Welcome to the new School of Marketing podcast. I'm Bianca McKenzie, and this is the place where we break down marketing strategies that actually work without the overwhelm.
Before we dive in, I want to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land I live and work on, the Palawa people of Lutruita. I pay my respects to elders past and present and acknowledge the deep connection they have to this land, culture and community.
Now let's dive in and make marketing work for you.
Okay,
today we're talking about something that's been sitting in my mind for a while now, something that I've watched play out in my local community here in the northwest of Tasmania,
and that I suspect is happening in communities all over the country.
We're talking about AI specifically,
businesses using AI generated content like images, posters, graphics, copy,
and the very strong reactions that can provoke.
Because here's the thing.
I've watched this unfold locally. I've seen community members get genuinely angry when they've discovered a local business used an AI generated image.
I've seen calls to boycott businesses.
I've seen really heated conversations in community Facebook groups about authenticity, about local character, about what it means to support a small business.
And I've also watched small business owners on the other side of that.
People who are already stretched incredibly thin,
who used a tool to help them get something done,
and who suddenly found themselves at the center of a community controversy they absolutely did not see coming.
This topic deserves a proper,
honest,
nuanced conversation.
Not a hot take,
not a side to pick,
just a real unpacking of what's going on,
why people feel the way they feel,
and how businesses can navigate this in a way that serves them without alienating business, their community.
So let's get into it.
First, let's acknowledge why AI generated content has become such a flashpoint, because I think the reaction makes more sense when you understand what's underneath it.
AI image generation has become,
in a way, remarkably capable. In a very short period of time. Like a year or two ago,
AI images were obviously AI like slightly uncanny. Wrong number of fingers, you know, that particular glossy perfection that gave it away immediately.
Now, the gap between AI generated and professionally photographed or professionally designed,
that gap is closing fast.
And that shift has happened faster than most people's understanding of it.
So when a local business posts a beautiful image and turn and it turns out to be AI generated,
there's a feeling of having been deceived,
even if deception was never the intention.
You know, I thought this was real. It wasn't.
What else isn't real? Like, you know, people have questions,
and in small, tight knit communities, especially where people choose to shop local specifically because of the human connection,
because of the authenticity, the relationship,
that feeling of deception cuts deeper than it might. You know, in a more anonymous context,
people aren't just buying a product from this business, they're investing in a relationship.
And anything that feels like it undermines the authenticity of that relationship is going to create a reaction.
That's the emotional reality underneath the backlash. And it's worth taking seriously,
even if we also think the reaction is sometimes a little disproportionate.
Let me make the case against AI generated content properly, because I think it deserves to be heard and not just dismissed.
When you're a local business in a small community,
your point of difference is that you're real, that you're human, that you're part of the fabric of the place.
An AI generated image of your cafes, you know, cozy atmosphere, or your friendly team that doesn't actually show you a real cafe or your real team,
is it really? It's false advertising. It's not just legally, but emotionally as well.
And in small communities,
emotional authenticity is so important.
People drive past three other options to come to you because of who you are.
If who you are turns out to be at least, you know, partly manufactured,
the trust damage is real.
It can also have an impact on creative industries. You know,
graphic designers, photographers, illustrators, copywriters. These are real people with real skills who built real careers and real businesses.
And AI is in many cases directly replacing the work they would have been hired to do.
And I know in super small micro businesses it is less likely for them to outsource those kind of things, but I still want to mention it. In a small regional community,
where the pool of creative professionals is already limited,
that impact is really felt. When a local business chooses an AI generated poster over hiring a local designer,
they're making a decision that has a direct economic consequence for a person in their community.
This doesn't mean that it's always the wrong decision,
but it is a real consequence and it's worth acknowledging rather than dismissing.
Also,
part of what makes regional communities special is their Visual and cultural distinctiveness.
The way local businesses look and present themselves contributes to that.
When AI generates content,
it's going to draw from like a really big pool of global imagery and aesthetics.
Which means AI generated content for a business in northwest Tasmania can look almost identical to AI generated content for a business in suburban Sydney or rural Scotland.
Sometimes it's like really subtle,
but it is real. And in communities that are actively trying to protect and celebrate their local character, it can feel like a small but significant,
like erosion of something that's worth preserving.
These are legitimate concerns. I'm not dismissing them.
And I think businesses need to sit with them rather than just brushing them aside. Because you know AI is convenient. I know AI is convenient. I use it in my business too.
But really, you need to think about how and when.
Now, let me make the other case, because the anti AI position,
while I understand it, sometimes it comes without a full appreciation of the reality of running a small business.
Firstly,
small business owners are already doing the work of many people.
The average small business owner is the CEO, the bookkeeper, the customer service team, the delivery driver, and yes, the marketing department.
They're doing all of this,
usually without enough hours in a day, usually without enough money to outsource everything that should be outsourced.
When someone in that position discovers a tool that helps them create a halfway decent poster in 10 minutes, or less than 10 minutes instead of three hours,
or that helps them write a social media caption when their brain is empty at 9 o' clock at night,
that tool is not a shortcut out of laziness,
it's a lifeline.
And judging them for using it without understanding that context is not fair.
Also, not every business has access to local creative professionals in regional and remote areas, especially the availability of affordable local creative services,
it's limited.
You know, hiring a professional photographer or a graphic designer, even if you want to,
it might mean a significant wait time, a significant cost, or even both.
AI doesn't fully replace those professionals,
but it does give businesses a viable option when the alternative is no content at all,
or content produced so poorly by the business owner themselves that it could damage the brand.
So we need to think about that as well.
Also, AI used well can free up time and energy for the human parts of the business.
So here's something I think gets missed in this conversation.
Time is finite.
Every hour a business owner spends wrestling with Canva is an hour that they are not spending talking to customers, improving their product or being present in their community.
If AI handles some of that content creation Burden that time can go back into the human,
like into the relational parts of the business that no AI can replace.
Seen that way, AI isn't replacing the human element, it's protecting it.
And also that line between AI and other tools,
it's been blurry. It's always been blurry. I want to gently point out that the outrage about AI generated content exists alongside widespread acceptance of many other forms of non original content creation.
You know, like stock photography has been used by small businesses for decades.
Canva templates, which are designed by someone else and customized by the business,
are universally accepted now and celebrated.
Social media, caption generators, chatbots,
automated email sequences,
all of these involve some degree of outsourcing or automating the creation of business communication.
AI is a significant step further than these tools. I'm not pretending that it's not.
But the principle of using technology to help create business content isn't new.
And the line between you know, what's an acceptable tool and inauthentic AI,
it's not always as clear as the conversation sometimes implies.
Okay, here's where I want to move the conversation because I think both sides are in their own way missing the most important question.
The question isn't, did a human or AI create this?
The question is,
does this accurately and authentically represent this business and build genuine trust with its community?
Those are different questions and the answer to the first doesn't automatically determine the answer to the second.
An AI generated image that accurately represents the warmth, the quality and the character of a business that is used transparently without creating a false impression,
it might build genuine trust.
A human created image that is heavily filtered, carefully staged and designed to create an impression that doesn't match the actual experience that might undermine trust.
Like we've been so focused on the tool that we've actually stopped asking about the outcome. And I think the outcome is what actually matters to customers, not the process.
That said, and this is really important,
context matters a lot.
What's acceptable for an online business selling nationally is very different from what's appropriate for a local cafe whose entire value proposition is that one, we are your community.
The tool is the same, the context is completely different,
and the context should drive the decision.
Now let me get practical here because I think this is where the conversation becomes most useful.
Let's talk about where AI can genuinely help without undermining authenticity.
Writing assistance is probably the area where AI adds the most value with the least risk.
Using AI to help you draft a caption, you know, write a first version of an Email, or maybe structure a blog post and then editing it to sound like you.
That is no different in principle from using spell check or grammar tools. You're still the author.
You're still bringing your voice, your perspective, your knowledge.
AI is just helping you get the words on the page faster.
The key here is the editing step. If you take an AI generated caption and post it word for word,
it's probably going to sound like AI, unless you've trained it really well. If you take that, rework it in your voice, add a specific detail about your actual business, make it sound like you,
now it's yours.
But AI was a starting point, not the finished product.
Brainstorming and ideation is another area where AI earns its keep.
You know, if you're struggling to come up with ideas,
ask AI for 20 ideas and pick the three that feel the most relevant and most authentic to you.
Using AI to spark your thinking is very different from outsourcing your thinking entirely.
Background imagery and graphics for digital use. You know, when the image isn't claiming to represent something real about your business.
That can work in some contexts. You know, a decorative graphic for a social media post,
a textured background for a quote image.
Something that's clearly illustrative rather than documentary.
The risk here is lower because nobody is expected to believe this is a photo of your actual business, because it's not like it's something illustrative.
Templates and frameworks. Using AI to create a template that you then personalize, that's reasonable.
Using AI to generate a complete personalized poster for your real event that features your real business and and real people,
that is trickier.
So where AI creates genuine problems is this. Images that claim to show your real business, your real team, your real products,
but don't. This is where the authenticity concern is most legitimate. If someone sees your AI generated image of a smiling team and comes into your business expecting that the disconnect is jarring and jarring is damaging.
Another one is content that replaces the human connection rather than supporting it. If your entire social media presence becomes AI generated to the point where there's no real voice, no real personality, no real human behind any of it, that's a problem.
Not because AI was involved, but because the thing that makes people trust and choose local businesses has been hollowed out.
Another place where AI creates genuine problems is anything where the origin matters to the people receiving it. You know, a poster for a local community event created by a local business feels different when it's AI generated versus locally designed, not because the information is different because the community investment it represents is different.
And in small communities that difference is felt.
So if you're a business owner who wants to use AI tools, and I think there are genuinely good reasons to, here's how to do it in a way that keeps your authenticity intact.
Firstly,
lead with real,
then supplement with AI. Your real photos,
your real voice, your real stories are irreplaceable.
The more of those you have,
the more AI can play a supporting role without undermining the overall authenticity of your presence.
If your social media is 80% real photos of your actual business, your actual team, your actual work, and 20% is AI assisted graphics and captions,
the overall impression is still authentic. If it's the reverse,
you've got a problem.
So invest in getting real content. Even like imperfect real content, it doesn't matter. Like a slightly blurry photo of your actual team is more powerful for a local business than a perfect AI generated image of people who don't exist or look too glammed up.
Because you can easily tell.
Use AI for words more than images.
As a general principle,
AI assistance with writing tends to carry less authenticity risk than AI generated imagery.
Words can be edited to sound like you. Images either look like your real business or they don't.
Use AI to help you write.
Be more cautious about using it to generate imagery that's meant to represent your real business.
Also, be transparent where it's appropriate.
I know this feels uncomfortable, but there's a version of transparency that,
that is actually a strength rather than a liability. You know, we use an AI tool to help us design this poster. It doesn't have to be an apology.
And in some contexts it can be a demonstration of resourcefulness. You know, a one person business doing what they need to do to show up for their community.
The businesses that got into trouble locally weren't always the ones using AI.
Sometimes they were the ones who seemed to be hiding it.
Transparency done well,
it can preempt the backlash rather than invite it.
Also, edit everything through your voice. Whatever AI generates,
captions, emails, image concepts, whatever, run it through the filter of your actual business before it goes anywhere near your audience.
You know, does this sound like us? Does this look like us?
Does this represent something real about who we are and what we offer? And if not,
change it until it does.
AI generates starting points.
You create the finished product,
and of course know your community and calibrate accordingly. This might be the most important thing that I can say.
What's acceptable varies enormously by community and context.
An online course Creator posting you know AI generated graphics is in a very different situation from a local bakery in like a tight knit regional town posting AI images of you know, their team and their kitchen.
Know your community,
know what they value,
know how much authenticity matters in your specific context and calibrate your AI use accordingly. The tool is the same.
The appropriateness of using it is entirely dependent on who your community is and what they expect from you.
I want to say something directly to people who are angry about AI generated content from local businesses, because I think the conversation needs this perspective too.
Your concern about authenticity is valid,
your desire for local businesses to feel genuinely local is understandable,
and your instinct to protect the creative professionals in your community is admirable.
But before you get angry at a small business owner who used AI to make a poster, please consider what their day looked like.
Consider that they might be running everything alone.
Consider that they might not have had the budget to hire a designer or the time to wait for one.
Consider that they were trying to show up for their community with a limited toolkit and made a choice that you disagree with.
A conversation is almost always more productive than a boycott. If you care about local businesses using local creative talent,
then tell them.
Recommend a local designer to help, offer to help them find affordable options,
connect them with different resources and then let them make their decision.
Because at the end of the day, they are a small business owner trying to survive and serve their community.
That deserves a little grace.
I want to finish with a broader thought about AI in business, because I think it's relevant to how we approach this conversation going forward.
AI is not going away.
It's going to become more capable,
more accessible,
and more embedded in the tools we already use,
many of which already have AI built in without us even noticing.
The question of should businesses use AI is in many ways already settled. They will.
The question is how.
The businesses that navigate this well will be the ones that use AI as a tool in service of their authentic identity,
not as a replacement for it.
Businesses that use AI to do more of what they already do well, rather than to manufacture something that they're not.
Businesses that stay connected to what their specific community values and make thoughtful decisions about where AI helps and where it harms.
And the communities that navigate this well will be the ones that have nuanced, generous conversations about it, rather than drawing hard lines that don't account for the reality of running a small business in 2026 and beyond.
So there you have it. The AI conversation not neatly resolved because it's not a neat issue,
but hopefully we unpack this honestly enough that you can think about it more clearly in the context of your own business and your own community.
Okay, here's your action step. Wherever you sit on this issue, I want you to take five minutes this week to think about your own AI use or your own AI avoidance and ask yourself honestly, is my current approach in service of genuine authenticity,
or is it just a position I've taken without fully examining it?
And that question applies whether you're the business owner or the community member. We're all navigating this in real time,
and the best that we can do this is navigate it thoughtfully.
Whew. That was a hard one. All right, thanks for tuning into the new School of Marketing podcast.
Remember, the question was never really about AI.
It was always about authenticity.
Keep that at the center and you won't go far wrong.
I'm Bianca McKenzie and I'll catch you next week. Until then, keep making marketing work for you.
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