clients have multiple content authors, and while we want their individual personalities to come through, we also want to avoid that slightly flat, omnipotent tone you get when content sounds like it was written by a well-meaning bot (no offence, Chat).
Our tool helps keep brand personality consistent without erasing human nuance. It gives us a baseline for brand alignment while still allowing individual voices to shine through.
A Word on Expectations
Of course, AI is only as useful as the person using it. It doesn’t replace strategy, insight or taste. But it does raise the baseline. It gives us more time to focus on the parts of marketing that matter most: the ideas, the stories, the differentiation.
Used well, AI isn't a shortcut. It’s an amplifier.
Final Thoughts
We’re still learning. The tech is evolving. But already, AI has reshaped the way I think, plan, and create as a marketer. It’s helping us do better work—and more of it—without compromising on quality.
And perhaps most excitingly, it’s giving us space to think more strategically, not less.
Words by Alison Burdick, Founder & Director
