There’s a question that I think a lot of B2B marketers and creatives have right now:
With use of AI in social media content creation accelerating, what role does human imagination and creativity play in the future of social content?
To answer that question I reached out to the top B2B social media marketers from leading B2B brands that we featured recently.
The answers I received point in a direction that I think is essential for any B2B brand thinking about how to differentiate in more meaningful and less mechanical ways. This is especially important since everyone essentially has the same AI tools available to them. When everyone has the same automated AI powered workflows for creating infinite social media content, how will any brand stand out? This post aspires to answers that question.
The context for human and AI powered creativity
AI adoption in B2B marketing is accelerating fast. According to TopRank’s 2025 B2B Influencer Marketing Report, 57% of B2B marketers currently use AI for content creation and research from Content Marketing Institute found that 53% are using AI for creative assets like images and video.
But there is a trust gap widening at the same time. While use of AI tools to create more social media content, it’s a race to the middle for many and buyers don’t trust. According to new research from Gartner, nearly half use generative AI tools to research vendors and products. At the same time, more than half say they have gotten misleading information from AI tools, and 69% rely on sales reps to validate what they found.
Volume and efficiency in social media content creation is not necessarily closing that gap. Credible, original, human inspired content that inspires trust is what moves the needle.
That divide between content quantity and content quality is exactly where human creativity earns its place, especially on social media channels where attention is increasingly hard to come by and trust is becoming the great differentiator. To understand how, here are insights from 12 social media marketing pros from Adobe, HP Enterprise, Slack, Cision and more.
AI amplifies. Humans originate.
The most consistent theme across the responses I received was a division of creative labor. AI can be very effective for expanding the scale, speed, and reach of a creative idea. Generating the idea itself still requires humans.
Jared Carneson, Head of Social Media at Adobe, made a case for human / AI balance effectively:
“Every breakthrough piece of social content starts with something AI cannot originate: a genuine point of view. AI expands what a creative vision can become, faster, at greater scale, across more surfaces, but imagination is still the source material. The human and AI partnership works because human creativity is not being replaced. It is being amplified.”
He pointed to Adobe Firefly: The Unfinished Film as an example of that amplification producing award-winning results.
Desirée Porcaro, Senior Director of Social Media at UKG, focused on what humans are best at:
“AI is accelerating content creation and helping us explore ideas, iterate faster, and bring concepts to life more efficiently than ever before. But human imagination is still what gives social content meaning, emotional resonance, and relevance. The subtle details that shape how content is received, cultural context, sentiment shifts, tone, timing, empathy, and instinct, are things humans are uniquely sensitive to. AI can help us move faster, but it’s people who understand the world around us deeply enough to create content that truly connects, builds trust, and inspires action.”
Emily Vonakis, Social Media Manager at RTX, described human creativity as the defining skill set for modern B2B marketers:
“I believe human imagination and creativity are becoming even more important in social media marketing. The most impactful social strategies come from understanding people, identifying meaningful narratives, asking better questions, and creating experiences that resonate in a genuine way. The future belongs to marketers who can leverage AI as a tool while still leading with strategic thinking, originality, empathy, and imagination.”
Emotional connection and cultural intelligence
A second theme that stood out focused on the unique human capabilities that AI has yet to match: emotional intelligence, cultural fluency, and the ability to create social media content that connects with a specific audience in a specific moment.
Renee D. Edwards, Director of Global Social Media and Digital Communications at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, focused on the power of human inspired emotional connection:
“Human imagination, creativity and connection remain the differentiating forces in social media marketing. In an increasingly AI-driven landscape, creativity and storytelling that sparks the imagination is what ensures brands stand out and capture the hearts, minds and attention of audiences.”
Mageida Sopon, Social Media Manager at Insperity, zeroed in on community as the proof point:
“AI can’t replicate human imagination and creativity. It is people who build community, generate bold ideas that become trends, and discover new ways of connecting that technology, for all its capabilities, has yet to reach.”
Katelyn Brower, Director of Social Media, Public Relations, and Events at First Advantage, raised a flag about what gets lost when B2b marketershand too much creative authority to AI:
“Balancing where AI comes into play is critical because you cannot lose sight of the creator in you. It is easy to spot when a social strategy is fully reliant on AI, and when teams do this, true engagement gets sacrificed, losing sight of what a successful social media strategy should be.”
Editorial judgment and creative instinct
Beyond emotion and empathy, several of the top social media marketing execs that shared insights pointed to something even harder to systematize: editorial instinct. The intuitive read on when a creative risk is worth taking, when the moment is right for a meme, or when a message needs something genuinely unexpected.
Sabrina Barekzai, Director of Social Media Strategy at Slack, talks about data vs human discernment:
“AI can’t replace editorial judgement or discernment. So much of social media marketing is creative and editorial-led. Yes, we focus on data and insights, but sometimes you just need to post the trending meme because you just know it will perform well. AI can’t replicate that intuitive feeling. Discernment is part of what makes us human. It’s more important than ever for marketers to test and learn based on their own editorial judgement and not rely on AI just yet.”
Amanda Gebhard, Associate Director of Enterprise Social Media at Boston Scientific, said that even AI companies are recognizing this gap:
“I actually think human-led creativity is more important than ever for social content. AI pulls from existing material, and most AI-generated content still reads pretty generic and flat. Creativity requires imagination and some level of risk taking, and the best social content reflects back on its audience through subtle, implicit signals that LLMs aren’t very good at picking up yet. Creative storytelling driven by real people is becoming a strategic differentiator. Even the AI companies recognize this, since many are hiring people or agencies to do this work.”
Kirt Zimmer, Senior Manager of Social Media Marketing at Marvell Technology, talked about the value being a little “off” in a human way:
“When a message lands with an audience, it’s usually because of an intellectual or emotional connection that is almost never born from generic content. AI is great for strategic direction, organizing complex thoughts, or even a first draft, but its default setting is pretty boring. Inject your quirky, cheeky or intriguing perspectives if you hope to stand out in a sea of blandness. In other words, be human.”
The rise of human media
A third thread that that came up focused on the argument that the proliferation of AI-generated content is making human generated content even more in demand.
Marc Meyer, Head of Social Media at Revvity, has a name for what is emerging:
“Ironically, I think AI is accelerating the desire for more human based interactions. I’m willing to coin a new term: ‘human media.’ This revolt is in direct response to the notion that AI generated content is filling a creative void. It is in the sense of quality and speed, but not originality. Not in what makes some designs iconic and memorable. The rise in AI seems to be having a positive impact on H2H communications, or at least it’s increasing the desire for more human-to-human interactions. We can see and smell AI in terms of content creation and discovery, and most of us don’t like the taste.”
Meghan Meeker, Director of Social Media at Cision, also advocated for the “weird” in human generated content:
“As marketers, we know our audiences are growing weary of AI slop. Before AI, they were growing tired of clickbait, obvious advertisements, and being sold to every time they scrolled. Authenticity is becoming more and more important as AI usage in marketing increases. People are craving authenticity, vulnerability, humanity, and transparency in the content they consume. So while AI can and should be a tool in every marketer’s toolbox, human imagination and creativity is paramount right now. Make the weird stuff. It might just get your brand noticed in a sea of sameness.”
Lisa Marcyes, Global Head of Social Media at Cohesity, made the same case with proof. AI is already woven into her daily workflow, including analytics, copywriting, ideation, competitive research, and even building avatars for recurring content. Despite that robust workflow, the ideas, though, still originate with humans:
“The ideas that actually stop people mid-scroll still come from humans. We created a drone show over Las Vegas that looked so real people thought it actually happened. We put a fainting goat in a ransomware video because sometimes a little chaos lands a serious message better than another corporate explainer ever could. AI didn’t come up with either of those. A creative team that deeply understands its audience did. Over the years I’ve found the content people actually remember makes them feel something. It surprises them. Makes them laugh. Makes them uncomfortable. Makes them feel seen. We still need humans for that.”
More than ever, creativity is the competitive edge in B2B social media
The data tells one story, and these social media marketing pros confirm it. AI is a genuine force multiplier, and the B2B marketers who ignore it are leaving productivity on the table. However, in a world where AI can generate content at industrial scale, the scarcest resource in B2B social media is originality.
What separates B2B social media content that earns attention from content that fills a feed is still a human question: Does this resonate? Does this surprise? Does it reflect something real about the audience?
According to our State of B2B Thought Leadership in 2026 Report, 78% of B2B marketers say interactive and experiential content increases repeat engagement, yet only one-third regularly build it into their campaigns. The opportunity is wide open for brands willing to lead with imagination and use AI to accelerate execution.
In Best Answer Marketing, the trust system depends on exactly this kind of originality. Credible voices, authentic storytelling, and content that earns engagement rather than just filling a queue are what build the brand signals that matter across channels, including the AI-powered tools that now shape how buyers discover and evaluate expertise.
The marketers who will lead in this environment are the ones who treat AI as a creative accelerator. These twelve voices from some of the world’s top B2B brands make clear that the line between what AI can do and what humans bring is holding, and that line is where brand differentiation lives.
Want to learn more about elevating your B2B marketing creativity?
