Marc Charlery.
Marc Charlery, Head of Marketing & Sales at RMIT Online.
Before the widespread use of generative AI, AI in marketing meant algorithms and machine learning, analytics and ad-spend optimisation. It was primarily a data team tool.
Now, in the new generative era, it's a tool for the creative team. We’ve moved from AI predicting what a customer might buy to AI creating the content that persuades them. It’s writing marketing copy, designing visuals, and drafting creative strategies. In fact, a Qualtrics report found that 97% of Australian marketers using generative AI believe it has rapidly improved their strategic impact, and 91% report increased confidence in their decision making.
But this new content factory model, while efficient, comes with a hidden cost — the AI ‘authenticity tax’, involving the steep price brands pay in audience trust and engagement when their content becomes generic or soulless.
Use AI as a creativity amplifier
As we unpacked during a recent panel at the RMIT Online Skills Fest, churning out perfectly polished, perfectly average content only adds to the digital noise. It can homogenise language to the point where all brand voices sound the same, and audiences become adept at spotting (and ignoring) robotic outputs.
So, now the core challenge for marketers is no longer production, but connection, with AI being an amplifier for human creativity. While using AI to generate 10 campaign concepts, analyse competitor data, or write the first copy draft, businesses should empower marketing teams to find the one idea or heartfelt story that a large language model, which is not sentient, would struggle to invent.
Practice AI hygiene to protect your brand
The authenticity tax worsens when brands unknowingly scale their own biases. AI is built on data, and if that data is unrepresentative, the AI's output will be inherently biased. For example, training a model only on data from an affluent suburb will not be an accurate sample representation of house prices. This is why brands need to prioritise human-led bias auditing to ensure data is genuinely representative, known as good generative AI hygiene.
A crucial hygiene rule is not to start with generative AI. As humans, our responses are anchored by the first solution we see. If you start with AI, your thinking will be anchored to its solution. Instead, start with your own human-centric idea and then use AI as a collaborator to improve, refine, or find the gaps in your thinking.
Count on humans as your biggest asset
There is widespread fear about AI replacing jobs, but the research points to augmentation, not replacement, because AI lacks the uniquely human skills that define great marketing: creativity, emotional intelligence, complex problem-solving, and ethical judgment.
Technology is a tool, and humans decide how to use it. Before you hit publish, ask yourself: “Am I comfortable putting my brand's name on this output?” That act of metacognition — the ability to think about your own thought process — is something AI can’t do.
Generative AI is one of the most powerful tools marketers have ever been given. But its indiscriminate use as a content factory is already backfiring. Brands are paying the authenticity tax in lost trust and a failure to build a genuine connection with audiences.
So, marketers must re-evaluate their approach with AI, stop measuring success by volume, and instead start measuring it by connection. We must equip our teams with the critical skills and AI hygiene to blend this technological power with the empathetic, curious, and strategic insights that remain uniquely human.
Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au
Sign up to the AdNews newsletter, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day.