How Top Brands Use AI for Content Marketing

It’s official—AI has crossed the adoption threshold in marketing. McKinsey’s latest research shows almost universal AI adoption by organizations, and autonomous AI agents are taking on an expanding range of tasks.¹ Still, there’s a persistent gap between deployment and impact—a marketing trend that shows most companies haven’t quite figured out how to scale AI effectively or extract real business value from it.

This gap creates an opportunity for marketing professionals and the brands they promote. Those who master AI’s core strengths have identified the technology’s applications for marketing: faster, more impactful content creation; personalization that converts because it’s relevant; and doing more with leaner teams.

This blog post will detail how the world’s most recognizable brands are using artificial intelligence in content marketing and what makes their approaches successful.

What AI Brings to Content Marketing

AI and content marketing were made for each other. Two out of every three companies using AI for marketing content noticed significant revenue increases in the first 12 months, driven, in large part, by these four capabilities:¹

• Enhanced creativity and ideation: Feed a generative AI content marketing tool a campaign brief, and you’ll get dozens of creative angles, headline variations and approaches to evaluate. Your role shifts into that of a curator, so you can focus your creative energy where human insight matters most
• Automated content generation and optimization: You can have AI draft copy and adapt content for different platforms. It’s great for A/B testing headlines and messaging and can personalize your content for specific audience segments (all without you having to manually coordinate each step of the production process)
• Data-driven insights and personalization: AI processes customer interactions, finds behavioral patterns and forecasts how your content will perform based on historical data and real-time signals. Using this, your team can make data-backed decisions as opposed to educated guesses
• Improved workflow efficiency: You can use AI to automate your operational overhead—scheduling posts, organizing assets, tracking performance, assembling reports—that takes hours but doesn’t require strategic thinking

How Top Brands Use AI: Real Examples

The following examples show how leading brands are deploying AI content marketing strategies to engage their customers and drive sales.

Coca-Cola

While Coca-Cola received negative attention for an AI-generated holiday ad campaign in 2024, the brand has since seen real value in leveraging AI in content marketing.² It uses AI-powered personalization tools to deliver highly targeted content across its global markets. In fact, its AI-driven product recommendations (based on behavioral data) boosted clicks by 117% and revenue by 36%.³

Netflix

The streaming giant knows how to turn AI into a competitive advantage. Today, more than 80% of content discovered on Netflix comes through AI recommendations.⁴ Personalized thumbnail images are increasing click-through rates by as much as 30%.⁵

The Washington Post

The Washington Post uses AI tools for expanded reach and accessibility. “Ask The Post AI” lets readers ask questions about published reporting and get AI-generated answers based on cited articles.⁶ The newsroom also launched “Your Personal Podcast,” an AI-powered audio experience where listeners can customize their news briefings by selecting topics, AI host personas and podcast length, allowing The Post to repurpose written content into new formats to engage younger audiences.⁷

AI Tools Commonly Used by Leading Brands

Most marketing teams layer several types of AI tools to assist with everything from content creation to performance analysis.

Generative AI Platforms

Leading brands rely on a core set of AI platforms for content creation. These include, among others, the following:

• ChatGPT: Arguably the most well-known generative AI tool on the market, it powers content creation and campaign ideation
• Claude: Handles complex content marketing tasks with advanced reasoning capabilities
• Gemini: Enterprise AI platform that integrates with Google’s marketing and analytics ecosystem

Predictive Analytics Tools

AI-powered analytics platforms provide the data foundation brands need to develop effective content marketing AI strategies. Some of the most trusted tools include:

• Google Analytics 4: Industry-standard analytics with AI-powered insights and predictive metrics
• Salesforce Einstein: Delivers predictive customer insights and automated lead scoring
• Adobe Analytics: Enterprise-grade data analysis with AI-driven customer journey tracking

SEO and Keyword Intelligence Platforms

SEO tools have evolved from providing basic keyword tracking to predicting search trends and optimizing for AI-generated results. Here are three popular tools:

• Semrush: The most comprehensive, used predominantly for AI keyword research and content optimization
• Ahrefs: Known for its massive keyword database and AI-powered keyword suggestions
• Frase: Has tools for optimizing content for both traditional search and AI answer engines

Social Listening and Sentiment Analysis Tools

These AI-powered social listening tools can process millions of online conversations to catch brand mentions humans might miss:

• Sprout Social: All-in-one social media management with AI-driven sentiment analysis and social listening
• Hootsuite: Widely used social listening tool that integrates with Talkwalker for powerful tracking capabilities
• Brandwatch: Advanced AI sentiment analysis that includes visual listening for logo recognition in images

Marketing Automation Systems

AI and content marketing automation platforms handle everything from personalized campaigns to optimized delivery at scale. Major brands use:

• HubSpot: Marketing hub with generative AI capabilities, predictive lead scoring and comprehensive content marketing tools
• Marketo: Adobe’s B2B marketing automation platform that uses AI at every stage as marketers find, engage and convert customers
• Salesforce Einstein: Popular enterprise solution with AI agents and content recommendations

Strategies That Make AI-Driven Content Successful

For AI-assisted content to work in a brand’s favor, marketers must recognize how technology is designed to amplify human talent rather than replace it. AI can handle number-crunching, data analysis, content variations and optimized delivery, but humans provide better strategic direction and creative judgment. This division of labor lets teams focus on high-value work.

Successful brands also use AI for advanced audience segmentation to identify micro-segments based on behavior and preferences. Furthermore, AI’s ability to perform continuous A/B testing at scale helps campaigns improve in real time as the system learns what content resonates. The best AI implementations combine these capabilities with real-time performance optimization to adjust copy and creative elements while campaigns are live.

Benefits of Using AI in Content Marketing

Ultimately, the biggest benefit of using AI in content marketing is creating more content without sacrificing quality, maintaining consistent output across your marketing channels and staying top-of-mind with your audience. AI’s personalization assistance drives higher engagement and conversion rates because your content speaks directly to their individual interests. You can leverage AI’s predictive capabilities to forecast trends and customer behavior so that your brand positions itself ahead of demand instead of reacting to it. All of these efficiency gains free up your team’s budget and resources for initiatives that differentiate you from your competition.

If you’re ready to build the analytics and digital content skills needed to wield AI effectively, William & Mary’s Online Master of Science in Marketing offers specialized training in the approaches defining today’s marketing leadership. View our admissions criteria and schedule a call with an admissions outreach advisor today.