New AI Marketing Study: 60% Do This Daily...

Summary

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AI Explored Podcast: "New AI Marketing Study: 60% Do This Daily..."

Host: Michael Stelzner (Founder, Social Media Examiner)

Guest/Co-host: Dan Sanchez (Senior AI Marketing Strategist, Social Media Examiner)

Date: October 10, 2025

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Episode Overview

This special episode of AI Explored centers on the just-released 2025 AI Marketing Industry Report authored by Michael Stelzner. Drawing on survey responses from over 730 marketers worldwide, Michael and Dan unpack the data, revealing how AI adoption has accelerated, what tools are leading, and the opportunities and challenges marketers face. The discussion is lively, practical, optimistic, and addresses marketers, creators, and business owners looking to leverage AI effectively.

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Main Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Stage: Study Significance & Methodology

• Michael highlights Social Media Examiner’s history of annual studies and the shift from focusing on "generative AI" to simply "AI" given widespread use. Their research is rooted in a scientific approach, using open-ended and quantitative questions for a nuanced understanding.
  • [03:01] “We at Social Media Examiner have always had a research philosophy around everything that we do. We try to gather insights to understand deeply how marketers view trends and changes in the world.” (Michael)
• The 2025 report includes new questions addressing fresh, practical concerns among marketers.

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2. Job Security & AI: Misconceptions and Realities

• There’s prevalent anxiety that AI may take marketers’ jobs, but the data tells a more nuanced story.
  • [04:59] “Only 20% of marketers that we surveyed... feel that it's a threat to their jobs.” (Michael)
  • Even though 36% believe AI will displace jobs in general, only 20% think their own job is at risk.
  • 70% of marketers believe AI will create new opportunities—suggesting optimism rather than fear dominates.
• Two possible reasons for low concern:
  • Marketers are either unaware of AI’s capabilities or are confident (perhaps overconfident) in their adaptability and value.
• Dan points out human bias—many believe they are “above average” and so feel safer, but warns that this confidence could be misplaced as AI advances.
  • [08:39] “Most people will rank themselves above average. So I think there's a little bit of that confidence thing happening.” (Dan)
• Michael urges marketers not to be complacent: those embracing AI will become “super marketers;” those ignoring it do so “at their own peril.”
  • [09:57] “Marketers that are ignoring it are ignoring it at their own peril. I think it should be a lot higher than 20% as far as fear of job loss.” (Michael)

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3. AI Adoption: The Daily Norm

• AI daily use among marketers has skyrocketed:
  • [13:13] “In 2024... 37% of marketers were using AI every day. Now 60% of marketers are using AI every day. That's a massive, massive increase.” (Michael)
  • 84% have increased their use over the last year; 82% plan to increase it further.
  • Michael calls this a "wake up call"—daily use is becoming the norm, with laggards at risk of falling behind.
    • [13:13] “If you're not using it daily, you are in the minority, and you might actually be falling behind.” (Michael)
• Dan likens AI to a new “operating system” for marketing, not a mere specialization or department.
  • [16:11] “AI is going to be the new operating system of which we do everything.” (Dan)
• Michael underscores the importance of habits—consistent, systematic use unlocks real benefits.

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4. Biggest Challenges: Time & Learning

• Top challenge: Learning and understanding AI (23%).
  • [19:59] “The biggest challenge that marketers have... is learning and understanding AI.” (Michael)
• Paradox: Lack of time to learn is the top barrier, but the #1 benefit (as cited by 90%) is that AI saves time—once learned!
  • [21:36] “If I told you that if you did one thing for one hour, it would, it would automatically give you three hours extra time a day, would you do it? ...People just haven't understood that the small investment they make in learning AI has a massive unlock which is giving them time.” (Michael)
• Dan empathizes: lack of clear starting points and resource overload contribute to learning paralysis.
  • [23:28] “It's not exactly clear where to start often, which is why people want to learn more about prompting.” (Dan)
• Solution: Bite-sized, actionable training (as seen in their YouTube series) helps lower the barrier and rapidly upskill marketers.

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5. AI Skills Marketers Want Most

• Prompting techniques are the top topic marketers want to master (81%).
  • [25:45] “81% of marketers said that they want to learn prompting techniques.” (Michael)
  • Prompting is considered foundational, and many new users see pre-written prompts as templates.
  • Dan compares learning prompting to progressing in design by first adapting templates in Canva.
    • [28:01] “It's foundational, it's kind of the entry level thing that you have to learn before you can get into the more advanced things when it comes to AI.” (Dan)
• Other top topics:
  • AI tools (80%)
  • Automations and workflows (79%)
• Prompting is also described as an “art form” that improves overall communication skills with both AI and humans.
  • [29:06] “The more you can be clear in exactly what it is you want and the more context you provide, the greater likelihood they're going to get it right on the first go round.” (Michael)

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6. Top AI Tools and Platforms in Use

• ChatGPT is the undisputed leader: used by 90% of marketers.
• Google Gemini is the surprise runner-up: used by 51% (up from 33% last year); its seamless integration into Google Workspace has driven this growth.
  • [31:30] “Half of marketers are using Google Gemini. That's up from 33% last year. That is a massive shift.” (Michael)
• Integration in core business tools (Gmail, Docs, Sheets) and cost structure (bundled with Workspace) makes Gemini increasingly dominant.
  • Gemini excels in multimodality (video, audio, images, text), real-time data access, and integration.
  • [34:52] “Gemini is built into Gmail, it's built into Google Docs, it's built into Google Sheets... it can help you with mathematics, analysis, all that kind of stuff.” (Michael)
• Dan praises Gemini for its rapid advances, especially relative to OpenAI’s speed and available features.
  • [33:29] “I've heard more and more people moving over to Gemini as their primary tool and it's because Gemini is just getting better.” (Dan)
• Special mention: Nano Banana—an image generation feature in Gemini lauded for near-perfect photo manipulation, possibly a real "Photoshop killer" for basic users.
  • [38:44] “Imagine what you would have said, ‘Oh, if we could Photoshop this’—Nano Banana can just do that with the prompt now, upload your image, Photoshop it to do this. It's done.” (Dan)

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7. AI and Video: The Next Frontier

• Video is now the most important content format for 46% of marketers.
• Yet only 22% are currently using AI for video, even as 69% want to learn more.
  • AI video has lagged due to technical barriers (rendering physics, processing power, realism), but that’s rapidly changing with tools like Google’s V0.
  • [40:08] “I think that that's just like AI hasn't been able to handle [video] yet. Plus, some of the challenges early with video was understanding physics... the physics just weren't there.” (Michael)
• Dan notes video-generation tools are shifting from “toys” to “professional tools,” rapidly approaching the quality and reliability needed for business use.
  • [43:07] “As it becomes more reliable, it becomes more useful for marketers.” (Dan)

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Memorable Quotes

• [04:59] Michael: “Despite the fact that the majority of marketers are using AI, they do not see AI as a threat to their jobs… only one in five marketers see it as a threat to their jobs.”
• [13:13] Michael: “In 2024... 37% of marketers were using AI every day. Now 60% of marketers are using AI every day. That's a massive, massive increase.”
• [16:11] Dan: “AI is going to be the new operating system of which we do everything.”
• [21:36] Michael: “People just haven't understood that the small investment they make in learning AI has a massive unlock which is giving them time. Yet it's the biggest challenge that they face.”
• [25:45] Michael: “Prompting is the basic stuff. The challenge with prompting is you're just looking at a screen. You don't know what to put in there. Right.”
• [31:30] Michael: “But the big shocker is that... it's Google's Gemini but it came in second at a major 51%.”
• [38:44] Dan: “[Nano Banana]... can do what you would have said, ‘Oh, if we could Photoshop this’—Nano Banana can just do that with the prompt now... I think that's why it's such a magical tool.”

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Key Timestamps

• [02:01] Dan introduces episode focus and Michael as guest.
• [04:59] Job security, fear vs optimism, and data from the report.
• [13:13] Daily AI usage leap and implications for marketers.
• [19:59] Main challenges for marketers: time, learning, and the "catch-22" of AI’s biggest benefit.
• [25:45] AI learning priorities: prompting, tools, automation.
• [31:22] Top AI platforms used: ChatGPT, Gemini, and the rationale.
• [37:15] Gemini’s Nano Banana and disruptive image editing.
• [40:08] AI for video content: current limits and coming breakthroughs.

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Final Takeaways & Resources

• AI is not a threat for most marketers—it’s a force multiplier and a source of new opportunity.
• Daily use of AI is rapidly becoming the standard for marketers.
• Learning and experimenting, even in small bursts, pays major dividends.
• Tools like Gemini are quickly becoming essential; staying ahead means adopting, not waiting.
• For those not already using AI in daily workflows, the time to start is now.

Get the full 2025 AI Marketing Industry Report:
SocialMediaExaminer.com/AIreport2025

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This summary captures the core themes, key data points, and strategic advice, making it invaluable for marketers seeking actionable insights into AI’s role in the industry as of 2025, even if they haven’t heard the episode.

Transcript

[A]

I have some really exciting news. We just released our second annual AI Marketing Industry Report and it's free. You'll be surprised by how often marketers are using AI and the tools that they're using. This is a comprehensive study of more than 730 marketers, and it covers how marketers are applying AI to their work, the benefits of AI, the big concerns marketers have, and a whole lot more. Even though I'm the author of this research study, I can say with full confidence that this is the most comprehensive study of AI adoption among marketers that I have ever seen. Get your free copy now by visiting social mediaexaminer.com AI Report 25 this might be just what you need to get your boss or your clients moving along with those AI initiatives you want to start. Get it now@social mediaexaminer.com airport25 hey, it's Michael Stelzner here. After running Social Media marketing world for 12 years, I've noticed something fascinating about the marketers who attend. They usually fall into two camps. Camp number one is those who show up because they have to. Their results are declining. They're scrambling to catch up. And camp number two is those who show up because they want to. They're already achieving a level of success, but they know that change is coming and they want to go so much further. Both learn valuable insights, but their outcomes are completely different. As Emily Ray Shutti said, I came away with a million ideas and new creative ways to approach my work. My business has since doubled in size and revenue. The AI revolution is here. Instagram algorithms keep shifting, Facebook's ad costs keep rising, and the list goes on and on and on. What type of marketer will you be in 2026? Join thousands of marketers at Social Media Marketing World 2026 this April in Anaheim, California. Save big when you register today at Social MediaMarketingWorld.info the adoption of AI by.

[B]

Marketers is happening faster than most people realize, and marketers say that AI is coming for their jobs. But is that really true? In today's episode, we'll explore new research that reveals how marketers are using AI. Hello, I'm Dan Sanchez, the senior AI Marketing strategist for Social Media Examiner. Today's guest is an AI enthusiast who helps marketers understand how to put AI to work. He's the host of the AI Explored podcast and the founder of the AI Business Society. He's also the founder of Social Media Examiner. So, Michael Stelzner, welcome to the show.

[A]

Dan, thank you so much for hosting Today's special episode. I'm really excited to dive into what we're going to talk about today.

[B]

Awesome. So today Mike and I will explore a brand new study he authored, the 2025 AI Marketing Industry Report. So let's dive into the report, starting with the first question. What's one of the biggest misconceptions you see when it comes to AI and marketing?

[A]

Well, before we get into this, and it's a good question, I just want to kind of, for those that are new to hearing about us, we have been doing studies for 17 years and we've been publishing an annual study called the Social Media Marketing Industry Report literally every year. It's the longest running social marketing study in the world. And last year at this time, I launched the very first study, which we called the Generative AI Marketing Industry Report. We dropped the word generative because we realized like nowadays everybody just calls it AI. But the reason we've been doing these studies is because we at Social Media examiner have always had a research philosophy around everything that we do. We try to gather insights to understand deeply how marketers view trends and changes in the world. And I saw that the marketing community was very interested in AI. And some of, you know, Dan, you know, I started this AI Explored podcast about a year and a half ago as an experiment. It kind of took off. Since then we've launched all sorts of other stuff which you've mentioned, and part of that is this annual report that we just came out with. So the way we look at this data is we come across research from a very kind of try to be as scientific as possible. I have a undergraduate master's degree in communications and I publish stuff in journals and it's really all about asking the right questions. We asked open ended questions. We asked, you know, likert scales, which means here's statements. Do you strongly agree? Agree, strongly disagree. And. And we've done a great job with this year's study, asking a whole bunch of new questions that a lot of marketers are going to care about. And I'm very excited because today we're going to dive into stuff. Dan, you and I both, when we saw this, we're like, this is pretty fascinating stuff. Don't you fully agree?

[B]

There was a ton of insights. I was pulling it apart, looking at all the things and I'm like, some things are like confirming suspicions and other things were like surprise, surprisers, like I don't want to give anything away. So we're going to be diving into it, but it's pretty exciting.

[A]

Yeah, I think I can confidently say this is one of the most comprehensive studies that's ever been done on AI, specifically with marketers. So, okay, so back to the question you asked me. What's one of the biggest misconceptions when it comes to AI and marketing? Well, there's been a lot of talk out there that AI is coming for our jobs, and it's not just in the marketing community. I used to be a copywriter. Copywriters have been freaking out ever since ChatGPT rolled out in November of 2022. We're hearing about it in the general news. We know that agents are coming, which a lot of people are scared they're going to take away jobs from customer support people and a lot of these other kinds of roles. And we're also hearing stories of major tech companies laying off thousands upon thousands of developers because AI coders are better, faster and cheaper. So a lot of the big concerns in the marketing community is that AI is coming from my job. Now this is where the research gets really fascinating are the majority of marketers today are using AI on a daily basis. And we're going to nail into some of that a little bit later. But despite the fact that the majority of marketers are using AI, they do not see AI as a threat to their jobs. And here's the data, and it's really fascinating. Only 20% of marketers that we surveyed, and we surveyed a lot of them, 730 of them only across, all, all across the world, only 20% of them feel that it's a threat to their jobs. And of that 20%, I don't have the exact breakdown, but, you know, they're strongly agree and agree, but it's only one in five. So only one out of five marketers see it as a threat to their jobs. But this is where it gets really interesting. When asked whether they believe that AI is going to displace jobs, 36% said they believe it's true. So said another way, about one in three marketers, slightly more than that, believe that AI is going to take away jobs, but they don't believe it's going to take away their job. Now here's another way of spinning this data. The majority of marketers that we studied do not see job loss as a problem, period, because seven, you know, 64%, two out of three marketers do not think it's, it's a problem for them. And 20, you know, for the, for the, for the Overall community, and 20% only see it as a threat to them. So there's a couple of, a couple of things that I'm going to add into this. This is where it gets really intriguing. 70% of marketers, the overwhelming majority of marketers believe that AI will create new opportunities, new opportunities for their work, for their jobs. And of that 70%, 30% meaning 30 and 40, strongly agree. So 70%, 30% strongly agree, 40% agree. So there is this overwhelming sense that AI is actually not a threat, but a massive opportunity. Now I think there's a couple things going on here and I'm going to throw this out and I want to hear your thoughts. Dan. Option number one is we've got a lot of ignorant marketers out there who, who have no idea how good AI really is and it's rate of evolution and they're completely unaware that it's going to be a threat. That's option number one. Option number two is they're very confident marketers and they feel like AI is going to make them have an edge and be ahead of the curve. I kind of. Those are the only two options I see. Dan, I want to know what your thoughts are.

[B]

Gosh, I mean, I think both of those things are true. I mean it's true for me in part because I'm looking at it, I'm like, well, like let's say we have a lot of job loss, like great depression levels, which was what, 20%, 30%? You're like, well that's still 70% that have jobs, right? Surely if I'm on the cutting edge of this, like I'll be part of the 70%. Because most people, you know, if you ask people like, or are you above average in almost any category, most people would rank themselves above average, right? Like 90% of there's a bias, but most people will rank themselves above average. So I think there's a little bit of that confidence thing happening. But I also think that people truly don't understand. I'd say marketing is actually pretty hard for AI to do because if you think of all the things marketers have to do, man, you have to do some, a little bit of design work, copywriting work. You gotta move between applications. AI struggles with managing that today, all those types of work.

[A]

Today, right?

[B]

Today, today. And I don't think people realize that as agents get better at clicking around screen and thinking through it like, like some of this might go away. I think that's the thing that holds a lot of marketers jobs pretty steady, unlike entry level developers, because they only have to work in a terminal. Most of the time and copywriters, I think we have seen some job loss for. So we're starting to see it, but it hasn't started hitting marketing hard quite yet.

[A]

Yeah, I think that marketers don't realize what's about to happen because Dan, you and I keep very close tabs on some of the cutting edge stuff that's going on right now. And yes, there is a slow adoption period for businesses to kind of understand how to take advantage of AI and put it to work. But it is, I think it's a little bit of ostrich head in the sand. I really kind of feel that way. And I think marketers that are ignoring it are ignoring it at their own peril. I think it should be a lot higher than 20% as far as fear of job loss. But I also do believe that those marketers that are actually applying AI to their work will be super marketers and they'll, they'll be secure. But I know for a fact that that's not who's taken this survey because it's, it's. This survey was taken by people that have been using AI for six months, for 12 months. I mean like there's, it's all over the gamut. Almost everybody who's using AI is new to AI and they all think that they're smarter than everyone else because it's so cool, but they have no idea like how deep the rabbit hole goes. So folks, we're going to go on to the next question, but I do want to explain where to get this report. It is free social media examiner.com/AI report 2025 airport 2025. So let's go to the next question. We have a lot more to explore here.

[B]

Gosh. I want to move the next question, but I have to ask you one, one last follow up on this. A year ago we started talking about the trends in AI and you leaned more towards the like the heavy optimistic. There's going to be a multiplication of jobs. Where do you kind of sit in that gamut of like optimism versus fear today? Are you kind of in the middle? Do you say like there's a lot of reason to be concerned.

[A]

I am an extreme AI optimist. What I mean by that is I do believe it's going to. I'm with the 70%. I do believe there's going to be an incredible new kinds of jobs created. Just like the Internet created new jobs. Let's be honest, most of us work on the Internet. These jobs could not have existed. These Internet based jobs would not have existed before the Internet. Like the majority of us listening right now, I believe that's going to happen again with AI. So, but that doesn't mean that it's going to be easy and it doesn't mean that you're not going to lose your job or you're going to have to be retrained into a new role. So even though I'm optimistic about the fact that it's going to create new jobs, new roles, new opportunities, I also am a realist about, about the, the tidal wave that's coming.

[B]

And I think that's a great thing because you have to lead with hope. If you don't have hope pushing you forward, then what else do we have? You know, like, we have to know there's something better on the other side of this.

[A]

I mean, that's the whole reason my company has been doing all this AI stuff. Right? Like, I'm trying to help marketers like, like get ahead with this thing because we're still really early, Dan, and there's nothing but opportunities. And those that like, like wake up to this opportunity now are going to be way ahead of everyone else.

[B]

So what are some of the biggest surprises you saw in this report when it comes to marketers and AI adoption?

[A]

Well, this is. I'm going to ask you a question before I answer it. How often do you use tools? AI tools, Dan.

[B]

Multiple times a day.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Like every hour at least.

[A]

Okay. Okay. So this is really fascinating. Remember, this is our second annual study. So we asked marketers how often are using AI Daily, weekly, monthly? I can't remember all the options, but in 2024, October of 2024, 37% of marketers were using AI every day. Now 60% of marketers are using AI every day. That's a massive, massive, massive increase. Okay. Like, that's like hockey stick kind of growth. It's almost doubling. And this is where it gets really interesting. 84% of marketers said that they've increased their use of AI over the last year, which is not a surprise to, to you and me at all. But 82% plan to actually even increase it more over the next year. So if you start to think about where we're going with this, this is we're going to be at potentially at this point next year where 90% of marketers are using AI daily. And if you're not using AI daily, this is a bit of a wake up call, you know, because this is a massive adoption, a massive behavior change among marketers. Okay. The marketing community has gone all in on AI. If you are sitting on the sidelines, you are in the minority, okay? If you're not using it daily, you are in the minority, and you might actually be falling behind. And that's a bit of a problem, because if everyone around you is embracing AI, they're becoming more valuable to their employers, they're becoming more valuable to their clients. If they have clients, they're becoming more valuable to whatever situation they're in. And the people that are perceived to be more valuable are the ones that are going to be able to retain their jobs. They're going to be the ones that are going to be able to gather new opportunities. They're going to attract those kinds of opportunities. And this is why we've developed the AI Business Society. And we've been doing this now for, I feel like a year. And inside the AI Business Society, we train up marketers every single month. And Dan comes on and he does stuff inside there. He talks about what's happening in the world of AI. And if you're not actively part of a community where you're learning these kind of things, for sure, dig into the AI Business Society. Just check it out. Google, search it. So, Dan, I want to know what your thoughts are. When we go from 37% of marketers using it daily to 60% of marketers, it kind of implies they're not doing something else, right? So, like, you only have a fixed amount of time as a marketer. If you are actually using it every single day, it means that you have to be foregoing other things. You're not maybe reading as much, or you're not maybe doing the kinds of things you normally used to do. It's kind of a big behavior change. I'm just curious what your thoughts are on this.

[B]

I think there's a point in every marketer's career right now where they see the proverbial writing on the wall. For me, that was a year and a half ago. I remember thinking deeply about, like, what's the next big thing? And I'm like, you know, it's probably this AI thing. And then the more deeply I thought about it, I'm like, you know, it's not just this. AI is not going to be just a department. It's not like you can just be like, oh, we need to do that AI thing. Let's hire an AI specialist like we did with social media. No, no, no. AI is going to be the new operating system of which we do everything. Because I'm sure as soon as I Said, I'm using it multiple times a day, sometimes multiple times an hour. Some of you judged me and you were like, oh, my gosh. Dan can't critically think anymore. So he's depending on Chat GPT to do his thinking for. For him. I'm like, no, no, no. You haven't quite seen how AI is the new thing that you work for. I just talked to a CMO yesterday and he had his writing on the wall moment just a few weeks ago when he was at inbound for HubSpot. And he become very apparent to him that HubSpot is positioning their whole product like, no. AI is the way you use HubSpot in every vertical of HubSpot. And I think more and more people are waking up to that fact right now. I think some people haven't gotten into it right now because they haven't quite prioritized it, but as more people are, because it's becoming, I think, more obvious as AI gets better, more people adopt it. Last year, it was kind of hard to use. You had to really, like, engineer your prompt in order to get consistent results with it. Now you can just kind of like throw something at it and AI can still knock it out of the park in your first hit. So more people are waking up to the fact of how useful it is.

[A]

Yeah. And it's, it's really intriguing because I know how easy it is because I've got a bunch of people that work for me and, you know, I can monitor their use of AI because I have access to only analytics. And it's shocking to see how they're falling back in their old patterns. You know, they started with it a little bit and then they didn't use it, and then they kind of stopped using it, and now they're just going back to the way they do things. And I think unless you us, unless we actually get really systematic about making sure that we are actually like, I've got a sticky note on my screen that says, how can AI help me with this? Like, it's just my nonverbal reminder. Like when I'm staring at my screen, oh, yeah, I should go to AI. But it goes so much deeper than that. I think we need to get. It needs to be a habit. Like, once it's a habit and you know this, Dan, once it becomes a habit, it's very intuitive to just go to Claude or Chat GPT or Gemini or whatever your tool is of choice and just start interacting with it or giving it and asking it to make it better, better. And then Once you start understanding how it works, all of a sudden your eyes are open and you're like, wow, this is amazing. And I do feel like the people that aren't using it every day, they just haven't had a good experience or they haven't had the training. They don't understand how to use it. They haven't yet found the benefits of it. Yeah, right.

[B]

And I feel like the tools have got, just gotten so much better over the last year. Specifically before they were kind of like toys, right? We saw AI video, but it was just kind of cute, kind of like, oh, look at that. When it's good, someday maybe we can use it. Now it's actually at the point where it's like, oh, this is actually useful, like to a layman, like for a person who doesn't know a lot about video editing and can manipulate everything. The tools are getting better. AI music is now at a point where you can't even tell it's AI music. And of course the text has gotten much better to where ChatGPT is not just writing. If you give it the right context, it's not just writing. Okay, blog posts, I'd say they're getting to a minus. Blog posts, even better. If you really are a copywriter, know how to hone, hone that prompt. But we're going from toy to tool now and people are starting to adopt it. But moving on to the next question, what's the biggest problem marketers face when using AI in their work? That the report says, well, and this.

[A]

Is really interesting because the way that we got at this one is we asked an open ended question and the open ended question, I'm going to go ahead and pull it up. And this is, sometimes this is the best way to get data is to simply ask an open ended question. And the question that we asked was, what is your single biggest challenge regarding using AI at work? Okay, what is your single greatest challenge regarding using AI at work? Open field, no prompt, no nothing. And then what we did was we did a qualitative analysis on this. And of course I used AI to help me with this, you know, because why not? I used all the different models, I used all of them to kind of help me get, get at this. But this was really surprising. The biggest challenge that marketers have, which is kind of a parallel to what we've been talking about, which is one in four marketers, approximately which is 23%, said learning and understanding AI is their biggest struggle. Learning and understanding AI is their biggest struggle. And that might explain Dan, why 40% of marketers are not using AI every day. But this is where I think the finding time to learn, by the way, was part of this is the reason why they don't have the time to go out and learn. They don't have the time to understand it. And I can understand this at a conceptual level. And Dan, you can too. When you're like, you got a million things on your plate and you know that you should be doing this thing called AI and using it for your work, but you still have to get all these other obligations done in your mind. You can say, I'm going to make a goal to do this and then you never find time to do it. Right. But. And that stops you from actually using AI to its fullest. And it's the reason why, like one in four marketers said understanding it is their biggest challenge. But this is the part that's the big unlock. One of the biggest benefits, actually the biggest benefit, according to our study of using AI, according to 90% of marketers, is that it saves them time. Okay, and of that 90%, 59% strongly agreed. And then the other one was like, what's my math? 31%. So 59% of marketers strongly agree that using AI saves them time. So let's think about the paradox here. The biggest benefit of using AI is it saves you time. Yet the number one challenge marketers say they have is they don't have enough time to learn AI. I mean, it kind of makes me laugh again, but I understand, like, if you are not yet using AI and you've not yet had the benefit of actually realizing the time savings that come from it. I'm going to say this another way, Dan. If I told you that if you did one thing for one hour, it would, it would automatically give you three hours extra time a day, would you do it? All you had to do is spend one day. It's a no brainer every day. Right? Right. What if I told you you could spend eight hours and then all of a sudden you get, you get an extra 20 hours a week and you never have to spend more than eight hours. You would do it in a heartbeat. Right? So people just haven't understood that the small investment they make in learning AI has a massive unlock which is giving them time. Yet it's the biggest challenge that they face. So I just want you go ahead and respond to this.

[B]

I can empathize with where people are at because not only is it like I don't have enough time, it's not exactly clear where to start often, which is why people want to learn more about prompting, which we'll get to in a minute. It's not clear. When I saw the writing on the wall and had that moment for me, I was like, okay, I'll go buy some books on it. Well, there weren't any books back then. There are a few good ones now, but it's like there just wasn't a lot of resources. So you're like, oh, play with ChatGPT. I don't know. I've been playing with it for a few months. Am I progressing? It's not super clear. I mean, that's why we have, you know, this show for. Or at least I explored. And that's why we have the business society to make it clearer for people now.

[A]

And the videos that you're. Dan, go ahead and explain these videos you're doing on our YouTube channel, too. Just because I think they would be valuable for people.

[B]

Yeah, absolutely. Because there's always new features, there's always new features, and there's always so much hype out there that it's hard to know what to prioritize. So we have been doing a weekly series that kind of breaks the best of all these tools down into 10 minutes or less into very highly actionable little chunks of videos well edited. So you can actually get the most for that time. Right. Because you could spend hours going through YouTube videos. But what we're trying to do is create these little chunk videos that give you the most bang for your time, whether it's chat GPT or we're going to be doing a number of different programs coming up here soon, so.

[A]

And by the way, just a quick plug on that, folks. We. They're free, they're on our YouTube channel, and they're very well produced and very well thought out and very well scripted on things like how do you use ChatGPT projects? How do you create images? And they're all angled for marketers, so there's like, no reason you couldn't just spend 10 minutes or put a playlist out there and pause while Dan's showing you how to do this stuff. Because the good news is we are creating all this incredible content. But. But it is kind of a quandary. And I found, like, I'm now at a spot where I have more time. Like, I'm actually telling my team, hey, what do you need? What do you need? Give me some work. Give me some work. That's never been true before. Like, you're probably finding as well Dan, that you're able to take on a lot more things because of AI. Is that true?

[B]

Yeah. Not only take on more things, but do things bigger. Like, before, I only had a time for this much.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And now the project scope can actually go out a little bit, and you can actually get a lot more done and better usually.

[A]

Okay, so Dan actually already kind of teased at the next question, so I'm just going to move right onto it. Which is what's the single biggest challenge or no, what's. What's the biggest topic that marketers want to learn more about? AI topic. He already kind of gave it away, which is learning prompting techniques. Okay. So 81% of marketers said that they want to learn prompting techniques, and that's like, pretty much at the top of the list of things they want to learn. Now. Here's why. First of all, most marketers are new to AI. 77% of the marketers we studied have been doing this for less than two years. And those that are doing it, that have been doing it for two years, you know, not. Not all of them are using it every day. Right. So some of them are using it sporadically. And. But the truth is that AI is a lot more than prompting. I feel like prompting is like the table sticks. It's kind of like saying Disneyland is just the Peter Pan ride. You know what I mean? And that's all. It's just kid rides. Well, it is if you're just in that section. You know what I mean? There's, like, so much more to it. And the, The. I think what's happening here is that prompting is still one of those things that's kind of difficult for people. And that's why so many of the videos that Dan has created for our YouTube channel are about techniques for all these kinds of prompting techniques. And I've interviewed a lot of experts on this as well, including Dan. And. But prompting is the basic stuff. The challenge with prompting is you're just looking at a screen. You don't know what to put in there. Right. And that's. That requires creativity. And if you're not super creative by nature, that. That is. That's why I understand, like, a lot of marketers probably are like, what can I do with this thing? It's like a blank Microsoft Word or Google Doc. What can you do with that? Well, you can write a book, you can write a report, you can, you can. You can write it. All sorts of things. Right. But it's like a blank slate. Um, but the next order of things is AI tools and AI tools. 80% of marketers want to learn how to use AI tools and that's the natural expansion beyond the chat GPT experience. And then automation and workflows are number three at 79%. So, Dan, what's your thoughts on this?

[B]

Like, prompting is a foundational skill for AI and it kind of caught me by surprise because like once you learn it, you kind of move beyond it and it becomes so ingrained in you that you don't even think about it anymore. Like, oh, yes, I'm prompting. I'm like, no, I'm just asking ChatGPT for stuff. But I forget that I learned prompting. And then it became natural for me to ask ChatGPT in certain ways and with certain things so I can get what I want out of it. So if you're new to AI, it makes sense that this is still a top priority. It's also just kind of easy. And most people, when they learn prompting techniques are often taking pre written prompts. It's almost like working with Canva, right? It gives you a bunch of design templates and then you just kind of tweak it a little bit. And I think that's why people like it. It's kind of an easy button. It also kind of gives you a clue as to what Chat GPT can actually do. You don't know. I've given away a lot of prompts and people like, oh, I didn't even know AI could do this right, not until they saw somebody's prompt for it. Then they learn it and modify it and do whatever they and then use it for themselves. So I think that's why people are learning, want to learn more about prompts. It's foundational, it's kind of the entry level thing that you have to learn before you can get into the more advanced things when it comes AI.

[A]

I've got a couple more thoughts on this. What I think is fascinating about prompting is prompting works for humans and it works for AI. So if you think about when you give someone any kind of an assignment, whether they work for you, they're a contractor, they're a new employee, whatever, or even if they're your kid, you know, or your spouse, the more you can be clear in exactly what it is you want and the more context you provide, the greater likelihood they're going to get it right on the first go round, right? If I tell my kid to go get me a sandwich, well, they could go almost anywhere and get me a sandwich. But if I tell them to go to Jersey Mike's and get me a turkey sandwich. Well then I know, okay, they're going to give me the right kind of sandwich. And, and, and, and, and I think we as humans are learning to become better communicators because the more we interact with AI, the more we begin to learn. Okay, give it a roll. You are an expert at getting people sandwiches. You know, give it a responsibility. Your responsibility is to get me the freshest sandwich possible. Right? And then you give it the constraints. You know, I don't like pastrami. You know, the more you give it and it's a horrible example, the greater kind of result you're going to get and it is becoming like an up leveling effect for all humans. So the, like, some of you are going to completely resonate, like you're becoming a clear communication communicator now. Or sadly, you're a better communicator with chat GPT than you are with your spouse or your employees. Okay, well, guess what? That stuff works with humans. And that's why I think prompting will also always be a little bit of a craft, you know, a little bit of an art form. Like, because, you know, Dan, you change the way you prompt something, you're going to get a completely different response. Isn't it true?

[B]

It's true. Okay, I know sometimes you've walked up to me and been like, hey, Dan, let me prompt you real quick. Makes me smile.

[A]

Yeah, sometimes my prompt is, you got this, bro.

[B]

Think longer. What are the top AI platforms marketers are using? This is a frequent question because people like to know what kind of tools are out there. It's probably the most frequently asked question of all time is like, what AI tool should I be using? So I'm glad you asked this question so we can figure out what marketers are actually using for the AI platforms.

[A]

The, the, the number one answer is not going to surprise anybody, but the number two answer is going to absolutely surprise people. Don't you agree? Don't say what it is, but you agree, right?

[B]

I agree.

[A]

So, okay, here's the deal. No shock, no surprise that the number one platform and we allowed people to choose from all the major platforms, click all that apply. 90% of marketers are using ChatGPT. Okay, that's not a surprise at all. But the big shocker is that, and I'm going to pause everybody who's listening. Can you guess what came in second? It's not Claude, it's not Grok, it's not Meta, It's Google's Gemini but it came in second at a major 51%. 51%. Half of marketers are using Google Gemini. That's up from 33% last year. That is a massive shift. Like I can assure you, like chat GPT didn't go up much. It went from like 80 something to 90. But the fact that Gemini went from 33% to 51% is a massive, massive move in only a year. And I'm going to tell you why I believe this is happening. First of all, most small businesses have Google workspace, okay? And Google did something that kind of angered everybody but then all of a sudden they were happy with it is they said, hey, instead of charging you all for our Gemini, we're going to just include it with your monthly fee, but we're going to increase your cost. So at first everybody was upset, but the fact is that now every small business on the planet probably has a Google account and now they have access to Google Gemini and Google Gemini is integrated into freaking everything. Okay, I'll let you talk about what it's integrated to in just a second. But it's also the first multimodal model that is exceptionally good. And when I say multimodal, what I mean is that they can watch video, they can listen to audio, they can read images natively right out of the gate. Okay, so let me just get your reactions to it. I've got, we've got a lot more we can say here.

[B]

Obviously I was surprised because I've run this poll myself and asked people like which one do you use? What's your top tool? And I think the way you set up this survey it was choose all that apply. I would have never got because I only gave them a single choice. But when you give them multi select all of a sudden some more information becomes apparent and that people are sure, yeah, 90% chatgpt, it's maybe their main tool. But more and more Gemini is coming up as a second and it kind of shows like it could take first place for a lot of people. I've heard more and more people moving over to Gemini as their primary tool and it's because Gemini is just getting better and doesn't, I think they're just not constrained as Chat GPT is by the, the amount of compute, the amount of like big server capacity. One chat GPT is getting hammered because they have 700 million people using it. So it's like it's the most popular tool but they can't release their new video stuff. They're having a hard time getting their Gemini, but they're. Gemini is putting out things where now even plus users or people who have like a, just the small paid account like we do, you know, have access to the best world class video model. And now it's actually good. I'm actually making things with it. It's actually becoming available. The image model is fantastic. They have an audio model over in NotebookLM which is a great tool in itself and they're putting out all these different tools in slowly integrating it into their ecosystem. It's getting harder not to use it well.

[A]

And let's talk about. Okay, this is fascinating statistics. 68% of marketers want to learn more about how to use Gemini. Okay, that's, that's huge. Okay, so Gemini is built into Gmail, it's built into Google Docs, it's built into Google Sheets, it can help you with mathematics, analysis, all that kind of stuff. It's built into their slide, whatever their tool is. I don't use that slide tool. I'm pretty confident that part. I actually don't know if it's built into it. It's obviously built into Google Search, right? It's that thing you see at the top. If you start to think about all the Google products and services that we use every day in our life, it's kind of a lot. And because Google is so integrated into the life of humans in general, it has access to information that it can get in real time. Every Android device is a Google product. So all that real time data Google has access to, Google Analytics is on every website in the world. So Google has access to all websites in the world at all times dynamically. I mean like when you start to think about this you're like, okay, wow. And Google has massive, massive data centers already. They got no problem with money either. They're profitable. Okay. So you just start to think about. And they're building incredible tools on the back end. Like we've just mentioned a couple of them. Notebook LM V03. They've got this new thing that's like automation thing. I can't remember the name of it. Do you remember what it's called? Opal. They just keep coming out with stuff. And you know, I remember I was told by Chris Penn a long time ago who's a, one of the, one of our speakers at Social Media Marketing World Total AI, for lack of better words, nerd slash geek. And I mean that in the best way. He said don't discount Google because he said to me that the, the, the company with the most data is Going to win. And unquestionably, Google has access to the most data. But it's not just that their models are fricking smart. They're very, very, very good. And in some regards, they're not as good as Claude. In some regards, they're not as good as Chat GPT. But in other regards, they crush them. Like this Nano Banana thing, I haven't messed with this at all, but can you explain what the heck that is?

[B]

So I think a lot of people have experienced. Let's give it reference to Chatbots image generator, right? You've uploaded a photo of yourself. You ask it to change it to something. If you've ever asked it to change it. Like, hey, put me in an astronaut suit. You notice, like, the face isn't quite right, or you take a picture of your room and be like, hey, redesign the room. And it does. And it looks like the room, but the windows move, the doors in the wrong spot. The whole couch got flipped around weird, you know, like, it would get it, but not get it. Nano Banana is hitting it almost with like 100% accuracy. You could take a picture of a room, be like, show me what this room looks like from the other side. And it's going to look like it should. All the furniture is in the right place. You upload a photo of yourself, and all of a sudden it has you from a different angle dressed in a totally different outfit. And it looks like it was just taken from the other side of you and you're wearing a different outfit. It looks accurate. And so.

[A]

And how do we find. Where do we find that? It's built into. It's built into Gemini, right? Gemini.google.com, it's just one of those little features under the menu or something like that. You upload an image and that's it. I mean, like, they changed the image. Yeah, folks, I mean, like, it is exciting to see Google finally get something right, because I remember the Google days where they tried to compete with Facebook and they completely, you know, failed on that front. So Google is. Is a shocker and someone to for sure pay attention to the fact that it's growing this much is absolutely fascinating. And then let's see, what else do we have here? Is that it on that one, Dan?

[B]

I think one more thing to say is that a lot of people are calling the image thing the, like, the Photoshop killer. And it won't kill Photoshops. That's a whole design tool. But like, imagine what you would have taught, said, like, oh, if we could Photoshop this Nano banana can just do that with the prompt. Now upload your image, Photoshop it to do this. It's done. And I think that's why it's such a magical tool.

[A]

Yeah. And by the way, folks, just, you know, my prediction, I believe that Google Gemini is going to be like the major one that everybody uses next year, and it might even rival OpenAI, like internally, inside of Social Media examiner, we're going to move to get everybody to use Gemini because we're already paying for it and it's already integrated with all of our data. And we feel more safe about allowing Gemini access to our Google Docs and sheets because it's already an ecosystem that we already trust, where I don't feel comfortable giving that data to OpenAI because I'm just not sure they're not going to use it to train the model. So I do think we're going to be hearing a lot more about Google products, AI products, especially Gemini, in the coming year.

[B]

They've certainly been on a hot streak. So it's a good segue to talk about what the report found about AI and video, because that's one of the major things that Gemini has brought up. And it's, it's. I don't know, it kind of bleeds into this next one. But what does the report give us about where we're at with video and AI?

[A]

Yeah, it's kind of fascinating across multiple fronts. First of all, most marketers, according to our research, are using video. And as a matter of fact, in our study from the Social Media Marketing Industry Report that we published earlier this year, 46% of marketers claim video is their most important form of, of content. More important than the written word, more important than audio, more important than images. Okay. Visuals. So that's the single biggest. It's a pie chart. Right? So, so practically, almost without a doubt, like, like, video is the thing for social marketers. Okay. But only 22% of marketers are actually using AI for their video efforts. Okay. And I think I understand why, and I think we can unravel this in just a minute, but 69% want to learn more on how to use it. So I'll just share my thoughts and then. I want to hear your thoughts, Dan. But I feel like, I feel like video was like the last frontier. Right. Images are, for lack of better words. Video are moving images. Right. So you've got like 30, 24, 30 images per frame. I mean, per second, sometimes 60 per second. That's a lot of processing power. And As a result, I think that that's just like AI hasn't been able to handle that yet. Plus, some of the challenges early with video was understanding physics. So like if a ball is bouncing on concrete versus going through blades of grass, like all the physics to understand how the grass needs to change as the ball goes through the grass, the reflections of the sun, a lot of that kind of stuff, the physics just weren't there. And I listened to a podcast interview recently with some folks from Google and I can't remember the name of the show, but they were talking about how they used YouTube and that's the other big thing we forget. Guess who owns YouTube? Google. Right? They used YouTube videos to train AI models to learn about reality and basically had these, these AI models watch millions, maybe even billions of hours in video. And these AI models were able to discern physics by watching video. They were able to understand how things need to look and, and how things need to move when they're moving through things. And basically the AI model was able to figure out a physics model without being trained in physics at all. Which is why we're now finally at a point with Google VO where it absolutely looks completely realistic. But I think it comes down to processing power and, and I just think the video things that have been out there have been animation, child's play kind of stuff, which is probably why most people haven't used it yet. But I don't know, what are your thoughts?

[B]

I heard recently that video is likely the next unlock for AI in general because they think like, well, like babies learn physics just by watching things.

[A]

Right?

[B]

And that's, it's kind of like the same thing like we, we watch through observation. AI is now going to learn more about the world just through observing it through video. So it makes a lot of sense. Like I said before, I think a lot of these things were toys and now they're quickly becoming tools and pretty soon they will become more powerful and you'll be able to get all these AI video tools into an editing bay and be able to make little decisions and make manual cuts or have AI go through and cut and move, add or remove things. And it's just becoming more and more toy to tool to the point where businesses can actually use video and it won't just be some tick tocker making a mashup of their favorite fan fiction stuff, you know, where it's like bad, but how else were they going to get the shot of that? Um, but video has gotten so good that even like Clean, Clean 2.5 Turbo, which is one of the video models out there, finally fixed one of the, like problems of like you've seen like AI video with the gymnasts and the divers and their limbs go all crazy when they jump up into the air, right? That was like a video problem from a year ago. We're like, oh, video's gotten good, but it can't do gymnasts because their legs go crazy. But now it's generally fixed. So they keep fixing all these little things, making it more reliable. And as it becomes more reliable, it becomes more useful for marketers.

[A]

So, folks, I'm going to share with you where you can find the report. But first, thank you, Dan, for coming on and adding insights to today's discussion. The report is@social mediaexaminer.com Airport 2025. As of the day this podcast is publishing. It will be ungated, meaning no registration required for a few days. If you're listening to this in the future, we're simply going to ask you for your name and email address and we might get you on our email list and send you interesting stuff about AI. But do check out the report. It's 31 pages. It's definitely something that I think you'll find a lot of value in. At the very least, you can plop it on the desk of your boss if he or she is not interested in AI and say, hey, we really need to get into this. Dan, thanks so much for coming on the show today.

[B]

Thank you.

[A]

This is the year to finally come to Social Media Marketing World 2026. Grab your tickets right now by visiting social media marketing world.in fox.