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How to use AI in digital marketing: 5 practical ways

Author: Matteo Pellegrini

Artificial intelligence (AI) has changed how marketing teams work on customer engagement and sales. A recent survey shows that more than 50% of marketing leaders rely on AI to increase productivity, which makes using AI in digital marketing a practical requirement for keeping up in your sector.

In this article we cover:

  • The benefits of artificial intelligence
  • How to use AI for digital marketing
  • Key considerations before relying on AI.

Understanding AI-driven digital marketing

Digital marketers use artificial intelligence for data collection, machine learning and natural language processing, to get better insights and automate tasks. AI is here to stay: the market is forecast to exceed 3 trillion US dollars in value by 2034. But rather than replacing human effort, AI adds to it.

By analysing data and personalising customer experiences, AI gets more out of your marketing effort and helps you make better decisions about which content to show your audience.

The main benefits of AI-driven digital marketing

Investing in AI for digital marketing is a sensible move. These are the benefits of an AI-assisted approach to marketing:

  • Greater efficiency: AI automates repetitive tasks such as content creation, social media monitoring and customer interactions, so you can launch campaigns faster and stay ahead of competitors.
  • Better decisions: AI analyses data to spot trends, track customer behaviour and optimise digital marketing strategies for better results.
  • Personalised marketing: AI personalises content and recommendations based on user activity, which improves engagement, satisfaction and customer retention.
  • More room for creativity: AI handles routine work, so marketers can focus on producing high-quality content and new campaign ideas.
  • Smarter marketing spend: AI identifies the best-performing channels and suggests where to increase or cut investment to get the highest ROI.

How to use AI in digital marketing

Here are five ways to start using AI in digital marketing:

1. Let AI handle your data analysis

Overloaded with data from several channels? Use AI to sort through it and pull out usable insights.

  • Analyse large datasets: use tools such as Google Analytics 4 (GA4), which has AI features, to spot trends, flag anomalies and predict customer behaviour based on past interactions. You can then use this data to adjust your marketing strategy and increase customer engagement.
  • Turn customer feedback into actions: AI text analysis can analyse reviews and social media comments to surface what customers care about most. Use what you learn to refine your strategies and marketing messages and improve the customer experience.
  • Simplify cross-platform analysis: use AI tools such as Supermetrics to consolidate data from different sources, saving time and improving accuracy.

2. Improve customer relationships with AI

You can use AI to automate and personalise customer interactions, increase engagement and build satisfaction and loyalty.

  • Segment and target more precisely: use AI tools such as Twilio Segment, BlueConic and others to analyse purchase history, behaviour and demographics. They help you build tightly defined customer segments, identify qualified leads and send personalised messages that convert better.
  • Automate customer support: AI chatbots such as Drift AI, Zendesk AI, Ada and other customer relationship management (CRM) tools give instant answers, route requests efficiently and help human agents by summarising ticket history and suggesting relevant solutions. You can use them to cut response times.
  • Predict customer needs: AI marketing tools, including Freshsales and Zoho CRM AI, spot trends and anticipate behaviour. Use AI-based insights to improve customer relationship management (CRM), personalise recommendations and increase retention.
  • Unify data for better decisions: AI tools such as HubSpot AI and Salesforce Einstein AI consolidate data across platforms and give you a 360-degree view of your customers. With them you can simplify marketing tasks, save time and make data-based decisions.

3. Use AI to speed up content creation and SEO

Use AI to simplify your content marketing and search engine optimisation (SEO) processes, producing good content faster and optimising it for visibility.

  • Automate content creation: use AI digital marketing tools such as ChatGPT (OpenAI), Jasper AI, Copy.ai and Writesonic to generate ideas for blog posts, social media captions and ad copy tailored to each platform. You can also create images, eye-catching infographics and engaging videos with AI design tools such as Canva, Adobe Firefly, Runway ML, InVideo and Lumen5.
  • SEO optimisation with AI: let AI SEO tools such as Surfer SEO, Clearscope, SEMrush or MarketMuse do the heavy lifting in keyword research, trend analysis and metadata optimisation. AI-generated structured data and title tags can improve results in voice search and visual search.
  • Improve content quality: AI helps you refine messages around your customers' search intent. But remember to fact-check and edit AI-generated content so it stays accurate, authentic and, above all, on brand.
  • Make data-based content decisions: AI helps you combine information from several platforms to track performance, engagement and SEO impact. Use it to adjust your strategy and get more out of each piece of content.
  • Schedule content for publication: use Buffer AI, Vista Social, Sprout Social, Lately AI and other digital marketing tools to automate content generation, social media scheduling and content repurposing (adapting existing content for different channels).

To see how marketers are using AI for SEO in 2025, have a look at the findings from more than 30 AI SEO statistics.

4. Use AI to get better results from marketing campaigns

This is how you can use AI to get more out of your campaigns.

  • Optimise digital ads for ROI: use the AI built into Google Ads, Adzooma or Revealbot to analyse performance and adjust bids where they have more impact. You can also personalise ad targeting with Meta Advantage+ and Smartly.io, which refine audience segmentation and serve relevant content to the right users.
  • Personalise and automate email marketing: improve subject lines and open rates with Seventh Sense, Phrasee and Persado. Optimise send times and personalise content with HubSpot AI, Mailchimp AI and ActiveCampaign AI to increase conversions.
  • Increase social media engagement: automate captions and hashtags with AI tools such as Flick AI and Copy.ai.

Read more: AI advertising in 2025: use cases, tools and best practices

5. Automate tasks for smoother workflows

Using AI in digital marketing can take a lot of task automation off your plate and free up marketers' time.

  • Remove repetitive tasks: use AI tools such as Zapier to automate data entry, performance reporting and contact management, and spend the time saved on higher-impact work.
  • Simplify project and campaign management: use AI tools such as Make, Trello with Butler AI, monday.com and Asana to track deadlines automatically. Use them to keep projects on schedule, monitor workloads, balance team resources and automate content publishing and reporting.
  • Increase productivity: AI tools save marketers an average of 2 hours and 24 minutes a day (HubSpot AI report). You can put that extra time into creative and strategic work.

To see how marketers plan to use AI in 2025, have a look at the latest AI marketing statistics.

What should you consider before using AI in digital marketing?

Using AI in digital marketing also has drawbacks. Weigh them up before building AI into your strategy:

  • Bias and inaccuracy: AI can reflect bias in its training data and produce wrong information or skewed or unfair results that need human review. This is also one of the reasons AI will not replace Google Search any time soon.
  • Content quality: AI-generated content is sometimes repetitive and generic and often lacks originality unless a skilled editor works on it.
  • Less authenticity: replacing human interactions with AI can weaken personal relationships with customers.
  • Data privacy issues: AI needs customer data, and handling it badly can lead to breaches and a loss of trust.
  • Copyright issues: ownership of AI-generated content is unclear, which raises legal concerns.
  • Integration problems: AI may not work smoothly with your existing marketing tools, causing compatibility issues.
  • Complexity and skills gaps: AI systems sometimes require training and expertise, which adds to implementation costs.

FAQs about AI in digital marketing

Will AI take over digital marketing?

AI is changing digital marketing, but it will not replace people. It helps generate and streamline ideas, but it cannot innovate beyond existing data or frameworks.

Does AI matter for digital marketing?

Yes. AI has become part of staying competitive. Businesses can refine strategies, connect better with their audience and increase engagement and retention with AI tools for digital marketing, content and AI-driven SEO services.

Improve your digital marketing with AI

Ready to use AI in your digital marketing? Our specialists can help you put AI-driven strategies in place to optimise content, improve customer engagement and increase ROI. Get in touch to find out about AI solutions built around your marketing needs.

Matteo Pellegrini

Matteo Pellegrini

I’m a Business Developer, and at Visilay I focus on developing data-driven SEO, Google Ads, and CRO strategies. I love historical museums, have been practicing Karate for as long as I can remember, and on weekends I enjoy exploring Italian villages in search of authentic local food.