AI in Digital Marketing: What You Can Automate (And What You Absolutely Shouldn’t)

By Anna Freeman

AI is everywhere. From content creation tools to customer service bots to machine learning-powered ad personalization, artificial intelligence is transforming digital marketing more quickly and enormously than anything since the dawn of digital technology itself. While it can be tempting to buy into the hype and let algorithms take the wheel, successful and sustainable AI application requires critical thinking about the capabilities, limits, and risks of AI in its current state. 

At KPI Target, we’re all in on the power of AI, but only when it’s applied thoughtfully, ethically, and strategically. We believe in using AI to amplify what marketers do best, not to replace the human insight and creativity that make great campaigns unforgettable. But how do we decide what to automate and what to leave to our digital marketing experts? Below we break down our thought process in determining which use cases are worthwhile, along with our approach to balancing optimization and authenticity in the AI age of digital marketing.  

What You Can and Should Automate with AI

Data Analysis & Reporting

Sifting through spreadsheets isn’t anyone’s idea of a good time, at least not in our office. AI tools excel at quickly and accurately analyzing vast amounts of data in order to surface meaningful summaries and insights. AI can generate real-time dashboards, flag anomalies in campaign performance, and even recommend A/B test winners based on statistical significance. This frees up your team to focus on what the numbers actually mean, and what to do next, rather than spending hours crunching them in the first place. 

Ad Targeting and Media Buying

AI thrives on structured data and pattern recognition, which makes it an ideal partner for programmatic advertising and audience targeting. AI can optimize bids, segment audiences by behavior, and identify the best times and platforms to run your ads. This real-time adaptability drives stronger results and higher ROI, without the need for constant oversight.

SEO Recommendations

Search engine algorithms are constantly evolving, and with the rise of AI-generated summaries in search results, SEO has become more confusing than ever. AI-powered solutions can cut through the noise by analyzing top-performing content and identifying patterns even seasoned experts might miss. From keyword strategy to content structure and readability, AI offers data-driven insights that help you adapt and rank higher without needing to master every algorithm update yourself.

Automated Customer Support (to a point)

AI chatbots and virtual assistants enable handling of common customer queries 24/7 with speed and consistency. Such tools can answer FAQs, direct users to relevant resources, or provide order updates when human agents are backed up or unavailable. They provide instant support and reduce wait times, while escalating more complex concerns to real people when needed.

Personalized Email Campaigns

AI can be used to tailor email content based on user behavior, past purchases, and demographics to deliver the right message to the right person at the right time. From dynamic subject lines to personalized product recommendations and optimized send times, AI makes it easy to boost engagement and conversions without needing huge teams to write individual messages. 

What You Shouldn’t Automate (At Least Not Yet)

Brand Voice and Core Messaging

Your brand is more than just a logo or tagline; it’s your personality, values, and the emotional thread that connects you to your audience. While AI can certainly help draft content, it doesn’t understand your brand the way your team does. Relying on AI to generate all your website or social media content with minimal human input can lead to a voice that feels generic, inconsistent, or even off-brand. Audiences are quick to spot content that feels robotic or soulless, and that disconnect can erode the trust you’ve worked hard to build.

Sensitive Customer Interactions

Some customer interactions demand more than speed; they require empathy, nuance, and emotional intelligence. Automating responses to customer complaints, crises, or emotionally charged situations might seem efficient, but it can easily backfire. These are the moments where a human touch matters most. A scripted or tone-deaf AI response can escalate tensions, damage your reputation, and make customers feel unheard. 

Creative Strategy

A resonant campaign involves understanding the why behind the message, the how of telling the story, and the where and when it should land. This kind of strategic thinking is distinctly human. While AI can support execution (generating assets, analyzing trends, or suggesting formats), it simply can’t replicate the instincts, context, or empathy that creative strategists bring to the table. Letting AI drive your entire creative strategy risks producing campaigns that may be technically sound but lack resonance and purpose. It also introduces the risk of unintentionally borrowing or repurposing someone else’s creative work, since many generative AI tools are trained on existing content scraped from the web, raising both ethical and legal concerns around originality and ownership.

Inclusive and Ethical Decision-Making

AI is only as unbiased as the data it’s trained on and, unfortunately, that data often reflects existing social inequalities. Using AI to make decisions around hiring, content moderation, or audience targeting without careful human oversight can result in discriminatory outcomes, exclusion of marginalized groups, or ethical missteps. These are high-stakes areas that require a human lens. Without it, AI can unknowingly compromise the integrity and inclusivity your brand stands for.

Content That Requires Emotional Intelligence

While AI content has proven highly effective in some cases (see above), humor, empathy, cultural sensitivity, and emotional depth are still uniquely human strengths. Asking AI to write a heartfelt letter, a campaign centered on social justice, or a deeply reflective thought-leadership piece is asking too much of a tool that doesn’t actually feel. While AI might generate something that sounds convincing, it often misses the nuance and authenticity that make emotionally resonant content truly impactful. When connection matters, real voices make the difference in such cases.

KPI’s Philosophy: Human-Centered, AI-Empowered

Here at KPI Target, we’re not AI evangelists or AI doomists – we’re AI realists. We’ve seen firsthand how powerful these tools can be when used intentionally, which is why our approach to AI is both enthusiastic and cautious. We use AI to supercharge performance, streamline execution, and unlock new creative possibilities for our clients. 

While we are committed to delivering this strategic edge, we equally prioritize safety and authenticity. That’s why we only apply AI thoughtfully and selectively and ensure it’s always enhancing, rather than replacing, the human insight, creativity, and responsibility that have powered our success for years.

The future of digital marketing isn’t AI vs. humans. It’s AI with humans. Knowing what to automate and what to leave alone is key to staying ahead without losing the soul of your brand. If you’re looking for a partner who understands both sides of that equation, you’re in the right place.