When I first started at HubSpot, I needed a new headshot quickly. So, I turned to generative AI tools — and no one had any idea, at least not initially. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, generative AI tools are impressive.
From text and data analysis to uncanny photos and celebrity videos, AI’s ability to imitate human voices and forms has improved dramatically in the past year. While they raise a lot of ethical questions, they can also help increase productivity and amplify marketing results when used strategically.
Manufacturer Cold Jet, for instance, cut lead response time by 66% using HubSpot’s Smart CRM and Breeze. But what generative AI tools should your team use? In this article, we’ll discuss:
Table of Contents
TL;DR
Generative AI tools for marketing are software solutions that create content (i.e. videos, images, text, graphs), campaigns, and insights using artificial intelligence. Marketers use these tools to speed up content creation, personalize messaging, and improve campaign results across email, ads, social, SEO, and analytics.
To choose the right tools, look for options that integrate with your CRM, support brand voice controls, and offer strong data privacy. Start with a shortlist, run pilot tests, and roll out gradually.
Want to see how AI can work for your team? Get a demo or start free with HubSpot’s AI-powered marketing tools.
What are generative AI tools for marketing?
Generative AI tools are software solutions that use large-language models (LLMs) or multimodal AI to create new content based on prompts, inputs, or data. Finished products can include text, imagery, video, audio, reports, code, or even ideas.
But how can marketers make use of this?
Generative AI is useful across numerous marketing channels:
- Content creation (i.e, blog posts, social media captions, email copy, landing pages, images, videos, and video scripts)
- Campaign planning (i.e, audience research, competitive analysis, messaging frameworks, and creative briefs)
- Email marketing (i.e, subject lines, body copy, A/B test variants, and personalization at scale)
- Paid advertising (i.e., ad headlines, descriptions, image generation, and targeting recommendations)
- Social media (i.e., post ideation, caption writing, hashtag research, and community responses)
- SEO optimization (i.e, keyword research, content briefs, meta descriptions, and internal linking suggestions)
- Analytics and reporting (i.e, performance summaries, insight synthesis, and strategic recommendations)
Thanks to generative AI tools, marketing teams report reducing content creation time by three hours per piece without sacrificing quality standards. (The most important thing to me.)
The shift from hours to minutes for first drafts means marketers spend more time on strategy and less on production. Here at HubSpot, this idea is at the heart of Loop Marketing.
How to Evaluate Generative AI Tools for Your Team
Not every AI tool fits every team or task. Before adopting new platforms, evaluate them against these practical criteria to figure out if it’s really what you need,
Step 1: Map out your goals.
List your top marketing objectives. What exactly are you trying to achieve? This will help you understand what areas you want to focus on improving and where AI may be able to help.
For example, when I needed a headshot, I knew I had to focus on tools that had the best reputation for creating realistic photos.
Step 2: Verify integration with existing tools.
Does this tool connect to your CRM, marketing automation platform, and content management system? Can it pull data from your existing tools to make informed suggestions?
Even the best AI needs this data to create the most effective and relevant content. HubSpot has its own AI, Breeze, but it also offers integrations with other tools, such as Claude. This enables not just data access but also automation.
Step 3: Evaluate specific features.
Does this generative AI tool have everything you need? With your goals, industry, and workflow in mind, here are some specifics to pay attention to:
- Governance, privacy, & compliance: Where is customer data stored and processed? Does the vendor train models on your proprietary content? Can you restrict what data the AI accesses? Does it comply with GDPR, CCPA, and industry regulations? Look for things like demand encryption, SSO/SCIM, role-based permissions, audit trails, prompt logs, data-residency options, and an “allow-list” of fields approved for AI use.
- Brand voice & quality controls: Can you upload style guides, brand documents, and example content? Does the tool learn and maintain your organization’s tone across outputs? Can you create multiple brand voices for different audiences or products? Look for tools that have brand profiles/style guides, tone controls, blocked phrases, and human-in-the-loop approval flows. This is the best way to build and maintain your branding.
- Prompt management: Can you save and share effective prompts across your team? Does it provide templates for common marketing tasks? Can you build reusable workflows that chain multiple prompts together? Ensure the tool has reusable, parameterized prompt templates, libraries, and usage analytics to help maintain a consistent experience and level of quality.
- Analytics & attribution: Does the tool track which AI-generated content performs best? Can you measure time savings and productivity gains? Does it integrate with your attribution tools to show ROI? Without this data, you’ll have no definitive way of knowing if your generated content is effective and worth investing in.
- User permissions & security: Can you control who accesses which features? Does it offer role-based permissions for different team members? Are enterprise security standards (SSO, audit logs) available? With data privacy being a very real concern with AI, these features are crucial to keeping your information and that of your contacts secure.
HubSpot’s Breeze does all of these things.
Step 4: Evaluate scalability.
Will this tool grow with your organization (aka does it have what you need right now and more)? And if so, will you still be able to afford it then?
Many platforms appear affordable at low contact or usage volumes but become expensive as usage increases. Ensure that the tool you’re considering will remain realistic and useful in the future.
Step 5: Test your tools.
Everything can look great on paper, but you won’t truly know until it’s in practice. So, take some time (2-4 weeks) to pilot or demo different generative AI tools to make sure they work and fit into your processes as expected.
During this time, run these three marketing fit pilots:
- Cycle time reduction: Marketing teams using AI report 68% faster campaign launch times. Track how long it takes to complete a task without AI, then with AI.
- Personalization improvement: 72% of marketers who use AI improve customer experience through personalization. Knowing that, compare engagement rates on AI-assisted personalized content versus manual approaches.
- Reporting integration: Verify that AI outputs feed into your existing reporting dashboards and attribution models. Without measurement, you can’t prove value.
Where Generative AI Tools Deliver the Most Value in Marketing
Different AI tools solve different problems. Here’s how to match your goals to high-impact use cases:
- Increase content output → AI content tools for ideation, drafting, and repurposing
- Improve email performance → AI email writers for subject lines and personalization
- Scale paid campaigns → Generative AI for ad copy and creative variants
- Boost social engagement → AI tools for post ideas, captions, and scheduling
- Rank higher in search → AI for keyword research, content briefs, and optimization
- Understand performance faster → AI analytics for insights and recommendations
Generative AI Content Tools for Content Operations
Marketing teams juggle multiple responsibilities across multiple channels: ideation, production, approval, and distribution. Generative AI and content operations platforms can help streamline every step of this workflow.
This is what that can look like at a high level:
- Ideation and outlines: Generate dozens of article topics, headlines, and structured outlines in minutes. This is something I often turn to ChatGPT for before I start writing.
- First draft creation: Produce blog drafts, white papers, and guides that editors refine and expand.
- Content repurposing: It’s hard to find new ways to deliver the same message. With generative AI, you can transform one piece into multiple formats (i.e. turn a blog post into social posts, email copy, and video scripts with HubSpot’s Content Remix.)
- Editorial calendars: AI can suggest publishing schedules based on trending topics and audience behavior patterns
- Asset variants: Create multiple versions of headlines, CTAs, and descriptions for testing
Generative AI Writing Tools for Email and Lifecycle Marketing
Email remains one of marketing’s highest-ROI channels, and AI makes it even more powerful. Marketing automation platforms with built-in AI capabilities help teams personalize at scale.
Core email AI use cases:
- Subject line generation: Test dozens of variations optimized for open rates
- Dynamic copy personalization: Adjust messaging based on recipient behavior, lifecycle stage, and demographics
- Segmentation prompts: AI suggests audience segments based on engagement patterns
- Testing workflows: Automatically A/B test content variants and route winners to larger audiences
- Lifecycle integration: Connect AI email tools to your lifecycle stages and suppression logic. AI can suggest content appropriate for each stage—awareness, consideration, decision, retention—and automatically exclude recent purchasers, unsubscribes, and hard bounces.
HubSpot’s AI Email Writer provides practical next steps for marketers looking to streamline email creation while maintaining brand consistency across campaigns.
Generative AI Tools for Paid Ads and Creative Assets
Paid advertising (or PPC) demands constant testing and iteration, but thankfully, AI can speed up creative production and optimization.
Advertising applications:
- Ad copy variants: Generate multiple headlines, descriptions, and CTAs for testing
- Audience-specific messaging: Tailor copy to different personas, industries, or regions
- Visual asset creation: Quickly produce image and video variants that match brand guidelines
- Placement optimization: AI suggests format adjustments for different platforms and placements
Pro tip: Establish clear approval workflows before AI-generated ads go live. Review outputs for brand safety, compliance, and accuracy. Add assets that you like or have worked in the past that AI can reference, reducing the need for manual oversight on every asset.
Generative AI Tools for Social Content and Community
Social media managers need consistent, engaging content across multiple platforms. AI helps maintain presence without burnout.
Social media AI capabilities include:
- Post brainstorming: AI can generate content calendars with ideas specific to the platforms you choose.
- Caption variants: Create multiple versions optimized for different networks
- Video script writing: Draft talking points and scripts for short-form video content
- Moderation templates: Standardize responses to common comments and questions
Pro tip: Maintain your brand voice by providing AI with examples of your best-performing posts. This helps train models to match your tone, style, and values.
For deeper insights into what resonates with audiences, check out HubSpot’s latest social media trends report.
Generative AI Tools for SEO and Search Visibility
Search engine optimization can be very monotonous and meticulous. AI tools help by handling repetitive SEO tasks so humans can focus elsewhere. Some of the areas it excels include:
- Keyword research: Identify search terms, analyze difficulty, and find content gaps
- Content clustering: Group related topics for pillar pages and content hubs
- SEO briefs: Generate detailed briefs with keywords, structure, and competitive insights
- On-page optimization: Suggest titles, headers, meta descriptions, and internal links
- E-E-A-T alignment: Ensure content demonstrates experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness
Pro tip: Don’t slack on quality by neglecting review. AI should enhance your human efforts, not replace them. Editorial teams must verify claims, add original insights, refine brand voice, and ensure content serves user intent rather than just algorithm requirements.
Read: How to Humanize AI Content So It Will Rank, Engage, and Get Shared in 2025
Curious how you’re doing with AEO currently? Use HubSpot’s AI Search Grader to audit how well your brand shows up in AI-powered search results and answer engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews.
Generative AI for Analytics and Insights
Marketing leaders drown in data but starve for insights. AI synthesizes performance metrics into actionable recommendations.
Analytics AI capabilities:
- Campaign performance summaries: Automatically generate reports highlighting key trends and anomalies
- Feedback synthesis: Analyze customer comments, reviews, and support tickets for patterns
- Strategic recommendations: Suggest next actions based on historical performance and industry benchmarks
- Dashboard automation: Create custom reports that update in real-time
Pro tip: Always validate AI insights against source data. Effective AI analytics tools show their work—citing specific data points and explaining reasoning. Integrate insights with unified reporting in your CRM to close the loop between marketing actions and revenue outcomes.
How to Select the Right Gen AI Tools
Use this framework and selection scorecard to objectively evaluate and compare generative AI tools.
Criterion
Weight
How to Evaluate
Integrations
20%
Does it connect to your existing marketing stack?
Data privacy
20%
Where is data processed? Who has access?
Usability
15%
Can your team use it without extensive training?
Output quality
15%
Does it produce brand-appropriate content?
ROI potential
15%
Will time savings justify the cost?
Learning curve
10%
How quickly can the team become productive?
Pricing structure
5%
Is pricing transparent and predictable?
**Quick Decision Guide**
Start with tools that integrate with your existing platforms. HubSpot’s marketing automation features are built into the platform, for example, eliminating integration headaches and providing a unified experience.
For standalone tools, prioritize those with:
- Free trials or freemium tiers for testing
- Clear documentation and training resources
- Active user communities for troubleshooting
- Transparent pricing without hidden fees
The Best Generative AI Tools
Here are eight powerful generative AI tools, each solving specific marketing challenges. Every tool includes pricing, key features, best use cases, and integration details.
1. HubSpot Breeze AI
Best for: Marketing teams seeking end-to-end AI automation integrated with their CRM and marketing platform.
Breeze is a comprehensive suite of AI-powered tools built directly into the HubSpot platform. Unlike standalone tools requiring integration work, Breeze operates natively within your existing HubSpot workflows, from content creation to customer service.
Marketing teams report reducing campaign launch time by 68% after implementation with Breeze.
Key HubSpot Breeze AI Features:
- Breeze Assistant – An AI companion that helps marketers draft content, generate images, summarize meetings, and automate tasks across HubSpot. Think of it as ChatGPT, but with direct access to your CRM data and marketing campaigns.
- Breeze Agents – Specialized AI workers that handle specific jobs autonomously: Content Agent creates blog posts and landing pages, Social Media Agent schedules posts, Prospecting Agent finds leads, and Customer Agent handles support conversations.
- Breeze Intelligence – Enriches contact and company records with over 200 million buyer profiles, identifies high-intent prospects, and shortens forms dynamically to improve conversion rates.
Agicap saved 750 hours per week and increased deal velocity by 20% using Breeze, while Sandler drove 25% more engagement and 4x sales leads by creating personalized experiences with the platform.
When to Use HubSpot Breeze AI:
Use Breeze when your team needs AI to understand your business context or that of your customers. Because it enables access to your CRM data, past campaigns, and customer interactions, Breeze can make contextually relevant suggestions rather than generic outputs.
HubSpot Breeze AI Integration Fit:
HubSpot Breeze AI Pricing:
- Starter (with limited Breeze features): $42/month
- Professional Customer Platform: Starting at $800/month
- Enterprise Customer Platform: Starting at $3600/month
Advanced AI features consume HubSpot Credits, where each credit equals $0.01 USD. For example, the Customer Agent costs 100 credits per conversation ($1), and the Data Agent costs 10 credits per research prompt ($0.10). Professional plans include monthly credit allotments, with options to purchase additional capacity.
Learn more about HubSpot Breeze AI.
2. ChatGPT (OpenAI)
Best for: Marketers needing versatile content creation, brainstorming, and conversational AI across all marketing tasks.
ChatGPT is the most widely recognized AI tool, known for its versatility in answering questions, generating copy, brainstorming ideas, and handling diverse content formats from emails and blog posts to photos.
**Key Chat
