AI is a word that is often met with a combination of excitement and trepidation in professional services. It’s on the agenda at partner meetings. It’s in every article you scroll past. And yet, when it comes to actually using it in your firm’s marketing, the room often falls quiet.

That hesitation is understandable. In professional services, where reputation is everything, nobody wants to be the first to make a costly misstep. But ignoring AI altogether risks falling behind as your competitors begin to embrace new tools and approaches.

The good news? You don’t have to go “all in” to get started. In fact, the most effective use of tools like ChatGPT starts small, with the right checks, safeguards and use cases in place.

Here’s how to approach AI in a way that adds value without putting your credibility at risk.

Why AI feels like a risk in professional services

AI can feel like a shortcut and not always a good one. For firms built on deep expertise, relationships and trust, there are some natural concerns:

• Will it get the tone right for our audience?
• Can we trust the output to be accurate and compliant?
• Could we lose the personal touch that sets us apart from competitors?

Add in compliance risks, confidentiality concerns and the general discomfort of change, and it’s easy to see why many firms have stayed on the sidelines.

But staying still isn’t a long-term strategy for any business looking to grow.

The firms that succeed with AI are those that start with a practical question: Where could this help us work more effectively without risking what we do best?

What AI can actually do today safely

Used well, tools like ChatGPT can help marketing teams improve efficiency and consistency, particularly when it comes to content development and early-stage ideation. Some low-risk, high-value applications include:

• Creating first drafts of blogs or articles (which are then edited by a human)
• Generating campaign ideas based on set goals or audience types
• Drafting email outreach templates for events, client updates or newsletters
• Helping with SEO research, keyword variation and meta descriptions
• Repurposing content into multiple formats (e.g. turning a white paper into LinkedIn posts)

The key here isn’t replacement. It’s acceleration of the work that you are already doing well.

Start small: low-risk use cases

You don’t need to overhaul your entire marketing approach to benefit from AI. In fact, you shouldn’t.

Here are a few areas where firms are starting safely:

Internal brainstorm support

Not sure how to frame a campaign? Use AI to surface 10 different angles in seconds. This is particularly useful when your team is feeling stuck or when you need to approach a familiar topic from a fresh perspective.

For example, if you’re planning a campaign around tax planning, you might ask AI to generate angles that focus on different client segments, timely challenges, or unexpected benefits. The AI won’t know your clients specifically, but it can help jumpstart your thinking.

Content repurposing

Turn existing case studies or blogs into bite-sized social content. This allows you to make the most of content you’ve already invested in creating.

A practical approach is to feed your existing long-form content into AI tools and ask for it to be reformatted into:

• LinkedIn post formats (text only)
• Twitter/X thread structures
• Email newsletter summaries
• Key statistic highlights for visual graphics

This means that a 2,000-word article can quickly become 15-20 pieces of social content, all while maintaining your core messages.

Proposal summaries

Use AI to tighten up long drafts into concise summaries for client-facing decks. This can be incredibly valuable when preparing for pitches or presentations where time is limited.

For instance, if you have a 30-page proposal document, you could ask AI to extract the 5-7 most compelling points for inclusion in an executive summary. Your team would still review this for accuracy, but it saves hours of condensing and refining.

Research and structure support

Need an outline for a complex topic? AI can map it quickly, saving hours of planning time.

Before writing a comprehensive guide or whitepaper, you might ask AI to create a detailed structure with sections and subsections. This gives you a strong starting point that you can then modify based on your expertise and client needs.

These small wins free up your team’s time for more strategic, creative and relationship-focused work, the stuff AI can’t (and shouldn’t) do.

Avoiding the AI hype trap

There’s a lot of pressure to “keep up” with AI trends. But that doesn’t mean adopting everything all at once.

In fact, it’s better to:

• Choose one or two areas to experiment with initially
• Track time saved or improvements made so you can measure success
• Keep human editing and approval as a non-negotiable step
• View AI as support, not substitution for human expertise

This approach keeps your brand safe and your team focused on what they do best.

Best practice tips for introducing AI to your marketing team

If you’re ready to try AI, here’s how to do it well:

Assign clear ownership

Let one person or a small team lead the experimentation and set standards. This might be your most tech-savvy team member or someone with natural curiosity about new tools. Their role should include:

• Testing different approaches
• Documenting what works (and what doesn’t)
• Creating guidelines for the wider team
• Acting as the point person for questions

Create prompt templates

Avoid inconsistent results by building clear, reusable prompts. These act like recipes that anyone on your team can follow.

For example, if you’re using AI to draft social media posts, your template might include:

• The topic and key message
• Your target audience
• Your brand tone of voice guidelines
• Examples of successful previous posts
• Character count limitations
• Call-to-action preferences

Having these templates ready means even team members new to AI can get consistently good results.

Use a tone and brand guide

Feed this into your AI prompts so outputs stay on-brand. This is particularly important in professional services where consistency builds trust.

Your brand guide should include:

• Key phrases and terminology you use
• Language to avoid
• How formal or conversational your content should be
• Examples of writing that represents your brand well

Review everything

AI can fabricate facts. Treat outputs as drafts, not finished pieces. This is non-negotiable, especially in sectors like legal, finance or healthcare where accuracy is paramount.

Establish a review process where:

• Subject matter experts check factual accuracy
• Marketing teams review for brand consistency
• Legal or compliance teams review sensitive content

Train the team

Don’t assume everyone knows how to use it. A quick internal session can go a long way. Consider:

• A lunch and learn session
• Creating a simple internal guide
• Pairing tech-confident team members with those who are less comfortable
• Regular sharing of successful use cases

The more structure you give AI, the better the results will be.

What success looks like

When done well, AI won’t feel revolutionary, it’ll just feel helpful. You’ll know it’s working when:

• Content takes less time to produce, allowing for more client-facing activities
• You’re spending more time on strategy and less on formatting and routine tasks
• Junior team members are empowered, not overwhelmed by their workload
• The firm sees progress, not just activity
• Your marketing outputs are more consistent in quality and frequency

In short, AI becomes part of how you do great work, not a distraction from it.

Don’t fear the elephant

AI isn’t going away. But that doesn’t mean you need to fear it or rush into overuse.

Start by looking at the tasks your team finds repetitive or time-consuming. Pick one. Trial it with AI support. Put checks in place. And review the results together.

You don’t need to be the most innovative firm in the market. You just need to be open to working smarter, without losing what makes your firm trusted in the first place.

The first step is often the hardest, but once you begin to see the benefits of carefully implemented AI support, you’ll wonder how you managed without it.

Need help?
If you would like help with your marketing, bringing on a marketing consultant with a fresh pair of eyes can make all the difference. I work with B2B businesses and professional service firms in London, Kent, the UK, and Europe, specialising as a legal marketing consultant. Please get in touch or book a free 30-minute consultation.

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