Insights from my interview with the author of “The Non-Obvious Guide to Using AI for Marketing”
A Cultural Disruption More Than a Technical One
Marketers everywhere are rethinking what connection means in the age of AI. According to Nielsen’s 2025 Global Marketing Survey, nearly six in ten marketing leaders say artificial intelligence is now central to their work. Nevertheless, the technology is also raising deeper questions about trust, meaning, and humanity in communication.
At Color & Culture, those questions feel personal. Our work with communities and brands depends on understanding how people connect, and we see every day that technology alone can’t create belonging. That led us to speak with author and strategist David Berkowitz about his book, “The Non-Obvious Guide to Using AI for Marketing,” and explore what AI might be teaching marketers about connection.
In his book, David writes, “AI should be used to enhance human output, not replace humans. My bias is to lean into choices that make society stronger. The greatest impact of AI won’t just be in how it changes what we do, but in how it changes who we are — as individuals, as teams, and as a culture of creators.”
When we spoke, I asked him to elaborate on how AI will change who we are. He explained, “Everyone thinks the disruption is technical. They talk about automation, scale, and speed. But that’s not the real story. AI isn’t just reshaping how we relate to technology, but how we relate to each other.”
AI’s biggest disruption isn’t technical. It’s cultural.
He went on to describe what that means in practical terms. AI, he said, is designed to please us. Over time, that constant affirmation risks changing how we learn and how we connect. If we grow too accustomed to machines that always tell us we’re right, we lose the friction that helps us grow. “It’s like being a spoiled child who never hears no,” he said. “When everything you say is brilliant and every idea is praised, real human interaction, with all its awkwardness, disagreement, and misunderstanding, starts to feel disappointing.”
AI can only reflect what it’s given. It learns from what we feed it. If what we feed it is detached from lived experience, it will only amplify that detachment. The real opportunity is in using machines to help us become better humans: more aware, more curious, and more attuned to the cultural nuances that define meaning.
The Attention Crisis Will Get Worse Before It Gets Better
During our conversation, Berkowitz made an observation that captures one of marketing’s biggest challenges today: “We’ve been over-grazing on people’s attention… the problem’s getting worse.” He compared the current content landscape to a tragedy of the commons. In other words, while everyone can produce more AI-generated content, it ends up depleting the very resource that gives marketing its power: human attention.
It’s a concern echoed in Nielsen’s 2025 Global Marketing Survey, which also found that purpose-driven strategies are becoming essential for brands that want to stand out, which resonates with Color & Culture. Our purpose is to drive positive change by building bridges between communities and organizations.
Modern marketing has turned attention into a resource to exploit rather than a relationship to earn.
Berkowitz warns that “scaling up the volume of content produced often leads to diminished quality. The result is what many have started calling ‘AI slop,’ a wave of generic, low-value material that erodes trust.” And as trust erodes, people begin to tune out, skeptical of anything that feels impersonal.
Many leaders take customer trust for granted. For instance, PwC’s 2023 U.S. Trust Survey found that business executives overestimate how much consumers trust them by almost 60 percentage points — 87% of leaders said customers have a high level of trust in their company, while only 30% of consumers agreed.
Where Color & Culture’s work centers on human connection, our team has seen firsthand that no amount of automation can replace understanding. Real connection happens when people feel seen and heard.
The Mirror That Makes Us Think Harder
As our conversation turned toward creativity, Berkowitz spoke about how marketers can use AI to think more critically. Too often, he said, we use these tools to accelerate output rather than deepen insight.
He shared an example from his publisher, Rohit Bhargava, who uses AI as a kind of creative sparring partner. Before releasing each chapter, Bhargava instructs AI to act as a harsh reviewer: “You’re a Fortune 500 CMO who just gave this chapter one star. Tell me why.”
The best use of AI isn’t to finish your ideas — it’s to test them.
As Berkowitz notes in his book, “AI apps can be great sounding boards and sparring partners.” Used this way, AI becomes a means to challenge assumptions, reveal weaknesses, and strengthen ideas before they reach the public.
However, as he also reminds readers, “AI can edit words, but it cannot edit judgment.” That distinction is essential. Editing is about understanding intention. Human editors bring empathy, context, and cultural awareness to their work. Meaning must be preserved because once trust is lost, it is rarely regained.
Where AI Meets Human Imagination
Beyond these themes, Berkowitz’s book offers a wealth of ideas for marketers who want to use technology more creatively and responsibly. In it, he explores how AI can transform research, improve accessibility, and even spark innovation by helping people learn and think in new ways. He writes about marketers using AI to simulate audiences, test messages, and design experiences that invite participation rather than passive consumption. What stands out most is his insistence that technology should expand our imagination, not narrow it.
As I reflected on our conversation, one thing became clear: AI is making human connection more essential than ever. Technology may change how we create and communicate, but meaning still depends on people — on empathy, context, and lived experience. At Color & Culture, our approach will always begin there: listening first and helping brands communicate with authenticity and respect.
