(An Indian Marketer’s Guide to Avoiding Buyer’s Remorse and Existential Crises)
You signed up. You logged in. You prompted it once. And now you’re wondering if your AI assistant is gaslighting you.
Namaste, new AI adopter.
Welcome to the club. You now officially own an AI tool that:
- Promised to “10x your content output”
- Gave you an image of a saree-clad astronaut holding a burger
- And left you mildly impressed, slightly concerned, and a lot confused
If you’re here wondering “Ab kya karein?” — this is your nuskha for navigating your newly acquired AI subscription, without losing your sanity or your branding.
Step 1: Lower Your Expectations, But Keep Snacks Handy
No, the tool will not write your annual report in one click. It might generate a half-decent byline. It will also try to call your Dussehra offer a “limited-time pumpkin promo.” So, start small — a caption here, a summary there. Then go get some chai.
Step 2: Train It Like a New Intern
AI is like that bright-eyed intern from DU — full of potential, but absolutely unaware of context.
You’ll need to:
- Teach it your tone (not every brand sounds like an American finance bro on Red Bull)
- Feed it references — your campaigns, case studies, past rants
- Correct its “enthusiasm” (like when it calls your client a “visionary unicorn” in a B2B SaaS press note)
Step 3: Clean Up After It — Always
AI hallucination is real.
One minute it’s quoting real stats, and the next it’s confidently crediting your 2022 Diwali campaign to Elon Musk. This is not a joke. This is lived experience.
Before anything goes live:
- Read it out loud
- Fact-check aggressively
- Ask yourself: “Would I say this on stage at a client review?”
- If the answer is no — rewrite. Or throw it in the bin and call it “creative iteration.”
Step 4: Define Success Before Your Boss Does
- “Why aren’t we seeing impact?”
- “Can this tool also design brochures?”
- “Will this replace our content agency?”
You need to manage expectations.
AI is a tool, not a miracle baba. Set clear KPIs:
- Reduce time-to-first-draft by 50%
- Speed up repurposing by 2x
- Get fewer eye-rolls from legal
If it checks those boxes, it’s working.
Step 5: Build AI Into the Team — Not Just the Tech Stack
Your designers, writers, SEO folks — all need to play with it. Otherwise, it becomes the awkward cousin no one knows how to include at weddings.
- Run workshops.
- Create prompt cheat sheets.
- Share the best fails in a Slack channel called #robo-wrote-this.
You’ll build trust. And memes. Both essential to adoption.
Bonus Step: Have a Plan for When It Breaks
Because it will.
The AI might freeze, spew nonsense, or claim you’ve been operating since 1857. You need:
- A human backup plan
- A polite email template that says “Apologies for the earlier version”
- And an ego check for the person who said “Just automate everything, yaar”
TL;DR – Post-Purchase AI Survival Kit
AI won’t replace your job — just your easy tasks
Prompt better → get better
Review like it’s a Google Doc from a client
Laugh at the fails. Learn from the wins.
Keep calm and chai on
Final Thought: The AI Tool Isn’t Smarter Than You — It’s Just Not Tired Yet.
AI will help you scale. But it won’t help you feel. It doesn’t know the cultural subtext of a Diwali campaign or why your tagline works in Hindi but not in English. That’s your job. That’s your edge.
Use the tool. But own the thinking.
And next time someone says “AI will kill marketing,” offer them a samosa. Tell them creativity is very much alive — and still served hot.
Sources You Can Quote to Sound Smart:
- Baker, Jenni. “The AI for Drummies Buyer’s Guide: Everything Marketers Need to Know,”
The Drum, April 9, 2025
https://www.thedrum.com - Left Field Labs, SXSW & Adobe Summit Trend Reports, 2025
- “Synthetic Data & Marketing Intelligence”, The Drum’s AI Hub
- Wikipedia Contributors, Artificial Intelligence Marketing, 2025
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_intelligence_marketing