Marketing in the Age of AI: Why the Prompt Isn't the Problem
I was on Threads this morning and saw a multi-part post touting a series of Claude prompts that'll make you $20k on Instagram.
Fine. Nothing new there.
That's been the soundtrack of the business owner's scroll for ages now. Learn how to use social to knock your business goals out of the park.
Heard.
The first comment, though. That was the interesting part. Someone tagged Meta's AI and asked if the promise was overblown.
Short answer, yep.
Of course it is. You can't promise huge sales off the back of one prompt.
But the gears got turning in my brain.
Because marketing in the age of AI really has changed. Just not in the way that prompt is selling.
Has marketing in the age of AI actually changed?
Yes. AI made the execution of marketing faster than ever, but it didn't change the strategy that decides whether any of it actually works.
And yes, AI makes all of this easier. It's lightning fast at taking one thought and turning it into bits and pieces that work across a bunch of different platforms. One idea, stretched into an email, a few social posts, a note for the podcast, before lunch. I love that part of it. Genuinely.
But there's a lot of prompting snake oil out there too.
Not that the prompt is bad. It probably isn't. And not that the AI is leading you astray, because it probably isn't either.
So what's actually wrong with it?
The strategy. The individual nuance that belongs to your business and your audience alone.
Why AI marketing prompts fall short
AI marketing prompts fall short because they can't see your personal nuance: the subtlety of your specific audience, offers, and goals that real strategy is built on.
Not far before I saw the prompt post, I saw another thread. Someone saying to throw out your client avatar in 2026. That it was useless. Instead, focus on a few particular aspects of your ideal client. The juicy ones.
And the first comment said the thing I was already thinking.
Those things, their pains and their desires and their deep wishes, those should be part of your client avatar. 100% they should. That's the whole point of it.
The stores they shop at and the beverages they drink? Those are miniscule connection points. Little details to help the visual person bring the avatar to life. They can matter. They'll just never matter as much as the real, meaty, core messaging bits.
That's what the age of AI has brought us. Lots of speed. And a fair bit of chaos.
I just wrapped a launch. And like a diligent marketer, I asked the peeps who didn't buy, why not.
I got this nugget:
"I found emails never work alone. Social media is dead too. I'm SO lost with deciding upon the correct marketing strategy in the age of AI."
And that's exactly it.
She's not lost because she doesn't know the tactics. She knows them. She's lost on how they're all supposed to fit together.
The AI can't see the personal nuance. It can't see the subtlety. Can it give you a blanket strategy that's more dialed in than the PDFs we were downloading in 2020? For sure, for sure. But it can't take in all the bits and pieces that have to be considered deeply to really nail a marketing strategy.
What makes a marketing strategy holistic
A holistic marketing strategy is one where every piece works together, visibility, nurture, offers, and the sale, on one cohesive, intentional path.
All the bits have to work together. They have to have a cohesive, logical, thoughtful path running through them. And they have to be looked at and played with all the time, so you can shift and adjust when something needs it. This is not a set-it-and-forget-it situation.
The strategy is holistic. From where you have your meet cute with your peeps, and how, all the way to what happens when they buy. Or don't buy. Or buy again. Or refer you to someone else.
Your visibility has to hand off to your nurture. Your nurture has to lead somewhere worth going. Your offers have to make sense for the people you've actually been talking to. And the whole thing has to sound like you. Pull one piece out of place and the rest starts to wobble.
It feels daunting, because it is.
Marketing is big. It's the entire journey. From the subtle blush at first meeting to how you keep the romance alive at year 20 of the marriage. It's all important.
And there's no one right answer for everyone. There are individual right answers.
How to use AI in your marketing without losing the strategy
Use AI for speed, moving one idea across platforms fast, but keep the strategy yours, because connecting it all to your business is the part AI can't see.
And to boot, we're all becoming more and more sophisticated. Your audience right along with you.
So if you go in and ask your AI to pump out 5 Instagram posts and a few Threads for experienced online business owners about marketing in the age of AI, in your brand voice... you might get some good posts.
But how do they connect to the rest of your ecosystem? How do they fit your business goals? Your plans? Your people's plans? How do they fit with you, how you communicate, your human design type or personality type or communication style? Your SEO strategy? Your sales strategy?
The list goes on.
Short answer: they don't. And that's where the rubber hits the proverbial marketing wall in the age of AI.
AI can help make it faster. It can help you show up more consistently, and in more places. But without a holistic marketing strategy behind it... it's going to feel overwhelming.
The speed is the easy part now. The strategy is still the work. And the good news is, it's still yours.
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