Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Today’s marketing faces a fascinating paradox—with boundless tech at our fingertips, audiences are hungry for something real.
In direct contrast, businesses are doubling down on artificial intelligence (AI). A study by Mckinsey and Company shows a surge of a whopping 72% companies onboarding AI tools in the last year.
With this at the helm, marketing teams can scale production, work more quickly, and test ad nauseum. According to the Salesforce State of Marketing report, high performers are 2.5x more likely to have AI somewhere in their workflow.
The sentiment is clear: if you’re not using AI, you’re falling behind.
Yet, this skyrocketing AI adoption collides head-on with a growing wave of skepticism, particularly among younger audiences. These digital natives, raised in an era of misinformation and over-automation, often recognize AI-driven content for what it is: inauthentic.
For marketers, this creates a delicate balancing act: leveraging AI to stay competitive while ensuring that campaigns feel human, genuine, and relatable.
As the tools grow smarter, the challenge is not just to use AI effectively, but in ways that resonate with increasingly discerning and AI-savvy consumers.
State of content marketing in 2025:
- Content strategies: shifting paradigms
- Personalization with proprietary data
- Hybrid content: Overcoming the paradox of AI and authenticity
- Brand awareness & cross-channel marketing
- Marketing 2025 predictions
Content strategies: shifting paradigms
“Marketing has transformed more in the past three years, than over the past 50.” — Hubspot 2024 State of Marketing Report
In 2025, content teams are grappling with:
- AI oversaturation
- Throwing out the high volume playbook, and
- Redefining “high-quality” content
AI oversaturation
Perhaps there can be too much of a good thing. Last year, the most-used AI apps amongst marketing teams were for content creation.
But if every marketer is using one of the same five tools, won’t we just recycle the same phrases and ideas?
This is a very real problem. Wordbrew CEO, Georgia Austin, emphasizes that “since there is now a low barrier to entry for brands to create content, we are inundated with generic, copycat content that all came from the same language models.”
And in turn, we’re seeing audience fatigue and disinterest.
Does this mean we should jump the proverbial AI ship? Absolutely not.
Because AI is, like any technology, best served when we use it as a catalyst for our own creativity, expertise, and research.
Alex Moran, SEO Lead at Space & Time told The Drum “AI can only take existing information and process it, so the oversaturation of web content only exists if you are not creating something unique.”
But if every marketer is using one of the same five tools, won’t we just recycle the same phrases and ideas?
This is a very real problem. Wordbrew CEO, Georgia Austin, emphasizes that “since there is now a low barrier to entry for brands to create content, we are inundated with generic, copycat content that all came from the same language models.”
And in turn, we’re seeing audience fatigue and disinterest.
Does this mean we should jump the proverbial AI ship? Absolutely not.
Because AI is, like any technology, best served when we use it as a catalyst for our own creativity, expertise, and research.
Alex Moran, SEO Lead at Space & Time told The Drum “AI can only take existing information and process it, so the oversaturation of web content only exists if you are not creating something unique.”
If anything, the rise of AI-generated content has only increased the value of actual human voices.
Throwing out the high-volume playbook
With new values comes a new playbook: The era of content volume as a primary strategy has passed.
This is due in equal parts to AI content in search engines and the importance of high-value content. That litany of “fodder” pages won’t gain traffic like it used to.
“AI overviews are reshaping how users engage with search results, offering direct answers to many queries without requiring a click.” —Afnan Rehan, Wordbrew
But that doesn’t mean we should just stop publishing. Instead, we need to adjust our expectations, and focus on quality to help our content stand out.
What we’ll likely see is a decrease in overall traffic, with an increase in the traffic that matters.
While this may reduce traffic for straightforward yes-or-no questions or basic facts, it does not necessarily mean a loss of visibility for companies. Being featured in an AI overview still puts your brand in front of users, building awareness even if they do not click through.”
Redefining “high-quality” content
With the increasing sophistication of search algorithms, simply meeting the basic criteria isn’t enough. Instead, content has to have exceptional depth, relevance, and engagement to capture the fickle attentions of search engines and users.
“High-quality” might sound way too generic, but there’s an actual criteria for how our content can provide real value.
“Google especially is looking for person-centric content. We’re seeing more forums like Reddit and Quora show up in SERP results because at the end of the day: people want to hear from people. This same change is working across ads—teams are working with influencers who create an authentic relationship with audiences, along with traditional ads.” —Lauren Funaro, Content Marketing Manager
Along with authenticity comes a desire for genuine expertise. This means that content needs to include in-depth research, insightful analysis, and a clear understanding of the audience’s needs and preferences.
The real differentiator here lies in proprietary data: information that’s unique to your company, brand, or round-up of experts.
Personalization with proprietary data
Georgia Austin, CEO of Wordbrew, says, “In 2025, we will see a lot more emphasis on unique data. This can be internal documentation, custom research, insights from events or webinars hosted, and what I believe will be most impactful – bringing in fresh, first-party insights from the experts in your own team.”
But very rarely are our content creators also our subject matter experts. And this poses a very real problem: According to the state of Discontent report, accessing SMEs is one of today’s biggest content marketing challenges.
This is where AI should come in.
Hybrid content: overcoming the paradox of AI and authenticity
With all of the noise, personalization is really the heartbeat of impactful content delivery.
In this context, the question becomes not “are we using AI?” but, “how are we using AI?”
The answers lies in what we’ll call “hybrid content:” leveraging AI to amplify the voices of experts.
Emerging content creation platforms like Wordbrew embody this balance, where machine capabilities enhance, rather than replace, human creativity.
“The irony is that 90% of the expertise you could ever need for your content can already be found in-house, but it’s hard to extract those insights since it requires synchronous meetings no one has time for.” — Georgia Austin, Wordbrew CEO
Wordbrew is designed for this paradoxical era, so companies can maintain trust while leveraging the speed and scalability of AI. The content management system looks at AI as the road, not the destination.
It acts as a hub for content creators to quickly request expert insights, quotes, and research. Then, they can consolidate this knowledge into content that’s not so much AI-generated as it is AI-amplified.
Brand awareness & cross-channel marketing
“Marketers use an average of 9 different tactics across the entire customer journey.”—Salesforce State of Marketing Report, 2025
With better access to thought leaders in niche markets, consumers are building their own journeys across algorithms and platforms.
In response, brands are attempting to approach the lifecycle holistically— to varying success. Consumers aren’t interested in fragmented touch points. In fact, 73% of consumers expect even more personalization.
To make cross-channel marketing effective, we need to carefully coordinate our strategies across platforms and touchpoints. Essentially, each channel needs to operate on its own level, while still aligning with other channels in the funnel.
An excellent way to tackle this is with clear delineation on your team and strong OKRs (objectives and key results).
“For example, SEO is my channel, but my OKRs funnel up directly into the overarching marketing objectives. This keeps me aligned with other teams, even when we own different content levers.” — Lauren Funaro, Content Marketing Manager, Freed
With this in mind, each channel is specifically optimized based on its unique characteristics and audience behaviors.
Leveraging user data
With third-party cookies in a bit of a will they/won’t they situation, 84% of companies are prioritizing direct customer insights and first-party data that they themselves collected.
Data-driven practices allow organizations to achieve several key outcomes:
- Precise targeting of audiences
- Optimized resource allocation
- Deeper customer understanding
- More accurate ROI measurement
The next step in this evolution is figuring out how to use all of this data to its potential. Companies are learning how to source and share data across teams.
Lauren Funaro, Content Marketing Manager at Freed, says “With data alignment, we can better understand what resonates with our users across channels. It’s an integral way of making sure that you’re building something that provides value.”
The future of content marketing: 2025 predictions
With 2025 in full swing, we’re redefining what makes content effective. We’re already seeing an uptick in primary research and internal expertise, with AI getting a functional facelift.
With all of these changes, here’s what content teams ought to keep in mind:
Emphasize compliance and security
“AI” and “Data,” are terrifying without any guardrails and vital certifications (like SOC II). This has always been the case, but with new tools and opportunities, Compliance Managers are about to get very busy.
Organizations implementing AI content solutions and any data-tracking need to maintain several specific practices, like:
- Maintaining human oversight through careful review processes and editorial controls
- Implementing quality controls with clear standards and measurement criteria
- Addressing inherent biases by regularly auditing outputs and refining systems
- Practicing transparency about AI usage and human involvement
Content diversification
By the end of 2024, Hubspot (an SEO powerhouse) lost 37% of its traffic from just two months prior. This emphasizes three things:
- Content depth matters much than breadth
- There is value and reward in sticking to your niche
- SEO can’t be our end-all be all in content creation
According to Scale’s Demand Gen Council on SEO strategy, the best players for SEO right now are:
- Teams creating a category in an emerging market
- Established businesses in existing markets
Marketing teams need to think about where the potential value lies, especially as we start optimizing for AI platforms, too.
If you’re not in one of the above categories, don’t worry. You can pick SEO back up after you’ve established your brand.
How do we do that? We’re glad you asked.
Thought leadership… or BBQ Content
It all comes back to your SMEs. Scale’s Demand Gen Council on SEO strategy spent several slides talking about “Meme Guy.”
And rightfully so, because Alexander Kobakhidze is building a direct line between himself and potential customers.
But what does this have to do with “BBQ Content?“
The term, coined by Jason Mountford, focuses on topics that are actually interesting for your audience (vs. long-tail keyword fodder). The best way to do that is to give your experts the mic.
LinkedIn, Reddit, and TikTok are powerful platforms here. By posting regularly, your thought leaders can build an audience which will in turn lead to traffic to your site. Many brands use this format to build a newsletter, and develop B2B leads and brand ambassadors.
And while some might say that this signifies the death of SEO, we disagree. If anything, this means that we can use our basic keywords as a springboard for creating well-researched, thoughtful articles that:
- Answer the query
- Provide something new… and most importantly, genuine.
Looking beyond
Audiences have made it clear: they don’t want the same recycled lines. By leveraging AI to amplify the voices on our teams, marketers can have fun with creating again.
We’re no longer writing for the unseen algorithmic gods. Instead, we’re leaning on the experts to foster connections and share insights across channels.
It doesn’t get more real than that.
This article was written with the help of Wordbrew. Give it a try to amplify your experts with the power of AI. Thank you to our experts for sharing their insights: