Every single week, someone sends me a message that goes something like this: "Liz, have you tried [insert shiny new AI tool]? It's going to change everything." And every single week, I have the same reaction. I smile, I nod, and I think... no, it's not.

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I use AI. I'm not anti-technology, and I'm not one of those people who thinks we should all go back to fax machines adn dial up AOL. AI is a legitimate tool in my marketing toolkit, and it's a powerful one when it's used correctly. But here's the thing nobody in the AI hype machine wants to admit. A tool is only as good as the strategy behind it.

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And right now? Most people are skipping the strategy entirely.

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The Great AI Gold Rush (and the Snake Oil That Came With It)

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The marketing world has lost its collective mind over AI. Every week there's a new tool promising to "revolutionize" your content, "automate" your strategy, or "replace" your marketing team. AI agents that supposedly run your entire ad campaign while you sleep. Content generators that pump out 50 blog posts a day. Chatbots that claim to understand your customers better than you do.

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Let me be blunt. Most of this is snake oil in a very expensive bottle.

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The AI agent hype is probably the worst offender right now. Tech companies are selling these things as autonomous digital employees that can plan, execute, and optimize your marketing with "minimal human input." In reality? They're closer to an overly confident intern who works fast, sounds impressive, and gets things wrong more often than anyone wants to admit. Studies are already showing that companies deploying these tools at scale are actually creating new problems: duplicated work, more time spent reviewing AI output than it would have taken to just do the work, and a whole lot of "plausible nonsense" that sounds great until someone actually reads it [1].

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And don't even get me started on the AI content generators that promise to 5x your output. Sure, you can produce five times more content. But if that content sounds like it was written by a robot with a thesaurus and no soul? Congratulations, you just 5x'd your mediocrity.

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The Slop Problem Is Real, and Your Customers Notice

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There's a reason slop was named one of the words of the year in 2025. It perfectly describes what happens when businesses hand their marketing over to AI without a strategic brain behind it. Low quality, generic, instantly forgettable content that technically exists but adds zero value to anyone's life [2].

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Your customers can smell it. Consumer preference for AI generated content has dropped dramatically. People are actively craving authenticity. iHeartMedia launched a whole "guaranteed human" campaign because their research showed 90% of listeners want content made by actual people. Pinterest users revolted against AI generated images flooding their feeds. McDonald's pulled an AI generated Christmas ad after the backlash got ugly [3].

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Let me say that again for the people in the back - your audience is actively rejecting content that feels artificial. And yet, marketers keep cranking up the AI content machine because some vendor told them it would save money.

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You know what's more expensive than creating quality content? Losing the trust of your audience because everything you publish reads like it was generated by a prompt.

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How I Actually Think About AI in Marketing

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Here's where I land on this, and I know it's not the sexiest take in the room. AI is a tool. A really good tool. But it is not a strategy, it is not a replacement for critical thinking, and it is absolutely not a substitute for someone who actually understands your business, your audience, and the market you're operating in.

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I use AI to speed up research. I use it to analyze data patterns faster. I use it to draft initial frameworks that I then rework with my actual strategic brain. It saves me time on the tasks that used to eat up hours so I can spend more time on the things that actually move the needle for my clients, like building strategy, identifying opportunities, and making the kind of connections between data points that no algorithm is making on its own.

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What I don't do is let AI run the show. I don't hand it the keys to my clients' brands and hope for the best. I don't use it to generate content and publish it without putting my own voice, my own expertise, and my own standards all over it. Because my clients are not paying for AI output. They're paying for my strategic thinking, informed by 15+ years of reading markets and understanding what actually drives growth.

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That's the difference between using AI as a tool and using AI as a crutch.

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What the Overhyped Tools Get Wrong

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The tools that overpromise all share the same fundamental flaw: they sell automation as a replacement for understanding. They treat marketing like it's a factory line where you can just plug in AI and watch the results roll off the conveyor belt.

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But marketing isn't manufacturing. It's a conversation. It's relationship building. It's understanding why your customer is awake at 2am scrolling their phone and what they're actually looking for when they find you. No AI tool on the planet can replicate that level of human insight, not in 2026, and honestly, not anytime soon.

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The "set it and forget it" advertising platforms? They optimize for metrics, not meaning. The content factories? They produce volume, not value. The AI agents promising to replace your marketing team? They can't even replace a good conversation with your customers.

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The marketing industry is gravitating toward two extremes right now: white glove, high touch strategy on one end, and cheap, plug and play AI solutions on the other [4]. I know which side I'm on. And I know which side actually builds businesses that last.

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The Bottom Line

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If you're a business owner or marketing leader reading this, here's my honest advice. Use AI. Absolutely use it. But use it the way you'd use any other tool in your business, with intention, with oversight, and with a clear strategy guiding every decision.

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Don't fall for the vendor pitch that tells you AI is going to solve all your marketing problems. It's not. Your marketing problems are strategy problems, positioning problems, messaging problems, and those require a human brain that understands your business deeply enough to make the right calls.

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AI can make a good marketer faster. It cannot make a bad strategy better.

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The businesses that win in 2026 won't be the ones with the most AI tools in their tech stack. They'll be the ones with the clearest strategy, the most authentic voice, and the courage to show up as real humans in a sea of AI generated noise [5].

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That's not a hot take. That's just the truth. And if you know me at all, you know I'd rather give you the truth than sell you a fantasy.

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Now if you'll excuse me, I have some actual strategy to go build. The old fashioned way. With my brain, a strong cup of coffee, and maybe one or two well chosen AI tools that know their place.

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Tired of marketing solutions that are just AI in a trench coat pretending to be strategy? Yeah, me too.

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Hawks Strategies is for business owners who want real strategy built by a real human who actually gives a damn about your growth. No bots running your brand. No generic AI slop with your logo slapped on it. Just sharp, data driven marketing that moves the needle.

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If you're done with the snake oil and ready to build something that lasts, welcome to the Hawks Nest. We've been waiting for you.‍

Let's Talk Strategy

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References

[1] "Meet the AI Agents of 2026: Ambitious, Overhyped and Still in Training." Las Vegas Sun, January 3, 2026. lasvegassun.com

[2] "The Rise of Slop and the Anti-AI Opportunity for B2B Marketing." Heinz Marketing, January 2026. heinzmarketing.com

[3] "Why 2026 Could Be the Year of Anti-AI Marketing." CNN Business, December 16, 2025. cnn.com

[4] "9 Marketing Predictions for 2026 as AI Fuels Polarity." Marketing Dive, January 2026. marketingdive.com

[5] "The Biggest AI Marketing Trends for 2026." WordStream, January 2026. wordstream.com

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