Nine in Ten Marketers Are Already Quietly Using Generative AI

I came across a number recently that made me pause.

The American Marketing Association (AMA) and Lightricks ran a survey together in September 2024, covering over 1,000 professional marketers.

The result: nearly 90% of them have used generative AI at work.

71% use it every week or more often. And nearly 20% use it every single day.

To put that in perspective: out of every 10 marketers, 9 have already picked it up. Only 1 hasn't touched it yet.

I also flipped through a survey from the Wharton School, this one aimed at business leaders. The results were even more striking. Their weekly AI usage rate jumped from 37% in 2023 to 73% in the span of a single year.

It doubled.

What does this tell us? The entire business world is accelerating, and marketing is simply running at the front of the pack.

Why Are They So Hooked?

Let me give you the most direct answer first: there really is a payoff.

In the survey, 85% of marketers who had used AI felt their productivity had gone up — some a little, some a lot.

Half of them said they saved time, and the content they produced was more, and better.

Think about it. Who wouldn't use something that saves time and boosts quality?

Let me give you an analogy. It's like suddenly getting a dishwasher installed at home. The first time you use it, you might be skeptical. But the moment it actually gets the dishes clean — and frees up half an hour of your time — are you going back to washing by hand? No, you're not.

For marketers, AI is that dishwasher.

So What Are They Using AI For?

Here's the most interesting part. I originally assumed designers and video editors would be the heaviest users. They're not.

Number one is writing.

Blog posts, scripts, articles. The biggest pain for marketers is "having to produce that much writing every single day." AI helps you knock out the first draft, and then you refine it. That sidesteps the hardest step of all — staring down a blank document.

Number two is brainstorming. About a quarter of marketers use AI as "a brainstorming buddy." You hand it a brief, and it gives you 20 angles. Most of them won't be usable, but two or three will genuinely make you light up.

What actually helps you come up with something new is rarely AI itself — it's that AI pushes you past that stuck moment.

The third bucket is images and video. Tools like Midjourney (an image generator) and Lightricks' LTX Studio (a platform built specifically for visual creation) save more than money. They save you from the "I've got an idea, but booking a designer takes three days" kind of waiting.

So Which Tools Are They Actually Using?

The survey laid out a list. Let me walk you through it.

At number one are chatbots like ChatGPT — 62% of marketers are using them. This is the headliner. Almost every marketer who has touched AI has chatted with one.

Close behind is writing assistance like Grammarly, at 58%. Fixing grammar, polishing copy — a genuine must-have.

Next comes the approach of embedding AI into software you already use — Microsoft Copilot, Canva — at 52%. The upside is obvious: you don't have to switch tools. It's right there in the software you already know.

And further down are specialized image and video generators like Midjourney and Lightricks' LTX Studio, at 45%. Anyone doing visual work can't live without these.

Notice the pattern? From chat to writing, to embedded tools, to specialized generation — AI has seeped into every crack and crevice of the marketer's workday.

But There's Always Another Side.

Marketers aren't without their concerns. The top three worries in the survey were:

First, quality. AI produces things fast, but "fast" doesn't equal "good." The copy it writes often lacks that subtle feel for language, that sense of context and proportion. Ask it to write a Lunar New Year brand greeting, and it'll hand you something safe, polished, unimpeachable — and utterly devoid of warmth.

Second, ethics. This is the most complicated part. AI is raised on training data, and if that data carries bias, AI will amplify the bias. Then there's copyright: the image it generates looks a lot like your competitor's ad campaign from last year — who's fighting that lawsuit?

Third, will human creativity get squeezed out?

This one genuinely surprised me. Only about a third of marketers actually fear that AI will sharply erode human creativity.

I thought that percentage would be higher. After all, marketing is an industry that makes its living on creativity.

But think it through, and it makes sense. Because marketers know in their bones: AI can hand you 20 angles, but which one you pick, why you pick it, and how it locks into the brand voice — that's a human's job.

Nearly half said the ideal state in their mind is:

Human-led, AI-assisted.

So How Do You Fight This Battle?

There was a line in the survey that stuck with me: more than half of marketers have already received AI training at their company. Only a tiny fraction had received no training whatsoever.

What does this mean?

"Having used it" no longer counts as an advantage, because everyone has.

The real dividing line is shifting from "do you use it" to "do you use it well."

The marketers who are genuinely out in front got three things right:

One: they set aside time to play. Not every tool has to produce a KPI the moment you touch it. Some tools you have to goof around with for two hours before you understand what they can actually do for you.

Two: they keep a firm grip on the human checkpoint. AI hands you the draft; you give it its soul. The more AI is everywhere underfoot, the more valuable "this judgment is mine alone" becomes.

Three: they don't stop. The tool that works this month might be replaced by something better next month. If you don't learn it, someone else will.

Let's go back to that number from the beginning. Nine in ten marketers are already using generative AI.

That remaining one in ten? Most of them probably haven't realized they've already been left behind by their peers.

Tools are neutral. Those who start first, taste the payoff first.