The Right (and Wrong) Way to Use AI in Email Marketing

"While we were working alongside many early-stage ecommerce businesses some time ago, there was one pattern that really stood out. The email campaigns of these companies were gorgeous, filled with great-looking AI-generated subject lines, dynamic product blocks and perfectly timed sending "schedules" ... but they all saw an increase in their unsubscribe rate and saw their revenue stagnate. At first glance, it looked paradoxical. These companies were using great marketing technology, right? And they followed the best practice checklists to every letter, didn't they?"

"It wasn't the tools that caused this - it was the assumptions these email marketers made while using them. They viewed " AI in email marketing " as just another tactical shortcut; they viewed "AI" as just an easy way to automate the creation of email copy, personalize an email at scale or achieve higher open rates through some sort of algorithmic guesswork."

"Peter Drucker was ahead of his time when he stated that, "It is the customer that determines what a business is." This continues to be true today, but businesses have found ways to honor it through new methods. AI should not replace our judgment, but should be used to increase customer relevance in a manner that could not be achieved by manual segmentation. The risk of AI does not come from using it but from using it without a strategy."

Early-stage ecommerce teams produced visually impressive, AI-driven email campaigns yet experienced rising unsubscribe rates and stagnant revenue. The core issue lay in assuming AI is merely a tactical shortcut for automating copy, personalization and timing. Customer needs and intent must drive email strategy, not algorithmic guesswork. AI should augment human judgment to deliver relevance and segmentation beyond manual capabilities. Effective campaigns anticipate and meet customer needs at the right time while blending AI analytics with authentic human touches. The primary risk arises from deploying AI without a clear, customer-centered strategy.

Read at Entrepreneur