Without so much as submitting a CV, Artificial Intelligence has kicked open the door to almost every SME's marketing department, plonked itself in the middle of the office and triumphantly promised an unbridled boost to speed, quality, scale and efficiency. Oh, it's also dragged in a hefty sack of pressure with it.
Smaller teams are now expected to produce more, respond faster and compete with brands that appear far better resourced. Pitched as the fix, AI offers powerful advantages, but only if it is used correctly.
That matters because around 60 percent of marketers now use AI tools daily, up from 37 percent just a year ago.
AI doesn’t understand what you mean. It understands what you tell it.
AI only works on instructions, not intent. Which means how you use it really matters. Without clear direction, AI will happily churn out endless content. It just won’t sound like you. It will be generic, repetitive, disconnected from your organisation and very easy to spot. You’ve all seen what I mean… Polished. Confident. Soulless. Irritatingly enthusiastic. Saying a lot without really saying much of anything at all.
At its best, AI will be a collaboration between marketing teams and technology, guided by strategy, brand values and tone of voice. Without that collaboration, brands quickly drift into sameness, blurring into one another as originality quietly disappears.
Strategy still needs humans at the helm
At dodio, we have always believed strongly in strategy first, and the rise of AI has only bolstered that belief. Taking the time to develop a practical foundation for everything that follows is absolutely essential to any successful marketing and communications plan.
When organisations invest in their strategy first, AI can become a genuine asset. When they don’t, it has a unique talent to make the wrong thing happen faster.
So can AI create a strategy? No.
It can help shape it, prompt some good ideas, challenge some assumptions. But it cannot own it. That responsibility remains human. If your positioning is unclear, AI will scale confusion. If your messaging is inconsistent, AI will multiply inconsistency.
AI has a unique ability to make the wrong thing happen faster. When it accelerates a weak strategy, the cost is not just wasted effort. It’s brand dilution, confused audiences and exhausted teams trying to course correct at speed.
Strategy first, always
At dodio, we’re working alongside organisations that are very keen to tap into AI to make life easier and the most effective uses of it we see are rarely flashy. Things like summarising large volumes of customer feedback into clear themes and trends. Saving time by drafting initial versions of internal and external communications. Supporting content planning by identifying patterns in engagement.
Used this way, AI creates space. Space for clearer thinking, better judgement and stronger strategic decisions. It supports people rather than replacing them. And when it is grounded in a solid strategy, brand values and actual human insight, it becomes a genuine tool for marketing and communications rather than another source of distraction.
That is the difference. AI does not lead. Strategy does. And behind every effective use of AI, there are people providing context, judgement and intent. That human layer is not optional, it is what stops AI from accelerating the average.
dodio.co.uk