It’s often discussed how AI itself isn’t emotional, and it’s well documented that AI makes us feel very emotional. Pew Research reveals that 52% of Americans feel more concerned than excited about the increased use of artificial intelligence. Meanwhile, only 10% feel more excited than concerned.

These contentious emotions come out in conversations surrounding AI for email marketing, of course. However, many of them are due to popular myths surrounding the technology. 

Yet, we’re an email marketing AI platform. Of course we think that. 
Still, we want to take the time to make the process of adding email marketing with AI platforms to your toolkit more approachable, no matter what they are.

With that in mind, let’s bust a few all-too-common myths surrounding AI email marketing . . . and take a look at how marketing pros can embrace AI in all its metric and revenue-driving glory.

AI Email Marketing Myth 1: AI Makes Things Predictable and Boring

Some argue that AI makes people less creative and more boring. Simply put though, that take is boring! It’s generally founded on the idea that AI generates content that only resembles existing patterns, and that results in a lack of unique ideas or perspectives. 

In fact, this myth has become so widespread that it’s entered into this year’s Oscars race, leading people to question the worthiness of Adrian Brody’s performance in The Brutalist and the use of Midjourney to create some of the film’s architectural sketches. The filmmaking team spoke openly about using AI tools in the audio editing process, drawing lots of controversy.

The reality is that AI like that seen in film—and especially in regards to our subject matter, AI for email marketing—can and will continue to generate new, inspirational ideas through a variety of means, such as:

• Pattern recognition: Email marketing AI can identify patterns across vast datasets and combine them in novel ways.
• Challenging expertise bias: AI can generate ideas without the constraints of domain expertise. So say goodbye to “tried & true!” 
• Cross-domain inspiration: It can create unexpected connections between diverse concepts, fueling creative sparks across different verticals. 
• Continuous learning: As AI email marketing models are updated with new data, they can generate increasingly diverse and original ideas.

Looking at the points above, you really get a sense of how AI is a tool for email marketers to create better content. Just like it was a tool to perfect audio or inspire architectural sketches in The Brutalist, AI can be used by marketers to spark creativity within themselves and use data to perfect the execution of their ideas.

AI Email Marketing Myth 2: Automation Will Lead to Generic Marketing

Feeding off of the previous argument, some people think that AI delivers only generic marketing. Yes, there are a slew of weirdly generic, AI-generated ads and images out there, and they’re fun to hyper-analyze and find flaws in.

In reality, hyper-realistic video AI isn’t perfected yet. And even when it is, one can argue that it should be used as a tool to supplement fabulous creative ideas that come from people, whether those ideas are data-driven or purely organic! 
Looking at AI email marketing tools more specifically, we see that these technologies are more perfected and ready-to-use. For example, Homefield Apparel used Backstroke’s AI email marketing generator to craft hyper-targeted and timely campaigns. Not only did these sends look and feel authentic to their brand, but they also drove 5x the revenue.

AI Email Marketing Myth 3: AI is Too Complex for Marketers & Creatives

Many AI-focused misconceptions contribute to the opacity of AI email marketing tools, making them seem magical, inscrutable, and inaccessible to those of us who aren’t formally trained technologists equipped with PhDs in data science.

In reality, while we have utmost respect for highly specialized levels of AI email marketing knowledge (S/O to our Head of Data Science, Allyson, who analyzes our data and spins it into digestible trend charts, new tools, and customer insights!) marketers can and should embrace AI and email marketing as hand-in-hand solutions for solving communications problems.

Learning the basics of email marketing AI tools and how to use them is your first step. Here are a few resources you can lean on to start your journey or advance it: 

• A blog to help you learn how to balance your marketing creativity with AI tools: Beauty is in the Eye of the Algorithm (& That Makes The Best AI Marketing Tools)
• A massive resource on the goings on surrounding marketing AI: Check out The Marketing AI Institute blog!
• An event to facilitate the exploration of real and practical generative AI applications in marketing: Longaxis 2025: DTC, Retention, and AI Conference
• Our favorite resources to chat with and discover exactly what educational resources you need: Perplexity.ai and ChatGPT are excellent places to start, of course! Tell them what you want to learn, describe your experience level with AI email marketing and BOOM! You’ll see a list of helpful resources in seconds.

AI Email Marketing Myth 4: AI Can Only Automate Tasks, Not Strategy

A limited understanding of AI’s potential, a cultural over-emphasis of task-oriented AI, and misconceptions about AI's decision-making abilities have led to this myth’s popularity. 

In reality though, email marketing AI makes decisions. It can make good decisions, and strategically sound ones at that. Our guide What’s an Email AI Agent? And How Does Decision Making AI Make Good Choices? details AI’s ability to make decisions and take actions on its own, in a way that mimics human autonomy.

As AI continues to evolve, it's becoming clear that its potential extends far beyond task automation. Some AI email marketing solutions already include strategic planning and decision-making capabilities within their functions. We’ll continue to see:

• Decision making getting better and better, as AI can manage workflows and adapt to new tasks without human oversight.
• Data-driven insights continuing to be discovered in massive amounts of data, helping people understand their audiences more thoroughly and communicate with them more effectively. This alludes to the idea that, in order to be successful, marketers need to strike a balance between their own creativity and the insights delivered by their AI email marketing tools.

AI Email Marketing Myth 5: AI Will Replace Human Marketers

One of the most commonly-fraught questions surrounding AI for email marketing revolves around our individual livelihoods. Who hasn’t asked themselves, “Will AI take my job?”

Looking at things completely realistically, Backstroke’s CEO & Founder R. J. Talyor says, “Yeah, kinda.” But while that nonchalant answer may sound very scary, we promise that it’s not.