Bob Sperber, Editor, Branded Content

If you’re like 54% of your B2B peers, your marketing department is experimenting with generative AI “but not necessarily applying it widely," according to the latest B2B marketing research report for 2025 from Content Marketing Institute (CMI).

Among artificial intelligence (AI) tools, generative AI has taken off as a means of creating written, audio, and visual content. Iterations of it have been in use for many years in many forms, but we’ll focus this discussion on general-purpose (OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Microsoft’s Copilot, and Google Gemini), which some may see as a solution for creating marketing content. They’re largely mistaken. There are, however, some exceptions and conditions that can bring real benefits to your content workflow.

Can you trust It? It’s complicated…  

• Cisco’s 2024 Data Privacy Benchmark Study indicates that 27% of companies have banned their employees’ generative AI use, at least temporarily.
• Apple, Samsung, Verizon, and many leading financial institutions are among those who have banned the technology, with many among them battling AI firms in court.
• The list goes on as hundreds of lawsuits and legal actions against generative AI providers continue (as chronicled in Sustainable Tech Partners’ ongoing timeline).

Increasingly, companies (including ours) are developing custom generative AI tools for in-house use to protect copyrighted or other confidential information. They’re also starting to institute internal guidelines for its use. In CMI’s B2B research, 38% of companies have guidelines, but only 23% of B2B marketing departments do.

These revelations beg the question: How can a B2B marketer use AI for content creation? The New York Times newsroom’s stance on AI use jibes with most marketing experts: “We don’t use AI to write articles, and journalists are ultimately responsible for everything that we publish.” That said, NYT encourages newsroom editors to let AI assist them with tasks such as drafting SEO headlines, suggesting editing revisions, and generating promotional social media copy — all of which are subject to human oversight.

Assuming you’ve done a little homework to tackle your privacy concerns, you still need to decide when — and when not — to trust AI in generating content. Below, we present some tips to inform your use generative AI journey.

What you CAN’T trust AI to do:

• Generate long-form content: AI tools base their output on preexisting information that may not be current along with the information you upload. It’s hard to get your brand voice across due to a lack of creativity, context, and critical thinking. As a Hubspot article notes, it “requires a lot of data to produce authentic, quality content,” and human editors are still needed.
• Write your first draft: AI can assist with SEO optimization and help structure technical documentation but falls short in crafting compelling narratives. But AI-generated drafts lack originality and a strong voice, which are key elements for good writing. A very human first draft is the best starting point.
• Fact-check your copy: Helping proofread and suggest edits is appropriate but not fact-checking. AI tools are known to plagiarize, fabricate facts, falsely attribute fictional quotes, introduce arbitrary errors, and introduce bias.
• Know your industry: Especially in highly specialized areas dealing with highly specialized engineering and advanced manufacturing audience needs, AI tools lack details on innovations in your niche beyond the content you “feed” it.
• Protect your confidentiality: AI systems have been caught infringing on copyrighted material. They also present risks that change companies’ policies as happened at Samsung in 2023 when employees inadvertently leaked confidential data to ChatGPT, which (at the time) stored user inputs. Choose your tools carefully.

What you CAN trust AI to (help you) do:

• Brainstorm topics and ideas: Use it to generate ideas based on the topic and the additional criteria you provide. It will quickly generate the number of ideas, campaign themes, or other responses you ordered, helping to overcome creative blocks and come up with ideas you can tweak and use.
• Suggest copy edits and revisions: AI isn’t the first step or last in content creation, but it can suggest improvements in tone, structure, and clarity. General chatbots and specialized apps can help you check spelling and grammar; or suggest changes to improve readability. Always review all such suggestions; they’re not always correct for your copy.
• Optimize SEO and social media posts: AI tools can analyze keywords, refine headlines, and generate optimized meta descriptions that improve search rankings. Try asking your tool for engaging copy suggestions or multiple versions tailored to different platforms to maximize reach and engagement.
• Summarize long content: AI can efficiently condense lengthy articles, reports, and research papers into digestible summaries to a specified length to save you reading and research time. Always proofread and fact-check to ensure accuracy and appropriateness in the condensed output.
• Help personalize copy: AI can help personalize email subject lines, ad copy variations, and potentially more if you add target demographics, customer personas, and pain points to your query when uploading copy for revisions. This can help you improve engagement and conversion rates.

Many of generative AI’s best uses, and best results, depend on the quality and completeness of your queries and the vigilance of your oversight. Once you know how far to trust it, you’ll find it a useful “assistant.”

Key takeaways 

Generative AI software isn’t a writer, it’s a writer’s helper that can supplement your writing, design, and production workflows subject to human expertise and supervision. It’s capable of generating and optimizing very short-form copy but is highly flawed at generating accurate and truthful longer-form content that yields a compelling narrative and reflects your brand voice.

We recommend experimenting to get a feel for how it can help your organization before integrating it into your content workflows and then developing guidelines for its use within the bounds of corporate governance.

While AI can aid your productivity, you may still be challenged by the demanding requirements of your marketing plan. If so, we advise you to explore partnering opportunities with industry experts (like us) to create original, industry-specific thought leadership custom content — such as sponsored articles, white papers, and ebooks — that will resonate with your audience. Our team specializes in crafting compelling narratives that capture your unique voice and drive engagement. Let's collaborate to elevate your content strategy and help you make a lasting impact in your field.