According to Forbes, incorporating AI into marketing is fast becoming “table stakes,” with 56% of marketers reporting their company is actively implementing it. The article, citing a Survey Monkey report, stresses that for hesitant small business owners, AI is now a necessary tool to keep up. Petr Marek, CEO of Invoice Home, advises starting small and experimenting in one area first. A survey from Prosper Insights & Analytics found that 38.9% of American executives are concerned AI needs human oversight, a sentiment Marek echoes by stressing the need for team review of AI content to maintain an authentic brand voice. The piece concludes that AI will be a long-term competitive equalizer for SMBs willing to adapt.
The double-edged sword
Here’s the thing: the promise is incredibly seductive. AI can level the playing field. A small team can theoretically produce content, analyze data, and personalize outreach at a scale that used to require a giant budget. That’s the win. But the “loss” side of the equation is just as real, and it’s not just about technical failure. It’s about brand erosion. We’ve all seen the cringey, generic AI copy that sounds like it was written by a robot—because it was. When Marek talks about the recent poor reception of AI in promotional materials, he’s hitting on a real consumer spidey-sense that’s developing. People can smell inauthenticity. So if you’re just cranking out unvetted AI sludge, you’re not saving money; you’re burning trust.
The human in the loop
So the big takeaway isn’t “use AI.” It’s “use AI *with* humans.” That 38.9% concern about needing oversight is the most important number in the whole article, honestly. It shows a healthy skepticism. The advice to treat AI as a “helpful assistant” and not a “final decision maker” is spot on. Use it for the grunt work: first drafts, brainstorming headlines, summarizing customer feedback. But the final judgment, the brand tone, the strategic nuance? That has to come from a person. It’s about augmentation, not replacement. Otherwise, you end up with a brand voice that’s bland, inconsistent, and totally forgettable.
Where to even start
For a small business owner feeling overwhelmed, the advice here is practical. Start with the boring, time-consuming tasks. Don’t try to build a fully automated marketing brain on day one. And crucially, pick a simple tool. You don’t need the most powerful, complex system with a million features. You need something that solves one specific problem without a steep learning curve. Get comfortable there first. The worst move is to buy an expensive, enterprise-level platform out of fear and then never use it properly because it’s too intimidating.
The long game
Look, the article’s right about the long-term shift. This is happening. The businesses that figure out the human-AI collaboration model will pull ahead. They’ll operate with cheaper overhead and faster turnaround while still maintaining a genuine connection with their customers. The ones that either ignore AI completely or abdicate all creative control to it will struggle. Basically, it’s not a tech race. It’s a wisdom race. The winning SMBs will be the ones who learn to direct the technology, not just deploy it. And that requires starting small, learning fast, and never letting the algorithm have the final say.
