Last week a startup CEO asked me:
“Does Blue Seedling provide AI demand generation and content marketing services?”
I said yes. Because we do.
But later I realized I gave the wrong answer.
What I should have said:
“We provide the best demand generation and content marketing services. Period. Sometimes that means using AI. Sometimes it doesn’t.”
Here’s what I mean.
AI is not a goal. It’s a tool
Our goal is helping our clients meet their marketing goals: Pipeline creation, brand awareness, category leadership. Ultimately leading to achieving business outcomes like revenue growth and market dominance.
And here’s the thing: Sometimes AI is the fastest path to those goals. Sometimes it isn’t.
Blue Seedling has been all-in on AI since ChatGPT launched in 2022. We have an AI taskforce, we run AI marketing workshops, we invest in tools and training. It’s a core part of how we work. (We wrote a whole manifesto about it.)
But being all-in on AI is not the same as using AI for everything.
We use AI when it gives us real advantages: speed, efficiency, better results, and capabilities that weren’t possible before. We don’t use it when it just adds complexity without meaningfully improving the outcome.
A recent Harvard Business Review article coined a perfect term for what happens when people use AI just to say they’re using AI: “Workslop” or AI Slop: polished-looking output that’s actually useless. Their research found 53% of employees admit to sending AI work they know is subpar.
That’s the trap.
When AI becomes the objective instead of a tool, you get workslop. You get content that checks a box but doesn’t convert. Campaigns that feel “AI-powered” but move zero pipeline. Team members that are frustrated being forced to use AI just so the CEO and the board can say the company is “AI-first.”
Your customers don’t care if you used AI. As always, they care if your content is relevant, your targeting is sharp, and your product solves their problem.
So next time someone asks if we’re an “AI agency,” I’ll know what to say.
We’re the world’s best enterprise B2B marketing agency. AI is a fantastic tool we use to get there.
