AI has become the loudest topic in marketing almost overnight. Every week there is a new tool, a new promise, and a new prediction about how growth teams are about to be replaced, transformed, or made obsolete.
Most of these conversations miss the point.
AI is not reshaping growth marketing through dramatic breakthroughs. It is reshaping it quietly, unevenly, and in ways that reward judgement more than ever.
AI is not changing what good growth looks like
At a strategic level, very little has changed.
Growth still depends on understanding customers deeply.
Clear positioning still matters.
Strong creative still drives results.
Distribution still amplifies whatever strategy you bring to it.
AI has not replaced these fundamentals. What it has done is expose how weak many growth systems were to begin with.
Teams with unclear strategy now produce more unclear output, just faster. Teams with strong foundations use AI to compound what already works.
The gap between good and bad growth has widened, not closed.
Where AI actually creates leverage
In practice, AI’s most meaningful impact is not in decision-making. It is in compression.
Compression of time.
Compression of effort.
Compression of iteration cycles.
Tasks that once took days now take hours. First drafts, variations, summaries, pattern recognition, and analysis can all be accelerated.
This creates leverage for teams who know what they are trying to achieve. It creates noise for teams who do not.
AI speeds up execution, but it does not improve intent.
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Why AI output often feels generic
Many marketers are disappointed by AI-generated ads, copy, or strategies. The output feels flat, safe, and interchangeable.
That is not a tooling problem. It is an input problem.
AI is trained on the centre of the distribution. Without strong guidance, it produces the average of what already exists. If your brief is vague, your positioning unclear, or your differentiation weak, the output will reflect that.
AI does not create originality. It amplifies clarity.
This is why experienced marketers tend to get more value from it than junior ones. They know what good looks like and how to direct the system towards it.
AI increases the value of taste and judgement
As production becomes easier, selection becomes more important.
Which ideas are worth pursuing.
Which angles deserve depth rather than breadth.
Which outputs align with brand and which dilute it.
These decisions cannot be automated meaningfully. They require context, restraint, and an understanding of second-order effects.
In an AI-assisted world, growth advantage comes less from doing more and more from choosing better.
The hidden risk most teams are ignoring
The biggest risk with AI is not replacement. It is dependency.
Teams that outsource thinking to tools gradually lose the muscle for strategic reasoning. Over time, they become excellent at generating options and poor at making decisions.
This shows up as more testing, more content, and more activity, without clearer direction or stronger results.
AI should support thinking, not replace it.
What realistic adoption looks like
The teams using AI most effectively tend to be pragmatic rather than evangelical.
They use it to accelerate research and synthesis.
They use it to explore creative directions before committing resources.
They use it to reduce friction in execution-heavy workflows.
They do not use it to define strategy, positioning, or customer truth.
In other words, they treat AI as a lever, not a leader.
The long-term implication for growth teams
AI is not making growth easier. It is making it more honest.
Weak fundamentals are exposed faster. Generic thinking is scaled more efficiently. Strong strategy compounds more quickly.
The winners will not be the teams with the most tools. They will be the teams with the clearest thinking and the discipline to use AI deliberately rather than reflexively.
The future of growth marketing is not automated. It is augmented.
Gal Gazit
Performore – Growth Marketing Specialist
