If You’re Avoiding AI, You’re Choosing Irrelevance
New tools drop weekly. Expectations shift. And with AI accelerating, the pressure to “do more with less” has never been louder. Marketers can’t afford to wait and see where this goes.
That’s why I’m starting something new. “What I’m Learning” is a running series where I’ll share what I’m testing, reading, and reflecting on to stay sharp as a marketer and strategic contributor.
This first post is about something I’ve been deep in lately: custom GPTs and Perplexity AI. These tools are teaching me how to work smarter without losing my human edge.
The Risk Isn’t AI – It’s Inaction
Let’s be honest, the hardest part about keeping up in marketing isn’t willpower. It’s time.
Between meetings, deadlines and everything else, learning can quietly fall of your calendar. But here is what I’ve come to believe:
You can’t market your value if you don’t understand what is changing around you.
And a lot is changing very quickly.
I’m seeing more non-marketers get excited about AI tools that “appear” to do our work, keyword plans, email copy, even content calendars. But most of those outputs miss what actually makes our work effective. They lack context, positioning, and the ability to navigate sensitive topics.
We lose our voice in critical conversations if we don’t understand how these tools work and where they fall short. We risk becoming replaceable in rooms we should be leading.
How I’m Actually Using AI
I want to dig into AI because I see it as an opportunity to overcome the plague of marketing, doing mediocre work under pressure. I see AI as an opportunity to protect my strategic brain by offloading the repeatable task that eat up my time.
Over the past few months, I’ve been using two tools regularly:
- Custom GPTs from OpenAI
- Perplexity AI’s Spaces
Here is how they are showing up in my workflow right now:
- Accelerated Research: I use Perplexity AI to scan a topic fast, then go straight to the original sources. It’s like giving myself a 10-minute head start.
- Editing Support: I run my drafts through a custom GPT built for tone and clarity checks. I don’t trust it to write for me, but it sharpens what I already have.
- Checklist: Between my 9-5 and my volunteer post, I’m creating very different content for very different purposes. I’ve created a GPT of the key things I need to make sure that I’m addressing for each audience topic in the content I upload for review.
- Content Recycling: I use AI to distill long-form content into talking points, outlines and summaries. It’s not writing, but formatting at scale.
- Repeatable Systems: When I land on a smart prompt or structure (like this one), I save it in Perplexity Spaces and reuse and adapt.
AI replaced the grind between insights, giving me more time to think about what’s important.
And here is my unpopular opinion:
If your marketing was unclear, chaotic, or disconnected before, AI isn’t going to fix that. AI won’t save bad marketing, it’ll just let you do more of it faster.
The Danger in Staying Quiet
This isn’t just about productivity.
While marketers experiment with AI, our colleagues in ops, finance and leadership could be asking a much riskier question:
Can AI just replace this work entirely?
If we don’t speak up, if we don’t test, learn and explain where human expertise still matters, someone else will make that decision for us.
The risk isn’t that AI gets smarter.
The risk is that we don’t.
This moment in time calls for marketers to be both user and guides of AI. That means saying:
- Here is where it helps.
- Here is what it misses.
- Here is how I’m using it to elevate outcomes without outsourcing our voice or value.
What I’m Taking Forward
I’m still early in my AI implementation. But here is what I know already:
- AI can support your work. It can’t think for you.
- Stakeholders don’t just want outputs. They want judgement.
- Your voice is still your edge. Don’t outsource it too soon.
This series is my way of staying accountable to learning. It’s also a way to share what feels both messy and meaningful.
If your leadership team asked you tomorrow how you are using AI and how it’s affecting your cost, quality and strategy, could you answer confidently?
If not, you aren’t behind.
But soon, you will be.
FAQ
Q: Is AI replacing marketers?
A: No, but it is changing the expectations and workflows. Marketers who understand and guide AI use will have a competitive edge.
Q: What is Perplexity AI?
A: It’s a research and summarization tool that helps users quickly surface relevant, source-based information.
Q: How can I get started with custom GPTs?
A: Try using OpenAI’s GPT builder and start with one use case — like editing support or repeatable prompts. Then evolve from there.
Author Bio
Elizabeth Humphries is a strategic marketing leader helping marketers gain internal buy-in and prove the value of their work. Through her writing, she shares practical tools, frameworks, and insights that elevate marketing’s role as a business driver. Connect with her at www.ehumphries.com.
