Just a few years ago, content creation was an exclusively human domain.
Writers, designers, and creatives would bring their skills to the table to craft pieces that resonated with audiences. Today, we’re witnessing a revolution that’s reshaping the entire landscape: the rise of generative artificial intelligence.
When algorithms and creativity join forces
Content creation has always been that strange alchemy where analysis and creativity intertwine. This (now threatened?) combination used to be the natural playground for professionals fluent in both dimensions—those who could interpret data and turn it into stories, visuals, or experiences that struck a chord with audiences.
What’s fascinating about generative AI is precisely its ability to operate at this intersection. Tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Midjourney have shown they can analyze massive amounts of data and produce content that feels strikingly human. These aren’t just data processors—they’re narrative engines. And that’s where the real disruption begins.
Where are we, really?
It’s easy to get swept up in the tech euphoria, with LinkedIn flooded by posts celebrating the wonders of generative AI (often by people who aren’t exactly the heavy users being most affected). But let’s pause and give an honest diagnosis. Generative AI is in a promising adolescence: it shows remarkable abilities in some contexts, yet clear limitations in others.
Where AI excels:
- Informative content generation at scale:
A giant like Amazon uses AI to automatically generate hundreds of product descriptions for its catalog. When a batch of 5,000 new products arrives, instead of having copywriters spend weeks writing each description, AI can produce them all in a matter of hours—and here’s the kicker—it does so with consistent style and tone. - Message adaptation across formats:
A bank runs a campaign on financial literacy. Instead of creating new content from scratch for each platform, it uses AI to repurpose one long-form article into various formats: an 8-tweet thread for X, 3 professional-style LinkedIn posts, 5 visual stories for Instagram, and a script for a YouTube explainer video—all carrying the same key messages but tailored to each format and audience. - Content variation around a central theme:
A travel agency wants to promote a destination like Barcelona. Using AI, they generate 15 different takes on the same base article: “Barcelona for food lovers,” “Barcelona in 48 hours,” “Barcelona with kids,” “Barcelona for architecture buffs,” and so on. Each version retains core information but targets specific traveler profiles and interests. - Trend analysis and preliminary insight generation:
A fashion brand uses AI to sift through thousands of social media comments and product reviews. The tool doesn’t just detect emerging trends (like “growing concerns about sustainability”), it also surfaces actionable insights: “Women aged 25–34 particularly value transparency about material sourcing” or “There’s an opportunity to highlight durability in messaging for the male segment.” These early insights are then refined by the marketing team for strategy development.
Quality, volume, and consistency… and it’s this very consistency (the ability to maintain coherence, stability, and uniformity over time) that, when taken to the extreme, can contribute to a certain sense of “dehumanization.” And yet—opportunities always emerge…
Where humans still hold the edge:
- Genuine empathy with the audience
- Subtle cultural nuance and contextual awareness
- Creation of truly novel concepts
- Contextual ethical judgment about content
Cases like the Washington Post’s Heliograf tool illustrate this well. The AI efficiently generates data-driven reports on sports and finance, freeing human journalists to focus on investigative pieces that require critical thinking, perspective, and moral judgment.
The Marketing Funnel: Where Do Algorithms Shine?
When analyzing the content marketing funnel, generative AI shows uneven performance across its stages:
Top of the Funnel (TOFU):
This is where AI shines the brightest. The mass production of informative content, thematic blog posts, and basic educational material is fertile ground for smart automation. Tools like Jasper have allowed companies like Shopify to multiply their SEO content output without sacrificing quality. It also could have written this very post while I took a nap.
Middle of the Funnel (MOFU):
A critical and often overlooked transition zone, where human-machine collaboration delivers the best results. AI proposes structures and drafts, which humans then refine by adding the emotional and strategic layer needed to drive conversion. This is the approach adopted by HubSpot, blending AI-generated base content with human editing for their ebooks and webinars.
Bottom of the Funnel (BOFU):
The most sensitive part of the funnel remains predominantly human—or at least, for now. There’s understandable resistance here, given how close this stage is to actual sales conversion. High-converting content, personalized testimonials, and direct sales arguments still require a level of sensitivity that machines haven’t yet mastered.
When Pixels Speak Louder Than Words
Visual content offers a clear glimpse of the ongoing evolution. Let’s compare two cases:
Airbnb’s marketing team uses Midjourney to generate preliminary visual concepts for their campaigns. These images serve as a starting point, which human designers then refine—adding the distinct brand touches. The result: a fivefold increase in visual production, with just a light adjustment to the creative process.
In contrast, Nike continues to rely entirely on human creative teams for their flagship campaigns, where emotional connection and authenticity are paramount. Their early 2024 “Move Like You” campaign exemplified that narrative depth born of lived experience, celebrating diverse movement and personal expression through the real stories of athletes from varied backgrounds. This kind of emotional and cultural authenticity remains a space where AI can’t yet replicate genuine human sensitivity.
The Power of Sequences: Orchestrating the Journey
One of the most promising frontiers for generative AI lies in the orchestration of coordinated content sequences throughout the consumer journey. The algorithmic ability to maintain narrative coherence while adapting messages to different contexts is extraordinary.
Spotify has experimented with AI systems that generate personalized email sequences based on listening patterns, creating a user journey that evolves naturally. The system suggests the sequential structure and base content, while human copywriters bring in the brand’s unique voice and tone.
“The real opportunity isn’t replacing the human element—it’s using AI to scale personalization exponentially. The most forward-thinking brands are no longer focused on isolated content pieces, but on adaptive content ecosystems that AI can orchestrate—always under human strategic oversight.”
The New Balance: Augmented Collaboration?
We’re often told that the near future isn’t about replacement, but about a new model of augmented collaboration—that the best results come when technology amplifies our creative abilities rather than replacing them. But is that truly the case, or just a bit of wishful thinking from the naively optimistic?
Either way, the key will be to redefine our role: shifting from content producers to architects of content experiences. As machines take over the burden of scalable generation, we humans should focus on strategy, emotion, and conceptual innovation. As always, we’ll need to manage the collateral damage that every transition inevitably brings.
“This evolution shouldn’t feel like a threat, but a liberation.” Of course, that’s the narrative we’ll be encouraged to believe—because shaping perception smooths the path to acceptance of what’s already inevitable. Yes, there is (and already has been) a liberation from repetitive tasks, allowing us to focus on what truly adds distinctive value: authentic human connection.
It shouldn’t be “technology versus humanity,” but the moment one starts replacing the other, that idea of confrontation becomes hard to avoid.
