Overview
But how exactly are marketers using AI ? What are the real benefits and risks? And most importantly, how does AI-generated content actually perform compared to human-written content?
A comprehensive new research report from Ahrefs, based on 879 survey responses from marketing and SEO professionals worldwide, provides fascinating insights into these questions. The findings reveal a content marketing industry in the midst of transformation, where AI adoption is not just common—it’s becoming the norm.
The AI Revolution is Here: 87% of Marketers Are Already Using AI
Perhaps the most striking finding from the research is just how widespread AI adoption has become in content marketing. A staggering 87% of respondents reported using AI to help create content, with only 13% avoiding AI tools entirely.
This isn’t limited to tech-savvy startups or large enterprises. AI adoption is prevalent across companies of all sizes:
- Small companies (10-49 employees): 91% use AI
- Enterprise companies (1,000+ employees): 87% use AI
- Medium companies (50-249 employees): 88% use AI
- Large companies (250-999 employees): 82% use AI
Even among the smallest « micro » companies (1-9 employees), 81% are using AI tools for content creation.
The ubiquity of AI use suggests we’ve reached a tipping point where AI-assisted content creation is becoming table stakes for competitive content marketing.
The Productivity Multiplier: AI Users Publish 47% More Content
One of the most compelling benefits of AI in content marketing is its impact on productivity. The research found that companies using AI publish a median of 17 articles per month, compared to just 12 articles for companies not using AI—a 47% increase in content output.
This productivity boost is particularly pronounced for smaller companies:
- Micro companies: 10 articles (no AI) vs 12 articles (AI)
- Small companies: 15 articles (no AI) vs 15 articles (AI)
- Medium companies: 15.5 articles (no AI) vs 15 articles (AI)
Interestingly, enterprise companies actually published more content without AI workflows (47.5 vs 20 articles), suggesting that large organizations may not yet have optimized their AI implementation strategies.
The ability to dramatically increase content output with the same resources represents a fundamental shift in content economics. Where teams once struggled to produce a few high-quality pieces per month, AI is enabling them to scale their content production exponentially.
Blog Posts Lead the AI Content Revolution
When it comes to content types, blog posts are by far the most common application for AI, with 87% of respondents using AI for blog content creation. This is followed by:
- Website copy and landing pages: 64%
- Social media posts: 63%
- Email/newsletters: 47%
- Ad copy: 34%
- Video scripts: 29%
- Ebooks: 17%
- Whitepapers: 15%
The dominance of blog content makes sense from a strategic standpoint. As one expert noted in the research, blog content typically requires minimal branding exercise and expert input—it’s often created « to rank » rather than to maintain a specific brand voice. This makes it an ideal starting point for AI implementation.
The AI Workflow: From Brainstorming to Publishing
The research reveals that marketers are using AI across the entire content creation workflow, but certain tasks are more popular than others:
Most Popular AI Tasks:
- Brainstorming topic ideas (76%)
- Creating content outlines (73%)
- Improving existing content (67%)
- Editing/rewriting content (63%)
- Crafting/optimizing headlines (53%)
Less Popular AI Tasks:
- Creating images (19%)
- Localizing or translating content (22%)
- Keyword clustering (23%)
This distribution suggests that marketers are finding AI most valuable for the ideation and structuring phases of content creation, rather than for final production or technical SEO tasks.
ChatGPT Dominates, But the Landscape is Diverse
When it comes to tool preferences, ChatGPT leads by a significant margin, used by 44% of respondents. However, the AI tool landscape is surprisingly diverse:
- ChatGPT: 44%
- Gemini: 15%
- Claude: 10%
- Jasper: 4%
- Perplexity: 3%
The research identified 94 different AI tools being used across the respondents, indicating a rich and varied ecosystem of AI for content marketing creation solutions.
Notably, 77% of users prefer direct LLM providers (like OpenAI or Anthropic) over specialized wrapper tools, suggesting that many marketers are comfortable working directly with the foundational AI models rather than relying on specialized interfaces.
The Quality Question: Human vs. AI Content
One of the most contentious debates in content marketing is whether AI-generated content can match the quality of human-written content. The research provides nuanced insights into this question.
Quality Perceptions:
- 65% believe human content is better quality (36% « way better, » 29% « slightly better »)
- 21% believe AI and human content are roughly the same quality
- 14% believe AI content is better quality (9% « way better, » 6% « slightly better »)
However, when it comes to search engine rankings, the picture becomes more complex:
Ranking Performance Perceptions:
- 34% believe AI and human content rank roughly the same
- 32% don’t know which ranks better
- 23% believe human content ranks better
- 11% believe AI content ranks better
This disparity suggests that while marketers recognize quality differences, they’re less certain about how these differences translate to actual search performance.
The Reality Check: Most AI For Content Marketing Gets Human Review
Despite concerns about AI accuracy and quality, the research reveals that most companies have robust review processes in place. A remarkable 97% of respondents have some kind of review process for AI content, with only 3% publishing pure artificial intelligence content without any human oversight.
Review Methods:
- Manual review: 80%
- Subject matter expert review: 35%
- Professional editor review: 30%
- AI-assisted review: 14%
Additionally, only 4% of respondents reported that over 75% of their published content was pure AI content. In contrast, 50% reported that none of their content was pure AI without human input.
This suggests that successful AI content strategies involve humans and AI working together, rather than AI completely replacing human input.
The Performance Reality: AI Content Users See Faster Growth
Perhaps the most compelling evidence for AI’s effectiveness comes from the traffic growth data. Using Ahrefs’ own API data, the research found that websites using AI for content marketing saw a median year-over-year organic traffic growth of 29.08%, compared to 24.21% for sites not using AI—a 5% difference in growth rates.
This correlation between AI use and traffic growth, combined with the 47% increase in content output, suggests that the quantity benefits of AI may be translating into meaningful business results.
Risk Assessment: The Real Dangers of AI Content
While AI adoption is widespread, marketers aren’t blind to the risks. The research identified several key concerns:
Biggest Barriers to AI Adoption:
- Lack of accuracy (60%)
- Plagiarism concerns (57%)
- Bias in AI content (36%)
- Brand voice consistency (35%)
- Ethical implications (35%)
Biggest Perceived Risks:
- Sharing misinformation (62%)
- Worse user experience (56%)
- Reputation damage (37%)
- Google penalties (37%)
- Reduced rankings (36%)
Despite these concerns, the actual data on penalties and algorithm impacts tells a more nuanced story.
Algorithm Updates and Penalties: The Surprising Truth
The research revealed some counterintuitive findings about AI content and search engine penalties:
Algorithm Updates:
- 36% of AI users were negatively impacted by Google updates
- 40% of non-AI users were negatively impacted by Google updates
This 4% difference suggests that artificial intelligence content may actually be slightly less likely to be negatively affected by algorithm updates than human content.
Manual Penalties:
- 4% of AI users received manual penalties
- 3% of non-AI users received manual penalties
While AI for content marketing was slightly more likely to receive manual penalties, the difference is minimal and the overall rates are very low for both groups.
The Economics of AI Content: 4.7X Cost Reduction
One of the most dramatic impacts of AI is on content creation costs. The research found that:
- AI blog posts: Average cost of $131
- Human blog posts: Average cost of $611
- Cost difference: 4.7X more expensive for human content
This massive cost reduction is driven by the fact that 87% of AI users reported spending $0-100 per blog post, compared to only 39% of non-AI users.
However, interestingly, total content marketing budgets remained virtually identical:
- AI users: $2,475 average monthly spend
- Non-AI users: $2,442 average monthly spend
This suggests that companies aren’t using AI to reduce their content budgets—they’re using it to get more content for the same investment.
The Transparency Question: Most Don’t Disclose AI Use
Despite the widespread use of AI, transparency about its use is limited. Only 16% of companies using AI choose to disclose this to their website visitors, while 84% don’t disclose AI use.
Disclosure was most common among:
- Micro companies (23% disclose)
- Enterprise companies (18% disclose)
- Heavy AI users (26% of companies using 76-100% AI content disclose)
This lack of disclosure raises questions about transparency and user expectations in the age of AI content.
Future Investment: 51% Plan to Increase AI Spending
Looking ahead, the research shows strong confidence in AI content strategies:
- 51% plan to increase AI content spending (17% significantly, 34% moderately)
- 43% plan to maintain current spending
- 6% plan to decrease spending (5% moderately, 1% significantly)
This investment trend is strongest among micro companies (69% plan to increase) and weakest among enterprise companies (44% plan to increase).
Key Insights and Recommendations
Based on this comprehensive research, several key insights emerge for content marketers:
1. AI Adoption is No Longer Optional
With 87% of marketers already using AI, companies avoiding AI tools risk falling behind in content output and potentially growth rates.
2. Quality Control is Critical
The 97% of companies that review artificial intelligence content marketing are onto something. Pure AI content without human oversight is rare and potentially risky.
3. Focus on Productivity, Not Replacement
The most successful approaches use AI to amplify human capabilities rather than replace them entirely. AI excels at ideation, outlining, and first drafts, while humans add expertise, brand voice, and quality control.
4. Blog Content is the Entry Point
For companies just starting with AI, blog content offers the lowest risk and highest reward opportunity to experiment with AI-assisted creation.
5. Search Performance May Be Better Than Expected
Despite quality concerns, AI for content marketing appears to perform competitively in search results and may even be less susceptible to algorithm updates.
6. Cost Benefits Are Real
The 4.7X cost reduction for AI content creation is enabling companies to dramatically increase content output without proportional budget increases.
7. The Quantity vs. Quality Balance Matters
While AI enables massive content scaling, the companies seeing the best results are those maintaining quality standards through human review and editing.
The Road Ahead
The research paints a picture of an industry in transition. AI has already fundamentally changed content marketing economics, enabling companies to produce more content at lower costs while maintaining competitive search performance.
However, the most successful companies aren’t simply replacing humans with AI—they’re creating hybrid workflows that combine AI efficiency with human creativity and expertise. The future of content marketing appears to be collaborative, with AI handling the heavy lifting of content creation while humans focus on strategy, quality control, and brand differentiation.
For marketers still hesitant about AI adoption, the data suggests that the question isn’t whether to use AI, but how to use it effectively. With proper implementation and quality controls, AI can be a powerful tool for content marketing success.
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This analysis is based on Ahrefs’ comprehensive research report « The State of AI in Content Marketing » which surveyed 879 marketing and SEO professionals worldwide between December 2024 and February 2025.
The revolution is already underway. The question is: will you be part of it?
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