Is AI risking your entire marketing strategy? The answer depends on how exactly you’re using it. AI-generated content – and particularly visuals and videos – is now within reach at a speed and scale unimaginable a few years ago, and AI tools seem to promise almost limitless creativity and faster workflows, all at lower costs. No one is going to complain about that. And the market certainly seems to agree, with HubSpot reporting global revenue for AI in marketing projected to reach over $107bn by 2028.
Is AI just a shortcut to faster output? No, it’s there to help unlock creative directions that human teams might not have considered. It’s there to spark fresh design ideas and push brand storytelling into new, perhaps unexpected spaces.
But although AI is growing quickly, trust is not. While Ahrefs recently reported that three-quarters of all webpages contain some AI-created content, a study conducted by Talker Research this year found that 59% of people trusted online content less than they used to. That’s a significant drop-off. Meanwhile, 78% of those surveyed said it was becoming harder to tell human- from AI-written content. Such uncertainty can lead to mistrust, which does nothing for brand loyalty or your marketing ROI.
There are incredible creative gains to be had, but these must be carefully balanced against brand risks. When you use AI-generated content, you’re opening yourself up to questions about authenticity and bias, so navigating this issue is becoming a core skill for forward-thinking marketing teams.
This article does not offer legal advice but, rather, a practical framework for how marketers can embrace AI-generated content while safeguarding their brand reputation. Let’s get started.
The positive: What AI can do for content marketing
AI-generated visuals and video can add value at multiple points in the marketing process, from concept development to social media content creation. AI’s ability to rapidly generate high-quality text, imagery and video content allows brands to accelerate creative development. At the same time, it offers the chance to boost personalisation while reducing production costs. Whereas before you might be waiting weeks for a concept to progress from mood board to draft, today’s AI tools can produce multiple visual options in minutes. These can then be adapted to different markets and audience segments.
AI-generated elements can also reduce the need for expensive location shoots and post-production processes. This means significant savings on both time and budget. The sheer breadth of creativity available was unimaginable just a few years ago. Today, creative experimentation that was once prohibitively costly can result in better product demos and immersive videos that are increasingly accessible to teams of any size.
The negative: The risks that AI-generated content poses to brands
One of the most serious risks of AI-generated content concerns the question of authenticity. It’s all too easy for AI tools to generate visuals that are subtly misleading, obviously incorrect, and all points in between. In marketing, even small inaccuracies can destroy the credibility you have worked so hard to build up. One useful way to think about risk is to categorise AI-generated content. Let’s break it into three categories: decorative, functional and emotional. Decorative means low risk; functional needs more scrutiny; while emotional carries the highest risk.
There are also concerns around intellectual property. Many AI systems are trained on vast datasets of existing works, and the boundaries remain legally and ethically grey. Without due diligence, brands could risk publishing content that infringes someone else’s rights. Not a good look. There is also bias ingrained within these datasets because AI models reflect the data they are trained on, and humans are inherently biased. So, the content AI creates can unintentionally perpetuate stereotypes or produce imagery that conflicts with brand values.
Finally, there’s the problem of that feeling of ‘sameness’, with some styles becoming so familiar that it’s becoming harder for brands to differentiate themselves. If something is clearly AI-generated but is presented as human-created, it not only looks bad but can damage brand trust.
Ethical and creative guidelines for content marketers
A strong set of brand guidelines for AI-generated visuals and video is the best way to keep your team on track. First, establish the creative idea before you start generating anything. Is the goal to inspire or inform? Are you trying to persuade? Figuring this out ahead of time will ensure that whatever output you get from the AI will serve the campaign and not distract from it.
But just as you would with human-made visuals, you need to vet AI-generated content for brand alignment. Does it match your house style and tone? Make sure it goes through the same internal approval workflow as any other piece of content. Check for accuracy, inclusivity, and any potential conflicts.
Finally, decide whether you need to make it clear that AI was used. While this kind of disclosure may not always be necessary, there are situations where it will be, and noting that AI was used can actually strengthen credibility. So, use AI, but also remember that human input is vital to ensure cultural sensitivity and emotional resonance.
AI visuals in marketing – trends to watch
The sheer pace of AI innovation means marketers need to keep a close eye on the latest trends. Generative video is enabling brands to create commercials, explainer videos, and much more without traditional filming. Real-time content adaptation is also on the horizon, with AI tailoring visuals and video to individual viewers’ locations, preferences, or even behaviours. This is taking content to an incredible level of personalisation. Another emerging use case is AI-powered sensory marketing. This is where visuals and audio are combined to simulate textures, tastes or atmospheres. It’s still experimental, but the idea is that food brands could use AI-generated videos to ‘suggest’ flavour experiences through colour palettes and soundscapes.
Better IP protection tools will also likely emerge, with some AI platforms already incorporating plagiarism detection and clearer commercial usage rights. Meanwhile, highly realistic AI-generated videos such as deepfakes raise new ethical and reputational risks.
AI visuals and your content marketing strategy
Instead of treating AI-generated visuals and video as a novelty, successful brands are making them a core part of their creative strategy. This means investing in training to help teams understand the full potential and limitations of AI tools, carefully choosing platforms based on licensing terms and bias safeguards, and documenting workflows to ensure compliance and quality. Ultimately, we should challenge the assumption that AI always saves time – the reality is that efficiency depends a great deal on the strength of the quality-assurance process. In other words, if every AI output requires a lot of checking for accuracy and tone then those savings start to disappear.
A new content marketing landscape
AI-generated visuals and video are reshaping the creative side of marketing. They are changing what we previously thought was possible in terms of speed and scale. But as we have seen, they also demand careful oversight to manage ethical and legal risk and ensure they align with your brand. If you blindly hand the keys to AI, you are putting your content marketing output at risk.
Leading marketers who embrace AI thoughtfully will be able to tell richer stories and create more relevant campaigns. By carefully curating AI-generated visuals, they'll differentiate themselves in a competitive marketplace.
The most successful brands will be those that see AI not as a complete solution to creativity, but as a powerful tool in the hands of well-trained creatives.
