“Adapt with AI or get left behind.“

I’ve been hearing this echoed across marketing spaces and honestly, I agree. AI is transforming the industry in exciting ways. From automating tedious tasks to generating creative content, the potential is huge and it’s clear that AI here to stay. But alongside the enthusiasm, we can’t ignore serious concerns like intellectual property theft, environmental impact, and even the effects on our cognitive function. However, this doesn’t mean we have to forgo the use of AI either.

In today’s marketing world, it feels like most people fall into one of two groups: those who are all-in on AI, eager to use it for everything, often overlooking the risks and those, like myself, who are deeply concerned about its implications and hesitant to adopt it at all – at the risk of being left behind.

This piece is for both groups.

Whether you’re an AI enthusiast or a cautious skeptic, there’s a balanced, mindful way to integrate AI into your marketing toolkit. With thoughtful use, early career marketers can take advantage of its benefits while staying grounded in ethics, sustainability, and human creativity.

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Don’t Rely Solely on AI

It’s important to not rely on AI tools exclusively, especially early in your marketing career. Although AI tools are helpful for speeding up tedious tasks or whipping out some quick copy, there’s growing research that highlights the detrimental effects it can have on our critical thinking skills. In a fast-paced and strategic industry like marketing these critical thinking skills are crucial. Developing foundational skills on your own not only strengthens your understanding but also ensures you retain critical knowledge that AI can’t replace. Learning how to research, write, analyze, and strategize independently builds confidence and adaptability. AI tools can also experience outages or hallucinate responses, so having the ability to operate without them or confirm the accuracy of outputs is a valuable safety net.

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Optimize Your Usage

According to the International Energy Agency, a ChatGPT request consumes 10 times the electricity of a Google Search. AI data centers also consume massive amounts of water for cooling purposes at a time when so many regions are beginning to experience water crises. These centers produce electronic waste as well, which often contains hazardous substances, like mercury and lead. 

As early career marketers, we may not have significant influence over company-wide decisions regarding AI, but there are still meaningful actions within our control that we can take. Try to use AI only when necessary and optimize your prompts as much as possible to avoid wasting energy. Like turning off the faucet while brushing your teeth, be mindful of your AI usage. While it may look fun to jump on AI image generation trends like the action figure craze earlier this year, ask yourself if this is necessary for your marketing strategy or if it can be skipped to save resources for more important AI tasks.

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Avoid IP Theft

This point is obvious, but can’t be overstated – be mindful to not commit intellectual property theft when using AI tools for marketing. Not only is it unethical, but you could subject your brand to legal issues, lose consumer trust, and face long-term brand equity damage. To avoid any issues, always verify the source of AI-generated content, use tools that offer commercial-use licenses or clear attribution guidelines, and when in doubt, create original work or consult legal counsel.

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Ultimately, ethical AI adoption starts with awareness and transparency. Be open about when and how AI is used in your work, whether that’s disclosing AI-generated content or crediting original sources of inspiration. Stay informed about evolving regulations, platform policies, and best practices, and be willing to adapt as the landscape changes. As early-career marketers, we have the opportunity to shape how AI is integrated into the industry. By approaching AI with intention, curiosity, and responsibility, we can explores its potential while upholding the values that matter most.