How to combine human insight and AI power for smarter marketing

AI can speed things up, but it’s human thinking that keeps your brand on course. Here’s how we balance both to create content that works harder for you.

To be clear right from the start: we use AI every day. In fact, it helped write this article.

But that’s the main point — AI helped to write this article. It didn’t write the whole thing; it was a collaboration between our expertise and AI’s efficiency.

It’s been a game-changer for us, but it came with a steep learning curve.

When we first started experimenting with AI, we were as giddy as anyone. “Write a global B2B marketing strategy”. “Draft a week’s worth of LinkedIn posts”. “Summarise our services in ten seconds flat.”

The results seemed super impressive. They were fluent, polished, and fast.

But the more we read, the more it all felt a bit wrong. The writing was too smooth and too generic. It sounded right, but there was no connection or deeper thought.

So we did what good marketers do: paused, analysed, and rethought our approach.

Gold in, gold out

AI, we realised, is only as good as what you feed it. Garbage in, garbage out.

For example, you can’t ask it to “sound like your brand” if you haven’t defined that brand voice first.

We started thinking about AI as an extremely bright but inexperienced intern. It’s fast, eager, and energetic – but it needs direction and feedback.

That means if you want AI to produce something great, you have to know what “great” looks like. You need to give it sharp briefs, nuanced context, and constructive edits, sometimes over and over again.

The idea isn’t to let AI do everything for us; it’s to teach it how to work with us to produce something better.

Our approach: human first, AI second

At Jen & Mark, we use AI as an efficiency tool. And like any tool, it’s only as good as the skills you bring to it. The magic isn’t in pressing a button – it’s in knowing what to ask, how to refine, and when to step in.

That process is known as AI prompt engineering – crafting precise, strategic prompts that guide the AI toward brand-aligned outcomes. It’s part art and part science, but entirely dependent on the human behind the screen.

Here’s how we use AI, alongside decades of marketing experience:

1. Strategy and brief come first.
Every project starts with a human brief. Before we begin, we still need clear, measurable objectives, audience insights, and brand and tone guidance – the things that require human understanding and can’t be machine-generated.

2. AI assists with structure and speed.
We use AI for outlines, early drafts, brainstorming, or research. It also helps us organise information. For example, mapping out a social media calendar across multiple platforms, days, and times. It handles the admin efficiently, giving us more time for insight and creativity.

3. Human oversight does the heavy lifting.
Every piece of content we deliver is edited, refined, and rewritten by us. We bring the nuance, voice, and creative intuition that come from years of experience – the stuff AI simply can’t replicate.

4. We train AI to match brand.
Over time, we “teach” our tools preferred tone, phrasing, and rhythm. This involves a source of truth, such as a messaging framework built with client collaboration, which is how we make sure every message is on-brand and has resonance with the target audience.

5. We apply internal guardrails.
Everything goes through human review. We cross-check facts and stats, question assumptions, and compare against existing content. Nothing goes anywhere until we’re satisfied.

How you can use AI

AI doesn’t have to be overwhelming or expensive. Used wisely, it can make marketing easier, more consistent – and even more fun. Honestly.

But before you start, it’s worth remembering: AI won’t replace skill. It just amplifies it. To get real value, you need clear goals, good prompts, and the time to test, tweak, and train.

Here are a few simple ways to start experimenting:

1. Generate ideas.
Use AI tools like ChatGPT to brainstorm blog topics, social captions, or campaign angles. It might not get it right the first time, but it can help you move past that horrible blank page.

2. Repurpose content.
If you’ve written a blog or newsletter, ask AI to draft a few short LinkedIn or Instagram post ideas. The results will need polishing, but they can help you spot angles or phrasing you hadn’t considered.

3. Improve clarity and tone.
Paste your draft into an AI editor, like Claude, to tighten your writing. It won’t replace your ideas or tone (unless you tell it to), but it can help clarify your message.

4. Analyse what’s working.
Using AI for analysis is a game-changer. Feed it your recent posts or emails and ask what patterns it sees. For example, which headlines get the most clicks or which themes are most popular. It’s up to you how to interpret the insights, but it saves hours of manual data sifting.

5. Streamline admin tasks.
Scheduling, summarising meeting notes, or crafting a tricky email – all these everyday tasks can be sped up with AI, freeing you to focus on strategy and creativity.

6. Know when to call in experts.
If it all seems too overwhelming or time-consuming, the next step is to work with a team (like us) that understands AI prompt engineering for marketing – structuring questions, refining outputs, and teaching the system to sound like your brand. That’s where experience pays off. And, of course, knowing when not to use it.

Why it matters

AI is everywhere, and according to Industry.gov.au, around 40% of Australian SMEs are already using it in some form, and many are finding it incredibly useful.

That number will keep growing as more businesses experiment. But the real differentiator won’t be who uses AI; it’ll be how.

AI doesn’t make anyone a marketing expert overnight. Success still comes down to the expertise behind the tool; knowing how to brief it, guide it, and refine its output to make it sharper, more strategic, but not less human.

Brands that lose their voice to automation will sound like everyone else.
Brands that combine AI tech with senior expertise will stand out.

In short

AI helps humans work more efficiently. But only human skill and insight make marketing effective, helping elevate your messages from the AI slop already out there.

PS. Confused about using AI in your marketing? We’ll take it off your plate. Contact us for a chat.