Introduction

As AI tools continue to evolve, their impact on social media marketing has become a hot topic. After speaking with over 25 social media teams in the past month, it’s clear that while AI has the potential to enhance the content creation process, there are still significant gaps. Social media teams don’t trust AI tools to make real content decisions, but they do want help with the more tedious tasks. Here’s what I’ve learned from these conversations and how AI can better support social teams.

AI Tools and the Needs of Social Media Teams

Social media teams are under increasing pressure to create content faster, manage multiple platforms, and keep up with constant trends. However, when it comes to using AI in their workflow, many teams remain skeptical. The key issue? AI tools that try to replace human creativity and judgment are not trusted, but teams do see value in AI for speeding up repetitive tasks.

AI for Tedious Tasks, Not Creativity

Preserving the Creative Process

One of the most consistent messages from social media teams is that they don’t want AI to automate the creative process. Instead, they need tools that handle time-consuming tasks so they can focus on being creative. Social teams want AI to help with things like video clipping, formatting for different platforms, and basic editing—tasks that don’t require creative input but take up a lot of time.

Creativity is what makes social content resonate with audiences, and teams fear losing the human touch that drives engagement. The role of AI should be to support, not replace, the creative process.

AI “Virality Scores” Don’t Work

Why Predicting Virality Fails

Another common frustration with AI tools is the concept of "virality scores." Many AI platforms claim to predict which posts will go viral based on certain data points, but social media teams don’t buy into it. Virality is influenced by too many unpredictable factors—trends, timing, and audience behavior—all of which are difficult to quantify.

Teams unanimously agree that relying on AI to predict what will go viral is not a winning strategy. Instead, they prefer to focus on authentic, high-quality content and let the audience decide what takes off.

The Video Burden is Real

Challenges of Scrubbing Through Long-Form Content

Social media teams are also grappling with the sheer volume of video content they need to produce. One of the biggest challenges is scrubbing through long-form content—such as podcasts, webinars, and feature videos—to find clips that are social-media-worthy. This task is incredibly time-consuming, and as a result, great content often gets missed because teams don’t have enough hours in the day to sift through it all.

AI can play a crucial role here by helping teams quickly identify key moments in long-form content, saving time without sacrificing quality.

Everyone’s a Creator Now

Increasing Expectations for Social Teams

Today’s social media landscape has turned every team member into a content creator. Social media teams are expected to churn out content faster than ever, with each team member contributing to video editing, graphic design, and strategy. This increase in expectations puts a strain on teams, and while many tools exist to help solo creators, few AI tools are designed with the needs of full social media teams in mind.

The demand for high-quality, quick-turnaround content has made it essential for teams to have tools that allow them to collaborate effectively while maintaining their creative vision.

Why Most AI Products Miss the Mark

Built for Solo Creators, Not Teams

There are countless quick-editing apps and AI tools available today, but most of them are built for solo creators, not for social media teams managing brands, multiple platforms, and complex workflows. While these tools are useful for certain tasks, they fall short when it comes to handling the collaborative, multi-faceted nature of social media management for large brands.

Social media teams need AI tools that not only streamline processes but also allow for easy collaboration, customization, and adaptability to different platforms and content types.

The Right Way to Use AI in Social Media

Accelerating Without Replacing Creativity

The key takeaway from these conversations is that AI can and should speed up the content creation process, but it should not aim to replace the creativity that makes social content great. AI should be used to automate tedious tasks—such as formatting content for various platforms or finding key moments in videos—while leaving the creative decisions to the human team.

When AI is used correctly, it becomes a valuable tool that enhances productivity and allows social teams to focus on what they do best: creating engaging, impactful content that resonates with audiences.

Conclusion

AI tools have the potential to revolutionize how social media teams create content, but they need to be designed with the right focus. Social teams want AI to help them with repetitive tasks, not to take over the creative process. Tools that try to predict virality or automate content decisions miss the mark. To truly support social media teams, AI needs to enhance their workflow, allowing them to stay creative and collaborative while handling the time-consuming tasks behind the scenes.

FAQs

Why don’t social media teams trust AI tools for content decisions?

Social media teams fear that AI tools will replace the creative process. They prefer to use AI for tedious tasks, allowing them to focus on creativity and strategy.

What’s wrong with AI “virality scores”?

Virality is influenced by too many unpredictable factors, and AI has not been able to reliably predict which content will go viral. Social teams focus on quality content instead.

How can AI help with video content creation?

AI can save time by scrubbing through long-form content to find key moments for social media, allowing teams to focus on creating impactful content without wasting hours on editing.

Why do social teams struggle with current AI tools?

Most AI tools are built for solo creators and lack the functionality needed for large social media teams that manage multiple platforms and workflows.

What should AI’s role be in social media content creation?

AI should focus on speeding up the creation process by automating tedious tasks, without trying to replace the creative human touch that makes social content engaging.