AI is proof that marketing is broken.
Artificial intelligence is supposed to revolutionize society. At least that’s what the big tech companies, the vendor decks, keynote stages, and glossy articles would have you believe.
But if AI’s actual marketing is any indication of its readiness, we’re in a dumpster fire, not a renaissance.
AI has completely different marketing messages depending on the audience and none of them line up.
To marketers: AI is the digital assistant that will save you time, streamline your work, and make you look good to your executives.
To executives: AI will scale your business, cut costs, replace humans, and deliver world domination dashboards.
To the general public: AI is going to steal your job, destroy society, and possibly replace humanity.
Pick one, people. You can’t simultaneously be the hero and the villain in your own story.
This level of incoherence is hilarious…and terrifying.
The messaging around AI has exposed THE MAJOR ISSUE that I have with modern marketing. It’s really dismissive of the audience.
Classic marketing told a story that reflected the wants, needs and desires of the audience while empathizing with the problem. The messaging was crafted in a way to reflect that back to audience, so they felt like you understood the problem and they could see themselves in the solution.
The marketing around AI doesn’t do that. How do I know? Because people don’t actually want AI-generated content.
Researchers and cultural commentators have documented a widespread rejection of AI content by consumers and audiences alike. They’re not just indifferent, they are rejecting it outright and they’re pushing back.
One commentary sums it up bluntly: “It’s official: the world doesn’t want AI-generated content.” Meaning humans still win when it comes to creating content that moves people, not just “produces words.” Inc.com
Other analysts have talked about this in terms of an “authenticity premium”. Meaning humans reward originality and authentic voice, and they discount anything that feels automated or artificial. Kate O’Neill | KO Insights
If AI content feels hollow, it’s not your imagination. It is hollow.
Modern marketing is so arrogant. We just assume we know what people want. We “optimize” for transactions, not relationships, and the messaging is surface level with no emotional depth.
There is a loud drum beat of distrust surrounding AI coming from the public, but no one is listening. There is nothing coming from big tech to address these concerns. You’re gonna get it whether you like it or not because they have money to make and shareholders to feed.
According to a Pew Research Center survey of over 5,000 U.S. adults, the public’s perception of AI is far more anxious than optimistic. More than half of respondents believe AI will make people worse at creative thinking and forming meaningful relationships, not better. Pew Research Center
Marketing got so bad because none of it is about people anymore. It’s about getting attention so you can get to the bag, and brag about your stats to your competitors.
When marketing is not about people, it all becomes so cheap and soulless.
Marketers should be the best at storytelling in this conversation. If anyone should know how to frame a product to humans, it’s us.
Instead, the narrative around AI feels like it was written by a committee of hype-peddlers and apocalyptic sci-fi writers.
We are promising convenience and doom at the same time. That’s like saying your product will make dinner great AND eat your dog.
The message is that AI will replace jobs, disrupt society, hurt creativity and destroy human relationships, while also helping you to write emails faster. What a joke.
The public feels this disconnect. Their skepticism is not irrational paranoia, it’s a rational response to contradictory messaging.
But modern marketing is data driven! Oh really? The data is just as soulless as the marketing. Sterile, static, and mostly stolen for profit. For all the data we’ve stolen or tricked people into giving us, we still produce crappy marketing with it. And when we do stumble upon “good” data, we ignore it if it doesn’t align with the company strategy or direction.
AI adoption statistics show that while plenty of people play with AI tools occasionally, but most are not using AI consistently for substantive work tasks like idea generation or long-form thinking. AP News
In other words, the tech is widely available, but not widely internalized or trusted.
When half the population thinks AI will erode creativity and meaningful relationships more than enhance them, and three-quarters want more control over how AI is used in their lives… you know something is off. Pew Research Center
AI is being marketed exactly the way modern marketing operates. And people are responding exactly the way they always do when they feel manipulated, ignored, or talked down to.
They disengage.
The marketing around AI is showing us what happens when you remove humanity from communication and it’s revealing how far we’ve drifted from service, story, and sincerity.
The backlash isn’t about technology. It’s about trust. And trust can’t be automated.
AI isn’t the problem, it’s the mirror. And what it’s reflecting back should make every marketer deeply uncomfortable.
Because until we fix that, no amount of intelligence, artificial or otherwise, will save us.
Follow Moni Oloyede at https://www.linkedin.com/in/moni-oloyede/
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Wow - a little mask-off moment for all of us! It was about trust all along. Solid piece, Moni!! A delight to read.
Yes, unlike past shiny objects in business and marketing, the public has strong feelings of its own about AI.
So marketers can't get away with what they did before.