7.4 Skills and Tools for Becoming an AI-Wise Marketer

As marketing and generative AI become more intertwined, marketers today need a practical, curious, and thoughtful mindset. The tools change fast, so one of the most valuable habits you can build is knowing how to spot what’s new and worth trying. Rather than using the same few AI tools for every project, set aside a few minutes each week to explore what’s new. Check up-to-date rankings on a site like LMArena.ai and read a trusted AI marketing newsletter such as The Rundown AI or the Marketing AI Institute to see which tools are performing well right now. That way, you’ll always have a sense of which tools are hot—and which are yesterday’s news.

Many traditional marketers only use AI as a tool to help them do repetitive tasks or routines to save time. As discussed in this chapter, AI can be much more than that and has unlimited potential to make marketers and organizations smarter. Today’s marketers have an opportunity to become AI wielders. AI wielders know how to handle, manage, and harness the magic of marketing AI. The future job opportunities in marketing come from people willing to embrace marketing AI to help organizations become more capable, more insightful, and more profitable.

It’s equally important to get comfortable writing great prompts. Think of prompting like writing a brief for a client—the clearer the background you provide, the better the results you’ll get. Instead of saying, “Hey AI, write me an email,” give it some real context: What’s the product? Who’s the audience? What tone or style do you want? Even better, include examples of messaging that’s worked well before. Keeping a personal “prompt journal”—a simple file where you save your favorite setups and tweaks—will help you do this faster and more easily every time.

But becoming an AI-wise marketer goes beyond good prompts. It’s about crafting a personal strategy for lifelong learning and ethical leadership. That means testing tools with your own hands—not just watching demos. Try drafting an email, generating a product image, or analyzing a competitor’s SEO. Companies like Mercedes-Benz and e.l.f. Beauty have emphasized that innovation starts with curiosity and play—taking time to tinker with new tools and build muscle memory for the future.1

Equally important is the ability to customize AI outputs so that they reflect your brand’s unique voice and tone. At AMD, marketers use AI-generated scripts as a first draft, then adapt them to meet brand guidelines and emotional nuance.2 Think of it like coaching a new hire: AI needs direction, context, and your final touch to make things truly resonate.

That customization extends to your own toolkit. Many professionals build an “AI playbook” with reusable prompt formats, brand voice instructions, and examples of what worked well in past campaigns. Over time, this playbook becomes your creative multiplier. It’s not just a time-saver—it’s a way to scale your own expertise. As your playbook grows, you’ll start to notice patterns in what works for your brand, your audience, and even your own creative flow. What started as trial and error becomes a kind of muscle memory—one that helps you move faster, stay consistent, and build confidence in your creative decisions.

Of course, with all this power comes responsibility. AI tools reflect the data they’re trained on—and when that data is skewed, so are the outputs. We’ve already seen examples of tools that reinforce stereotypes or exclude underrepresented groups. Being AI-wise means asking hard questions about bias, transparency, and authenticity. Should you disclose when a message was AI-generated? How do you avoid amplifying misinformation or excluding key audiences? As marketing grows more automated, these human questions matter more than ever.

Sites like MIT Media Lab and Google’s Responsible AI initiative offer frameworks to help guide your thinking. And public cases—like Amazon’s failed AI recruiting tool or image generators producing mostly white, male CEOs—remind us why vigilance is essential.

So how do you stay ahead of all this?

You build a repeatable habit of experimentation, reflection, and revision:

• Try new tools weekly.

• Keep a running list of what worked and what didn’t.

• Share ideas with peers or online communities.

• Take a short AI marketing course or follow leaders in the space.

• Challenge yourself to remake one campaign each month using AI—just to see how far you can go.

At the end of the day, AI is a powerful partner—but it’s still your creativity, empathy, and strategic thinking that matter most. Treat AI as a tool that scales your work, but always add your personal touch and make sure the message truly reflects your brand. Balancing all these elements is what will set you apart as the marketing landscape keeps evolving. Staying curious, practicing often, and making thoughtful choices about what you put into—and get out of—AI will help you grow with it, lead with confidence, and have some fun along the way.