--- title: "The Ghost in the Machine: What AI Really Thinks of Marketers" description: We asked ChatGPT, Perplexity, Copilot, Gemini and Claude what they really think of marketers. The answers were surprisingly similar… and a little spooky. image: https://sharperb2b.com/hubfs/Jades%20AI%20blog%20featured%20image.png --- [Skip to content](https://sharperb2b.com/our-blog/the-ghost-in-the-machine-what-ai-really-thinks-of-marketers#main-content) [![New Icon](https://sharperb2b.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Assets/Logos/Brand/New%20Icon.png?width=32&height=58&name=New%20Icon.png) ![Sharper B2B Marketing](https://sharperb2b.com/hubfs/Assets/Logos/Brand/SHARPER_logo.svg)](https://sharperb2b.com/) Fresh Ideas and Firepower™ Menu - What we do - [B2B Marketing C.O.L.A.](https://sharperb2b.com/b2b-marketing-cola) - [Dark Mode Day™](https://sharperb2b.com/dark-mode-day) - [Research & Intelligence](https://sharperb2b.com/research-and-intelligence) - [Channel, Partner, and Ecosystem Marketing](https://sharperb2b.com/channel-partner-and-ecosystem-marketing) - [The Bench (coming soon)](https://sharperb2b.com/lets-talk) - [Capsule (coming soon)](https://sharperb2b.com/lets-talk) - [Our work](https://sharperb2b.com/our-work/case-studies) - Brain food - [The 3 Poiiinter newsletter](https://sharperb2b.com/sign-up-for-the-3-poiiinter-newsletter) - [Channel Marketing Champs - The Podcast](https://sharperb2b.com/channel-marketing-champs) - [Blog](https://sharperb2b.com/our-blog) - [Marketing Against Mundanity](https://marketingagainstmundanity.com/) - About us - [Who are we?](https://sharperb2b.com/who-are-we) - [Join the team](https://sharperb2b.com/join-the-team) - [Let's talk](https://sharperb2b.com/lets-talk) October 2026 # The Ghost in the Machine: What AI Really Thinks of Marketers - AI, - Content Strategy, - B2B Marketing AUTHOR ![Jade Anderson-Busby headshot](https://sharperb2b.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Jade%20author%20pic%20bw-1.jpg?width=194&height=194&name=Jade%20author%20pic%20bw-1.jpg) Jade Anderson-Busby Head of Marketing Programs Marketers have a lot to say about AI. We talk about how it is transforming content creation, changing search, revolutionising personalisation, and making campaigns faster. We debate prompts, platforms, automation, agents, AI-generated content, and whether AI will replace our jobs. But there is one question we don't hear quite as often: **What does AI actually think of marketers?** So, in the spirit of Halloween, we decided to ask. We put the same question to ChatGPT, Perplexity, Copilot, Gemini an/d Claude: *What do you honestly think of marketers, and what do we need to do better to keep up with AI?* The answers weren't identical, but there were some consistent pumpkin-spiced insights worth paying attention to.   ## **RIP: The Content Factory**   ![RIP written on a gravestone with flowers in the front](https://sharperb2b.com/hs-fs/hubfs/RIP.png?width=417&height=479&name=RIP.png) The first ghost that’s haunting marketing is volume without value. Across the responses, there was a clear criticism of marketers using AI primarily as a content factory. A growing content graveyard of blogs, whitepapers, social posts and campaigns that were created because someone decided we needed "more content", rather than because our audience actually needed another thing to read. AI has made it incredibly easy to produce *stuff*. But if everyone can produce more content, faster and cheaper, then content volume stops being a competitive advantage. This is perhaps the biggest wake-up call for marketers. AI doesn't need us to produce 20 versions of a headline. It can do that itself. What it needs from us is to answer the much harder questions: Who are we trying to influence? What do they actually care about? What problem are we solving? Why should they believe us? And why should they choose us over the competition? The scary part isn't that AI can create content, it's that it makes it increasingly obvious when the content wasn't worth creating in the first place.   ## **It's time to start carving out a new approach.** ![Pumpkin being carved](https://sharperb2b.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Pumpkin.png?width=609&height=458&name=Pumpkin.png) Another theme came through loud and ‘eerie’ is that AI can produce perfectly competent marketing. But that's precisely the problem. - It can be polished. - It can be grammatically perfect. - It can be on-brand. - It can tick every box in the brief. And it can be **completely forgettable**. Several of the AI responses warned about the rise of generic, "on-brand-but-bland" marketing. When the cost of producing average content approaches zero, average content becomes everywhere. That means differentiation becomes more important, not less. Marketers need to develop better judgement and the ability to look at ten perfectly acceptable ideas and recognise the one that is genuinely interesting. AI can give us options, but it can't take responsibility for choosing the idea that could actually change someone's mind. Perhaps the most consistent message across all five AI perspectives was to stop using AI to make execution faster, use it to make your thinking better. A haunting reminder that AI is only as useful as the thinking behind it.   ## **Ghosts of marketing past**   ![Person under a sheet with two eyeholes cut out, pretending to be a ghost](https://sharperb2b.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Ghost.png?width=600&height=395&name=Ghost.png) Perhaps the most uncomfortable observations was AI is forcing marketers to confront some of the ghosts of marketing past. - Outdated strategies - Dead-end tactics - Vanity metrics - Content for content's sake - Campaigns built around what we can measure rather than what actually matters Some of these tactics have been hanging around for years because they were easy to execute, easy to report on, and difficult to challenge. AI makes that harder to defend. If a machine can produce the content, analyse the campaign and automate the process, what is the human actually contributing? The answer can't simply be "more output". It has to be better judgement.   ## **Stop bleeding budget** ![Female vampire mouth with teeth showing](https://sharperb2b.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Vampire.png?width=554&height=443&name=Vampire.png) We've all seen campaigns that suck the life out of budgets while producing impressive-looking dashboards. The problem isn't necessarily that the marketing is bad, it's that we're sometimes measuring the wrong thing. Marketers need to understand the metrics sitting further down the funnel, (pipeline, conversion rates, sales cycles, revenue, and retention) AI makes this harder to ignore. If machines can produce, analyse and optimise campaigns at a fraction of the previous cost, marketers have to demonstrate why their activity deserves investment. We need to stop letting zombie metrics walk around our dashboards simply because they've always been there. And we need to stop bleeding budget on activity that looks busy but doesn't move the business forward.   ## **So… what does AI actually think of marketers?** Despite all the criticism, there was actually something quite encouraging buried beneath the surface. The AI responses weren't predicting the death of marketing; quite the opposite. We still need to understand people well enough to bewitch our buyers, to earn attention, create desire and give them a reason to act. Customer understanding, strategy, creativity, original research, judgement, and human insight are the things AI struggles to replicate, which means they're the things marketers should be doubling down on. ![Ghost with pumpkins](https://sharperb2b.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Ghost%20with%20pumpkins.png?width=389&height=253&name=Ghost%20with%20pumpkins.png)   ## **The takeaway: Don't be afraid of the monster** Perhaps the real lesson is that AI isn't the monster hiding under marketing's bed. It's the mirror. It exposes where we're relying on volume instead of value. Where we're producing content because we can rather than because we should. Where our messaging is interchangeable. Where we're measuring activity rather than commercial impact. And that's not necessarily something to be frightened of, it's an opportunity. The marketers who thrive in the AI era won't be the ones who try to compete with AI at producing more. They'll be the ones who learn to think better with AI. Because when everyone has access to the same technology, the trick isn't having AI, the treat is knowing what to do with it. ## Need some (very) human Fresh Ideas and FirepowerTM? Let's talk ## Need Fresh Ideas & Firepower™ to make you and your B2B marketing sharper? 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