AI in Marketing: Beyond Efficiency to Strategic Thinking

In today’s marketing landscape, a peculiar tension has emerged around artificial intelligence. As Robert Rose observes in his thought-provoking “Rose-Colored Glasses” video for Content Marketing Institute, marketers find themselves caught between two competing narratives about AI’s role in creative work.

“It feels like we’re standing in a strange crosswind right now when it comes to generative AI and creative marketing,” Rose states. “On one side, a loud, urgent chorus. If you’re not using AI to create everything – blogs, decks, ads, videos, well, you’re already behind.”

This urgency creates anxiety among creative professionals, while simultaneously, Rose notes a “quiet resistance” from those who limit AI use or avoid it entirely. Meanwhile, leadership teams issue “bans and risk memos” while employees experiment with personal accounts.

What unites both perspectives, according to Rose, is a misplaced focus on “creative throughput, output, speed, volume.” This efficiency-first mindset misses what might be AI’s most valuable contribution to marketing.

“What if generative AI is the first innovation in a long time that actually gives us all, collectively, permission to slow down,” Rose suggests. “To ask better questions, to think more clearly, to explore deeper, not faster.”

This perspective challenges the common metaphor of AI as a tireless intern handling mundane tasks. While that framing sounds reassuring, it carries an implicit threat: “If the intern gets good enough fast enough, what happens to the rest of the team?”

Rose proposes an alternative view rooted in epistemology—the philosophy of knowledge. Rather than focusing on AI’s ability to generate content quickly, he suggests its value lies in provoking deeper thinking and questioning. AI excels at pattern recognition but lacks human discernment and judgment.

“AI has data, it has patterns, but it doesn’t have discernment,” Rose explains. “It can generate. But it can’t judge.”

This limitation defines where human expertise becomes essential. The real opportunity, Rose argues, isn’t faster output but using AI to spark “the unexpected perspective” or “the question we hadn’t thought to ask.”

Interestingly, data supports this reframing. Despite promises of dramatic productivity gains, Rose references a study showing AI saved companies “on average, a whopping 2.8% of work time, about an hour a week.” In some cases, workloads increased as teams invested time in “refining, validating, and reasoning through what AI produced.”

What might seem like disappointing efficiency gains actually reveals AI’s true value: creating “valuable friction” that encourages deeper thinking.

“It’s not about handing over the creative output process,” Rose says. “It’s about provoking it, expanding it, making room for us to have deeper thought.”

This shift from “doing more to thinking better” suggests AI won’t replace marketing teams but might actually require more diverse thinkers with stronger judgment skills.

In this view, AI isn’t merely an assistant but a catalyst for human creativity—”a fog light” or “tilted mirror” that challenges marketers to think differently.

“At its best,” Rose concludes, “AI doesn’t automate creativity. It provokes us to it.”