The 5 Prime AI Challenges in Advertising (and The best way to Clear up Them)
AI was alleged to make life simpler.
Your crew’s churning out extra content material than ever—however half of it reads like polished-up rubbish. It’s truly taking longer to handle, edit, and approve. You’ve obtained instruments for every part, however workflows are breaking. Everybody’s experimenting, however nobody’s aligned. And someplace alongside the best way, “effectivity” began turning into additional work.
Sound acquainted?
You’re not alone. As AI shifts from shiny new toy to on a regular basis software, entrepreneurs are coming throughout a brand new wave of issues. The challenges of AI in advertising aren’t simply technical—they’re organizational, strategic, and (at instances) downright irritating.
On this put up, we’re breaking down 5 of the commonest AI challenges in advertising—plus what to truly do about them.
1. You’re utilizing AI, however your content material nonetheless feels like everybody else’s.
AI has made it simpler to create extra content material, quicker—however that pace typically comes at the price of originality. Many manufacturers are unknowingly publishing bland, robotic materials that blends into prospects more and more crowded feeds as an alternative of standing out. In case your content material isn’t reflecting your model voice, it’s not AI’s fault—it’s yours.
The best way to repair it:
Codify your model voice (and train it to the AI)
Doc your model tone, values, vocabulary, and persona traits. If it isn’t clearly outlined, then AI isn’t going to face an opportunity making an attempt to duplicate it. Create a easy model voice information with examples of on-brand content material, and feed it immediately into your prompts (or use it to fine-tune customized GPTs).
Cease settling for first drafts
AI is fast-but it isn’t one-prompt-and-done. Whether or not you’re drafting a marketing campaign temporary, summarizing analysis, or utilizing an AI article generator for content material creation, deal with the output as a place to begin, not a completed product. Layer in nuance, specifics, and persona. Ask your self: “Would solely our model say it this fashion?” If not, preserve enhancing.
Ditch normal prompts
Prompts like “write a weblog put up about search engine marketing traits” are assured to sound like everybody else (and get flagged as poor high quality content material by the SERPs). As a substitute, present AI with specifics in your viewers, tone, stance, most popular construction, and previous content material examples.
2. You’ve added 5 new AI instruments (and damaged three workflows)
AI instruments promise effectivity—however too many entrepreneurs are piling them on with no plan. The end result? A cluttered tech stack, damaged processes, and groups spending extra time switching between instruments than truly driving outcomes. What was alleged to streamline your work is now slowing it down.
The best way to repair it:
Audit your stack
Checklist out each AI software in use throughout groups. What does the software do? Who’s utilizing it? What downside is it fixing? You would possibly uncover you’re paying for instruments with overlapping capabilities, or worse, instruments that nobody’s utilizing successfully. Get rid of overlap and don’t be afraid to chop an underperforming software.
Automate strategically
Establish high-effort, low-value duties first. Don’t simply add AI onto what you already do. Sketch out your splendid workflows (ex. weblog manufacturing, marketing campaign planning), then determine the precise steps the place AI can save time or add worth.
Designate software homeowners and doc use circumstances
Each AI software in your stack ought to have an inside champion. That individual owns coaching, onboarding, and documenting greatest practices. Centralize this in a shared AI playbook so your crew doesn’t waste time reinventing the wheel.
3. You’re automating the incorrect issues.
Entrepreneurs love effectivity. However, should you’re automating content material ideation whereas nonetheless manually pulling reporting each week, one thing’s off.
Don’t rush into automating no matter appears best. Lots of the largest issues with AI in advertising come from making an attempt to automate with out clear priorities—give attention to what truly drains time or slows down outcomes. Take a step again to map the place AI can truly take advantage of influence to your group or crew.
The best way to repair it:
Monitor your crew’s time
For one week, have crew members log the highest 3 duties they spend time on every day. Sure, you’ll most likely get pushback for asking everybody to do that, nevertheless it’s crucial to have the ability to spot patterns.
Rank duties by influence v. effort
Create a easy grid evaluating the influence and energy of duties. Low effort/excessive influence duties (like repurposing weblog content material into social posts) are your fast wins. Keep away from automating complicated, high-effort processes till you’ve constructed a basis.
Create reusable immediate templates
In case your crew is manually writing new prompts each time, that’s one other inefficiency. Construct a immediate library for repeated duties (ex. social caption technology, title variations, put up outlines) and retailer them in a central doc or software.
4. AI isn’t serving to you develop.
Prompting is nice, however does it enable you to discover new market alternatives? Whenever you solely use AI to rephrase what you already know, you miss its potential to floor what you don’t. AI development comes from uncovering new buyer wants, whitespace alternatives, and higher strategic bets (not from simply rushing up your weblog calendar).
The best way to repair it:
Shift your AI prompts from “create” to “examine”
As a substitute of “write a put up about X,” ask “what unmet wants do prospects in [niche] have?” or “how are opponents positioning round [trend]?” Use AI as a analysis analyst, not only a author.
Feed AI actual information.
Enter CRM insights, top-performing content material, buyer opinions, or previous marketing campaign metrics. Then ask AI: “What patterns stand out?” or “What’s under-leveraged in our present technique?” That’s the place actual alternative begins to emerge.
Contain AI early within the funnel
Most groups use AI once they’re already locked right into a plan. As a substitute, deliver it in throughout brainstorming, viewers mapping, or marketing campaign planning to widen your considering earlier than narrowing your execution.
5. Everybody’s experimenting and no person’s aligned
It’s not nearly utilizing completely different instruments—it’s that each crew has a distinct imaginative and prescient of what AI is for. Content material sees it as a pace hack. search engine marketing desires higher scale. Product desires to automate assist. And management simply desires to say “we’re utilizing AI” in board conferences.
And not using a shared north star, AI efforts drift. One crew’s success story doesn’t ladder up. One other crew’s failures get repeated. Everybody’s transferring—however not collectively. This isn’t a tooling concern. It’s a strategic alignment concern.
The best way to repair it:
Outline your AI mission
Get management and crew leads collectively and agree on the function AI ought to play in your advertising org. Is it about pace? Personalization? Price effectivity? Innovation? You don’t want one reply—however you do want readability.
Make “why” a part of each AI rollout
Each new experiment or software must be launched with a one-sentence goal: “We’re utilizing this to [XYZ].” That readability helps groups prioritize, observe worth, and consider success on the identical phrases.
Align on shared use circumstances
As a substitute of every crew selecting their very own journey, align round 2–3 cross-functional priorities the place AI could make the most important distinction—like marketing campaign manufacturing pace, multilingual search engine marketing, or first-draft automation.
Need to take it additional?
When you’ve began tackling these issues, really feel caught on what to strive subsequent, or need assistance transferring ahead, be a part of Highlight on October 29 in Amsterdam.
Mastermind periods are the place entrepreneurs dive into actionable techniques whereas networking with specialists. These small, expert-led roundtables are designed that will help you deal with actual challenges, get tailor-made recommendation, and stroll away with subsequent steps you possibly can put into observe instantly.
Listed here are some really useful periods to beat the hardest issues with AI in advertising:
Drawback: You’re utilizing AI, however your content material nonetheless feels like everybody else’s
→ Answer: Stefan Maritz (CXL) – Let’s Construct a Customized GPT for Your Model Voice
Drawback: You’ve added 5 new AI instruments (and damaged three workflows)
→ Answer: Luis Guzmán (n8n) – 5 Ranges of AI Adoption to Achieve Advertising
Drawback: You’re automating the incorrect issues
→ Answer: Jeremy McDonald (Kaizen) – Pioneering Advertising By AI: Automation Methods to Maximise Output
Drawback: AI isn’t serving to you develop
→ Answer: Kevin Indig – The best way to Establish Market Development Alternatives With AI
Drawback: Everybody’s experimenting and no person’s aligned
→ Answer: Liz Lohn (Monetary Occasions) – Constructing AI-Powered Merchandise: Methods to Flip Innovation Right into a Development Driver
Tip: And should you work in search engine marketing, Semrush’s first-ever bootcamp on October 28 will enable you to design smarter, quicker workflows and automate large-scale search engine marketing duties utilizing Semrush’s newest AI instruments. You possibly can change into a Semrush knowledgeable and take your search engine marketing technique to the following degree.
AI isn’t going wherever—however the best way we use it has to evolve.
Most advertising groups aren’t quick on instruments. They’re quick on technique, alignment, and readability about the place AI can really make a distinction. Whether or not your content material feels off-brand, your workflows are getting messier, or your automation efforts are misfiring, it’s not too late to course-correct.
Begin by fixing the foundations: outline your voice, streamline your stack, select what to automate (and what to not), and align your groups round a shared AI mission.
