Marketers are leaning heavily on AI to streamline processes, improve content quality, and free up time. But while adoption is skyrocketing, concerns about ethics, transparency, and overreliance persist.
This report unpacks how AI is being used in marketing today, which tools are leading the way, and what challenges lie ahead.
Top 5 AI Marketing Statistics
- 3 in 4 PR pros use generative AI in their work.
- Brainstorming is the most popular AI use case in PR.
- ChatGPT is used by 77.8% of Substack publishers.
- 93% of PR pros say that AI speeds up their work.
- According to PR pros, 40% of companies don’t offer any form of AI training.
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How Widespread is AI Use in Marketing?
Generative AI is taking the marketing world by storm. In the space of just two years, the number of PR professionals using it in their work has almost tripled from 28% in 2023 to 75% in 2025.
In other words, approximately 3 in 4 people working in PR now use tools like ChatGPT and DALL-E as part of their workflow. And a further 13% intend to explore its potential.
Of the remaining 12% of respondents, half are undecided, while half will not consider using generative AI in their marketing role. This anti-generative AI stance has softened since 2023, when 15% refused to use it and a further 24% were unsure.
Here’s a breakdown of the survey results:
| Do you plan to explore generative AI, like ChatGPT or DALL-E, in your workflow? | |||
| Response | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
| I already use generative AI | 28% | 64% | 75% |
| A plan to explore the use of generative AI | 33% | 23% | 13% |
| I’m not sure | 24% | 8% | 6% |
| No, I do not plan to explore them | 15% | 5% | 6% |
In publishing, AI has become a crucial tool for many. In fact, more than half of the industry (51%) now uses AI daily in their work. And a further 33.8% use AI each week.
Here’s a closer look at the frequency of AI use within publishing:
| Frequency of Use | Proportion |
| Daily | 51% |
| Weekly | 33.8% |
| Monthly | 7.1% |
| Less than once a month | 6% |
| Not sure | 2.1% |
While many (49.2%) publishers started using AI over a year ago, a substantial number have adopted AI in their work within the last few months.
In fact, almost 1 in 3 (29%) have begun using AI in their publishing work 6 months ago or sooner.
Here’s a breakdown of when publishers began using AI in their work:
| When Publishers Began Using AI | Proportion |
| Within the past 30 days | 4.3% |
| Within the past 3 months | 11.5% |
| Within the past 6 months | 13.2% |
| Within the past 12 months | 21.8% |
| More than a year ago | 49.2% |
Source: Muck Rack, Substack
How is AI Being Used in Marketing?
PR professionals are increasingly broadening the scope of AI in their daily tasks.
In 2025, brainstorming is the most popular AI use case for people working in PR, with 82% opting to outsource idea generation.
Not far behind, writing a first draft (72%) and editing/refining drafts (70%) make up the rest of the top three.
At the other end of the spectrum, just 16% use AI to generate images to accompany content.
Here’s a full breakdown of how generative AI is being used in PR workflows:
| How do you use generative AI in your workflow? | |
| Brainstorm | 82% |
| Write a first draft | 72% |
| Edit or rewrite of previously written draft | 70% |
| Research | 59% |
| Write social copy | 59% |
| Write press releases | 51% |
| Craft pitches | 51% |
| Strategy and planning | 42% |
| Find journalists | 21% |
| Generating images to accompany content | 16% |
| Other | 7% |
The average PR professionals complete 5 distinct types of tasks with AI assistance. This is up from roughly 3 tasks in 2024, showing that not only is adoption going up, but also the breadth of usage.
Even among those using AI to generate text, editing remains very common – 89% PR professionals say they always edit AI‑generated text. That’s down from 95% in 2024.
In terms of editing quantity, 51% change most AI-generated content, while 37% claim to make edits to some paragraphs.
However, the extent of editing in published marketing materials is debatable. A Substack analysis of popular newsletters found that 10% likely use AI content. As many as 7% rely “significantly” on AI-generated work, yet many authors downplay their usage.
While that remains a relatively small proportion, the majority of Substack publishers now use AI in their research (64.94%).
Here’s a closer look at how AI is being used by Substack publishers:
| AI Use | Proportion Utilizing in Publishing |
| Research | 64.94% |
| Ideation/Brainstorming | 56.43% |
| Writing Assistance | 48.65% |
| Image Generation | 41.49% |
| Content Repurposing | 33.3% |
| Audio Transcription | 24.79% |
| Translation/Multilingual | 16.8% |
| Text-to-Speech | 12.14% |
| Design | 11.72% |
| Audio Editing | 8.3% |
| Video Generation | 7.16% |
| Video Editing | 6.33% |
| Voice Cloning | 4.06% |
Source: Muck Rack, Muck Rack (2), Wired, Substack
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Tools & Preferences in AI Marketing
Without a doubt, the most popular tool in AI marketing is ChatGPT. A survey of Substack publishers found that OpenAI’s virtual assistant is used by approximately 77.8%.
That’s followed by Claude, Grammarly, and Gemini, each with over 20% of Substack publishers using the respective tools.
Here’s the full list of popular AI tools used in marketing:
| AI Tool | Proportion Using for Publishing |
| ChatGPT | 77.8% |
| Claude | 28.2% |
| Grammarly | 27.9% |
| Gemini | 23% |
| Grok | 15.2% |
| DALL-E | 11.6% |
| CapCut | 9.7% |
| Midjourney | 8.1% |
| DeepSeek | 7.9% |
| Descript | 7.8% |
| Notion AI | 5.9% |
| Runway ML | 1.6% |
| Lumen5 | 1.1% |
Source: Substack
Why is AI Being Used in Marketing?
Almost all of those who use AI in a marketing setting say that it speeds up their work. Specifically, 93% of PR pros believe AI helps them complete work more efficiently.
Not only this, 71% of marketers believe that generative AI will help ease workload, allowing greater emphasis on strategic work. The amount of saved time thanks to the use of AI in marketing could total five hours per week.
Furthermore, around 4 in 5 (78%) of PR professionals claim that the use of AI helps improve the quality of their work.
Source: Muck Rack, Salesforce
Policy, Training, and Corporate Readiness
Despite this high adoption and positive reception, more than half of PR professionals (55%) report that their companies have yet to establish formal policies or guidelines around AI use.
In 2024, the percentage lacking these policies was even higher at 72%, indicating some improvement, but many still operate without structured guidance.
As of 2025, 17% of PR pros state that their organization lacks AI guidelines but has plans to implement them.
When it comes to AI training, there has also been progress. Approximately 1 in 3 (35%) of PR professionals note that training is now offered at work – that’s a 14% increase on 2024’s figure.
That said, there is still some way to go, as 2 in 5 companies don’t offer any form of AI training, down from 50% last year.
Source: Muck Rack, Muck Rack (2)
Areas of Concern & Friction
More than half (57.3%) of Substack publishers view AI as extremely/very valuable to their work.
Level of importance to work according to Substack publishers:
- Extremely/very – 57.3%
- Moderately – 23.9%
- Slightly – 15.3%
- Not at all & other – 3.5%
However, there are genuine concerns around the increased use of AI within marketing and publishing, the biggest of which are ethical:
- Ethical concerns – 76.3%
- Prefer not to rely on it – 51.6%
- Data privacy concerns – 37.2%
- Not useful – 28.9%
- Too expensive – 1.7%
- Too difficult – 1.6%
Opinion appears to be split when it comes to the future of AI in marketing, with a clear distinction between current AI users and non-AI users.
Around 30% of Substack publishers who use AI believe it will be very beneficial to their work in the next five years. In contrast, over 40% who don’t use AI right now think it will be very harmful.
Source: Substack
Key Takeaways
AI is now deeply embedded in many professional workflows. And for marketing professionals, generative AI use is widespread and expanding, handling a broader set of tasks than ever.
AI is changing everything in marketing, from content creation to workflows and even how brands are perceived. With Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit, you can cut through the noise and see exactly how your brand is performing online, powered by real-time AI insights.