Optimizely study finds marketers cut corners on AI

Optimizely has published research showing that 25% of marketers knowingly publish off-brand AI-generated content when facing tight deadlines. The survey covered more than 2,000 marketing leaders across seven markets, including the UK.

The findings point to a gap between AI's promised time savings and the day-to-day work required to make its output usable. More than three-quarters of respondents, 76%, said they spend at least three hours a week editing, fact-checking or correcting AI-generated material.

That extra workload takes several forms. Nearly half of respondents, 48%, said fact-checking and reviewing so-called hallucinations creates additional work, while 40% said they lose time moving information between disconnected systems. Only 19% said they use a single integrated AI platform.

The research also found that 30% of marketers frequently or always pass off AI-generated work as their own. Just 4% said AI saves them time at every stage of the process.

Leadership gap

The responses suggest a clear divide between senior executives and staff closer to day-to-day delivery. More than half of marketers, 54%, said leadership underestimates the human effort needed to make AI-generated work usable.

Senior leaders were far more likely to report that AI adoption is aligned across their organisations. Among C-suite leaders, 69% said AI adoption is fully aligned, compared with 27% of analysts.

The same gap appeared in views on transparency. Some 66% of senior leaders said AI use is transparent, even as operational teams carry much of the burden of checking and refining output.

Use of AI without clear disclosure also appeared more common at the top of organisations. Among C-suite respondents, 44% said they frequently or always pass off fully AI-generated work as their own, compared with 23% of managers.

These results raise questions about how companies are governing AI in marketing as adoption becomes routine. They also suggest that reported efficiency gains may be masking a growing layer of manual review.

Creative strain

The survey linked that workload to wider concerns about the effect of AI on marketing quality and originality. Only 30% of marketers said their brand voice is genuinely unmistakable.

Many respondents said the pressure to produce more content is leaving less time for strategic work. Some 39% said they are too busy managing workflows, outputs and daily demands to spend enough time thinking strategically or developing new ideas.

There were also concerns about the longer-term effect on junior staff and brand distinctiveness. Nearly half, 46%, said heavy reliance on AI could erode creative skill development among junior marketers, while 51% said they were at least somewhat worried that AI is contributing to a growing sea of sameness across brands.

A further 53% said current AI tools can capture the facts of a brand but struggle to reflect the emotional resonance that helps it connect with audiences. This points to a continuing tension between scale and brand expression as more teams rely on machine-generated drafts.

The study found that many marketers would support a slower, more controlled approach to deployment. Some 66% said they would pause or adjust their company's AI rollout if given the opportunity to strengthen guardrails, improve governance or rethink the operating model.

The research was carried out by Savanta and surveyed 2,003 marketing leaders in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, Australia and the UAE. It focused on how AI is being adopted, governed and used in marketing organisations.

Tara Corey, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Optimizely, commented on the findings.

"AI was supposed to give marketers room to think. What most teams got instead was more to manage," said Corey.

"When the pressure doesn't stop and the infrastructure isn't there, everyone improvises. The corner-cutting, the off-brand content, the invisible hours - that's what happens when ambition outpaces infrastructure. The good news is that's a solvable problem," Corey said.