What Brands Actually Want from AI (Hint: It’s Not Just Generative Copy)

If you’ve watched an ESP demo lately, chances are it began with a generative AI trick — “Write a subject line,” “Build a product description,” “Summarize this content.” And while the results are often impressive, most email marketers watching aren’t thinking, "Wow, I need that." They’re thinking, "Great. Now can it fix my broken targeting logic or tell me who’s likely to unsubscribe?"

I ‘ve noticed more and more the widening gap between what AI vendors think marketers want, and what brands are asking for.  It’s not a new mistake of many ESP vendors; they’ve been making similar mistakes for years (banner re-targeting of email openers is the all-time vendor fail).  So today, generative AI is grabbing headlines, but the day-to-day problems email marketers want solved are more operational than creative. It’s not that brands aren’t interested in copywriting support — it’s that they’re more interested in AI that does the things they don’t want to do themselves.

Generative AI: Impressive, but Not the Priority

No doubt, generative AI is pretty amazing. Subject lines, social captions, even entire nurture journeys can be spit out in seconds. And in the right hands, that can be helpful. But most email marketers I know — especially those inside large enterprise brands — aren’t hurting for copy.

They’re hurting for things like better/faster audience selection, automated QA of emails and messages and channel optimization. In short, they’re trying to work smarter, not make their messaging sound more clever. And the AI that supports that kind of work doesn’t always look great in a demo. It lives behind the scenes. It’s not flashy — but it’s what moves the buyer’s needle.

There are dozens of small but time-consuming tasks marketers perform that AI could quietly absorb:

• QAing emails for broken links, accessibility issues, and preview inconsistencies
• Suggesting best time and day for each recipient based on past engagement
• Choosing the best channel (SMS, email, push) based on likelihood to convert
• Flagging compliance violations in regulated industries before content is sent
• Pre-filtering audiences based on opt-outs, fatigue, or engagement decay

None of these features are particularly sexy in a demo. But if you ask any mid-level email marketer which features they’d want tomorrow? These win every time.

So why do ESPs keep pushing generative AI?  Well, it’s:

1. Easier to demo (instant wow-factor)
2. Easier to build (thanks to OpenAI and others)
3. Easier to sell (everyone’s heard of ChatGPT)

But as we’ve already discussed, "easier" for vendors doesn’t mean "better" for email marketers. Generative AI often becomes a checkbox feature — cool in theory, rarely adopted in practice.

The Rise of Invisible AI

The real AI transformation in marketing will come from tools that make better decisions for the email marketer — not tools that suggest subject lines.

What brands want is what some folks are starting to call invisible AI:

• AI that pre-filters bad data without asking
• AI that dynamically suppresses over-mailed users
• AI that flags campaign risks (fatigue, overlap, timing conflicts)
• AI that just knows this SMS shouldn’t be sent at 6 a.m. on a Sunday

It doesn’t need a prompt. It doesn’t need to be shown off. It just works. Invisible AI may not be a demo darling, but it’s an email marketer’s dream.

To close the gap between vendor focus and brand need, ESPs need to:

• Invest in decision-support AI (what to send, when, and to whom)
• Prioritize QA automation over subject line wizards
• Build compliance-aware content reviewers, especially for regulated verticals
• Offer audience health scoring to surface segments in decline
• Use AI to recommend orchestration changes mid-journey

And yes, vendors can keep the generative features — but they shouldn’t lead with them. They're dessert, not dinner. 

Final Thought: Solve for the Work, Not the Headline

Email marketers are pragmatic. They’re looking for leverage, not novelty. Generative AI has a place, but it's not at the top of every email marketer’s wish list.  In the rush to showcase the flashiest AI features, it's easy to forget that the most valuable innovations are often the quietest. Brands don’t need more noise — they need clarity, precision, and outcomes.

Or, as Paul Shriner from AudiencePoint puts it:

“The best AI doesn’t scream for attention — it just quietly makes you better.”

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash