AI’s greatest strength is its ability to make complex systems accessible to more people. But when democratization occurs within the world’s largest advertising platforms, it raises an important question: If anyone can launch a campaign with a single query, what becomes of marketing expertise—and who ultimately benefits?
Most marketers now see AI as a tool that streamlines repetitive tasks so they can focus on insight, messaging, and creative problem-solving. Yet many of the tools being rolled out today feel more tailored to consumers looking for shortcuts than professionals looking to elevate their craft.
This became especially apparent to me during the 4As AI workshop at Google’s NYC office. For some, Google’s vision felt like a natural evolution; for me, it raised questions about whether these solutions reflect the realities marketers actually work within.
When AI Makes Marketing Better
The day started strong, discussing a campaign that balanced strategy and personalization at scale—a storage truck turned rolling billboard that used Gemini to deliver hyper-localized messages across NYC, adjusting in real time to traffic, weather, and neighborhood context. From there, Google introduced its beta “Insights Finder,” a tool that uses aggregated Google Search and YouTube data to show which groups lean into a given interest, the channels they watch, and the content categories they engage with most.
These were the kinds of tools and strategies that aligned with what tech giants have been promising—allowing marketers to leverage their unparalleled view of user behavior in a way that personalizes messaging at scale and helps identify the content people actually find relevant and non-intrusive.
Where Platforms are Missing the Mark
The rest of the workshop focused on leveraging AI to write campaign briefs, build media plans, and create video ads tailored to the audiences identified via the “Insights Finder.” With a few short prompts, the system generated everything from strategy to creative. The message was clear: AI could now assemble the core building blocks of a campaign in minutes.
For smaller teams without deep resources, the appeal of these tools is obvious; AI lowers the barrier to creating briefs, plans, and creative assets in minutes. But for experienced marketers, the demos felt reductive. Instead of showcasing tools designed to elevate the craft, we were shown tools that attempted to replace the thinking altogether, shifting the focus from helping marketers work smarter to showing how little work might be needed at all.
The Trade-Offs of AI Democratization
The push towards democratization is an effective business strategy. Lowering the bar for anyone to run paid media campaigns draws more advertisers, more spend, more data, and ultimately more dependence on the platforms themselves.
But ease of access comes with a cost. When strategic thinking, messaging, and creative can all be produced from a few prompts, the value that seasoned marketers bring to the table appears redundant at the surface. The nuance and context that make campaigns effective risk being overshadowed by templated outputs designed for speed.
While these tools invite more people to participate, they also risk creating a feedback loop where the platform’s “best practice” becomes everyone’s default. Brands begin to sound the same and strategies blur as the work reflects the system rather than the people behind it.
Looking Ahead
Democratization isn’t the enemy—misalignment is. Marketers don’t need AI that replaces their work; they need AI that strengthens it. If platforms like Google want to truly support professionals, the path forward is clear: build tools that boost both the speed and the intelligence of marketing work. That means AI that deepens audience understanding—expanding tools like the “Insights Finder” to show how interest groups behave across the broader web, not just within one platform. It means creative systems that scale personalization thoughtfully, tailoring messaging by interest, location, or context without defaulting to sameness. And yes, it means workflow automation; AI that’s embedded directly into trafficking, measurement, and campaign-management tools, handles setup, enforces internal best practices, and answers performance questions instantly so marketers can focus on higher-value thinking.
These are the kinds of advancements that elevate marketers rather than bypass them—and the platforms that build in this direction will be the ones that move the industry forward instead of flattening it.