Despite running an AI company, Clay's co-founder warns against using LLMs for marketing. He argues that AI models are designed to synthesize information and find the average, which is the opposite of marketing's goal: to stand out and be original. His team is discouraged from using it for marketing copy.

As more teams use AI, campaign strategies become homogenized because AI suggests traditional plays based on existing data. The key differentiator becomes human oversight, where marketers add unique, creative insights to AI-generated foundations, ensuring campaigns stand out.

When brands use AI tools like LLMs as their primary creative director instead of as an assistant, they produce generic outputs based on existing data. This leads to a "sea of sameness" and a loss of brand distinctiveness.

If a marketer's primary function is to react to and optimize for algorithms, their job is highly susceptible to being automated. True value lies in strategic thinking, human insight, and abilities that AI cannot replicate, rather than engaging in short-sighted tactical execution that AI will inevitably master.

AI is not a threat to strategic marketers; it's a tool that will automate tedious tasks and eliminate lazy, uninspired work. It will amplify the value of marketers who possess good taste, strategic thinking, and a deep understanding of their audience, making them more effective, not obsolete.

Marketers face a choice. The 'Industrial Revolution' path uses AI for mass automation of generic tasks, leading to spam. The 'Renaissance' path uses AI as a tool to empower human creativity, enabling marketers to become craftspeople who produce more remarkable work, faster.

GM's CMO warns that AI in creative often produces average results because it finds the "most likely next answer," reflecting the category norm, not a distinctive brand voice. Simple edits can also trigger a full re-render, introducing new errors and creating more work.

AI's strength in copywriting is not generating final text, which often lacks a human touch. Instead, use it as a research assistant to find unique concepts, analogies, or data (like the 'Michelangelo effect') that can serve as the core, attention-grabbing idea for your campaign.

AI tools are best used as collaborators for brainstorming or refining ideas. Relying on AI for final output without a "human in the loop" results in obviously robotic content that hurts the brand. A marketer's taste and judgment remain the most critical components.