Ninety-Eight Percent of Marketers Use AI. The Other Two Percent Are Lying or Retired. Survey Says So.
A Metricool survey of over 700 creators and marketers found that 98 percent use AI in their work. The data, shared exclusively with CNET, reveals AI is used for daily tasks, repetitive chores, workflow automation, and content customization by locality and platform. The survey suggests AI design tools have finally reached sufficient capability for creative work after years of being dismissed as inadequate.
This demonstrates what economists call the Normalization Curve of tool adoption. When usage approaches universal penetration, the tool ceases to be a competitive advantage and becomes table stakes. The mental model here is baseline commodification. If everyone uses AI for content customization, the differentiation shifts from 'whether you use AI' to 'how well you direct it.' The skill that matters now is prompt engineering and editorial judgment, not AI access itself. Those who still treat AI adoption as a strategic choice are already behind.
Metricool, a social media management platform, surveyed over 700 creators and marketers. The findings were shared exclusively with CNET.
- Pick one repetitive marketing task you do weekly, such as writing social captions or drafting email subject lines.
- Use a free AI chatbot like ChatGPT or Claude to generate three variations of that task. Give it specific constraints like tone, character count, and target audience.
- Compare the AI output to what you would have produced manually. Time both approaches. The exercise will show you exactly where AI helps your workflow and where it falls short.