Report shows 54% of marketers say AI is now an essential creative partner, and 96% agree human oversight is still critical to preserving brand and content originality

PhotoShelter, the leading digital asset management (DAM) platform today releases its new report, AI in Marketing: The Hidden Cost of Faster Content, surveying nearly 400 marketing, communications, and creative professionals about how AI is changing content workflows.

The findings show that while AI has dramatically accelerated production, many teams are still struggling to capture audience attention and maintain brand differentiation.

A large majority (69%) of marketing professionals now use AI in their asset and content workflows, up from just 59% in 2023, and 54% say AI has become an essential creative partner. At the same time, 41% report difficulty driving engagement, nearly half struggle to reach wider audiences (46%) and struggle standing out from competitors (45%).

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“AI has removed many of the barriers that once slowed down content creation,” said Andrew Fingerman, CEO of PhotoShelter. “But speed alone doesn’t create impact. Brands still need originality, human judgment and strong creative direction to produce content audiences actually trust, relate to and engage with.”

Additional findings from the report include:

• AI is making it easier to produce content, but harder to stand out. 87% of marketers using AI rely on it for written content, 71% use it for idea generation, but 80% worry the technology will flood audiences with generic content.
• The content review bottleneck hurts revenue. 46% say content gets stuck in review, 41% in approvals, and 70% say these delays impact revenue-generating work.
• Leaders see performance, but creators feel the friction. Executives are more likely to report measurable AI benefits than the individual contributors navigating review cycles and revisions.
• AI is saving time across marketing teams. 78% say it frees up time for meaningful work, 63% say it reduces manual tasks, and professionals estimate AI saves about 15 hours per week (six of which are spent on content generation alone).
• Human creativity remains central to marketing. Despite widespread AI adoption, 96% say human oversight is critical to preserving originality in campaigns.

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“AI has made it easier than ever to create content, but marketing teams are still managing the rest of the process manually, when they don’t need to,” said Christina Kyriazi, SVP of Marketing at PhotoShelter. “They are missing an opportunity to use AI to automate the workflows around content, like organizing and tagging assets, routing approvals and reducing repetitive work. Eliminating the mundane allows creative teams to focus on the ideas that actually drive engagement.”