I spend a lot of time in two worlds: the high-tech world of modern agency work and the high-stakes world of meat processing. Lately, those worlds have collided in a single, recurring question:
“Now that you are using AI, will our costs go down?”
It’s a fair question.
In the plant, a new piece of equipment, say an automated loin puller, is an investment designed to lower the labor cost per pound over time. It’s a clean equation.
In marketing, the math doesn’t work the same way.
At the Annual Meat Conference (AMC) earlier this year, speaker Matt Britton emphasized the fact that AI is becoming the “new front door” to how consumers discover products. This insight matters. That means the bar for being “discoverable” just got higher and, unfortunately, more complex.
In many ways the various AI platforms – where a stand-alone version like Gemini or ChatGPT, or a version embedded into DuckDuckGo – is the newest search engine. This means your content must now be structured for how AI reads, interprets and delivers answers in a zero-click world.
Yes, AI helps us move faster.
No, it hasn’t made impactful marketing less expensive.
Here is why your marketing budget isn’t shrinking, even as the toolbox evolves.
1. Velocity is Not a Discount
AI has dramatically increased speed for some things. We can now analyze thousands of rows of consumer data in seconds to hone in on a key data point or cross reference those to create a hypothesis related to the exact “why” behind a purchase. We can iterate on packaging designs and social media creative at a pace that was unimaginable just five years ago.
But speed alone does not create value.
In fact, AI is widening the gap between average and exceptional marketing. It’s easier than ever to produce more content. It is not easier to produce content that actually drives sales.
And, there is not a one-size-fits-all Swiss Army knife of AI tools. One is better at helping comb through complex data, another at resizing ads and another at drafting social content…and all of those come with subscription costs (see my next point).
Moving fast only matters if you are moving in the right direction.
If you use AI to sprint toward a marketing strategy that doesn’t resonate with your customer you’ve simply wasted money faster.
The advantage today is not speed alone. It is speed combined with judgement. Knowing which insights matter. Knowing which direction to pursue. Knowing when to push and when to pivot.
Impactful marketing requires an experienced human at the helm who understands your business, your category and your customer so that the new found speed serves your bottom line.
2. Guarding the Meat Locker: The Data Security Tax
If you or your team use a free, public AI tool – STOP.
Your data does not stay yours alone, it becomes part of the AI platform’s learning model.
And yes, I have heard the “Well, I removed the confidential info and masked the company” defense plenty.
It’s not a good idea.
For a packer or processor, feeding proprietary sales trends, new product specs, or retail partner agreements into a public AI tool is like leaving the keys in the delivery truck just filled with boxes of dry-aged ribeyes, with the engine running and the driver’s door wide open. That is insanity.
The average cost of a data breach is now more than $10 million. Read that again. Ugh.
And then there is “Shadow AI” – the use of AI by employees without company oversight or authorization (think free subscription vs the AI platform the company has subscribed to). Shadow AI is one of the top drivers of breach costs, adding an average of $670,000 to the price tag of a breach. Skipping the secure subscription to save a few bucks isn’t just risky; it’s a recipe for a multi-million dollar disaster.
To protect clients, marketers now have new costs that we must address – our investment in enterprise-grade, “walled garden” AI subscriptions. These tools ensure your intellectual property stays yours.
This is a new cost and it is not optional.
3. Garbage In, Garbage Out (The “Prompt” Problem)
AI is a power tool, not a pilot.
If you give AI a generic prompt to “write a social post about ground beef,” it will provide a post. But will it truly be impactful? Not without the right inputs. AI won’t know how to lean into value-added convenience or “affordable indulgence,” based on what is important to your target audience.
What drives impact is not the tool. It’s the thinking behind it.
Impactful marketing requires “prompt engineering” by someone who knows how best to engage with the platform to get the best result. This could include the nuances of your target audience or the difference between a subprimal and a retail cut. It can help us go deeper faster, to remove inherit biases and uncover additional ideas that lead to effective marketing.
Without a human who understands the industry and the consumer, the output can easily be generic “garbage.” And in a crowded meat case, generic doesn’t sell.
4. The Shift from Awareness to Conversion
While 92% of consumers are concerned about grocery prices, they are still willing to pay for solutions.
That is where the real opportunity is.
AI helps us identify emerging or micro-trends. But it takes humans to turn that data into a campaign that builds trust and ultimately sales.
Today, trust is the ultimate currency with consumers.
To build that, messaging must address the things that are important to consumers. AI can’t visit the ranches you source from and capture the pride that goes into raising the products you sell. It can’t walk your processing floor and then convey the careful consideration that goes into production details. Nor can it feel the pride your team has in packing well-marbled steaks.
Those are things that differentiate your brand, building loyalty and sales.
While AI can reduce the need to wade through countless results from a traditional search engine, it’s still up to the marketer to determine which research/data/trends are relevant to the challenge at hand. So, while some search time is saved, the real critical thinking work of the human is still needed to drive conversion.
There is no short cut for that.
What AI Should Be Doing for your Business
The goal shouldn’t be cheaper marketing. The goal should be effective marketing.
Used correctly, AI should:
- Accelerate insight so you can identify opportunities faster
- Improve decision quality so you can invest in the right strategies
- Increase conversation by aligning messaging with what truly drives purchase
It should help you test more, learn faster, and ultimately perform where it matters most: on the shelf and in the cart.
The Bottom Line
AI is the most significant technological shift since the internet.
It is making marketing faster. It is making it more dynamic.
But it is not making it cheaper.
It is requiring us to invest more in security and in developing the talent needed to ensure impactful results.
The gap between average and exceptional marketing is getting wider.
To my friends in the industry: Don’t look for the “cheap” AI solution. Look for the partner who uses AI to be more impactful. In the meat business, we know that cutting corners on quality always shows up in the end product. Marketing is no different.
Sources
IBM Security. Cost of a Data Breach Report 2025.
Anne-Marie Roerink, Principal, 210 Analytics LLC, The Power of Meat 2026, Report sponsored by Sealed Air Food Care
