AI is a good servant in digital marketing, but a bad host
Artificial intelligence (AI) has risen digital marketing to the heart of the matter, and not without reason. It brings speed, creativity and efficiency, but it doesn't solve everything by itself. The key for the marketing buyer is to understand at which stages AI can genuinely add value and where expert insight is still needed.
In this article, we look at the role of AI in the different stages of digital marketing.
In marketing planning, AI generates, expert selects
AI can be used to quickly create campaign plans, competitor analyses and target audience sketches. They can be a good starting point, but rarely useful as such.
AI may not know your company's budget, internal resources, the specifics of your customers and products, or seasonal fluctuations. It cannot predict effectiveness or results. That's why it's up to the marketing expert to cut through the clutter, challenge the AI's suggestions and build a plan that works for your business, in the Finnish environment, in the context of your industry.
AI can help you get off to a faster start, but the direction and priorities are still set by humans.
For content production, AI creates raw versions and inspiration
AI can be used to produce draft texts, visual implementation suggestions and even preliminary versions of advertisements. These can save significant time in the ideation phase and, at best, can be turned into valid content after a quick edit.
The challenge, however, is the context. Proposals can be based on examples, big business or culturally alien tones. Therefore, the final work still requires craftsmanship: brand tone, cultural knowledge and understanding of the target audience.
AI can be a powerful sparring tool, but very rarely is it the voice of the brand.
In the media, AI is under the hood, but the driver is missing
Media channels, such as Google, Metan or LinkedIn, built-in AI solutions are advanced - but far from omnipotent. They require the right kind of guidance to ensure that the algorithms produce the desired results.
The professional will ensure that campaigns have realistic budgets, targets and the right metrics. They ensure that enough data is collected to allow AI to optimise effectively. As this is written in early autumn 2025, the professional will still be interpreting the results and refining them for further development.
For now, AI needs a good brief - and an even better interpreter of the results, as well as an advertising developer.
So far, AI is a powerful assistant
AI is a great tool for marketing, but it doesn't make decisions for you. It doesn't know your customers, your industry, your market or your culture. It also doesn't take responsibility for results and still needs an expert.
As a marketing buyer, you should ask: does your partner have the vision to use AI correctly? And most importantly: does your partner have a genuine understanding and interest in growing your business?
At Digiteam, we believe that the right choices lead to the right results and the right growth. AI is part of this, but its place is still as a rider, not a master.
Antti Kärki
Good digital marketing since 2003, but the humour gets worse every year. All in one package! Antti takes a broad view of marketing through the eyes of the client, the agency and the web analyst, but he is also keen to tackle individual issues. Antti's texts occasionally seek a little wake-up call, as the digital marketing industry has a lot of room for improvement.
