I tried 7 of the best AI tools for marketing in 2026 (here’s what worked)

The landscape of AI marketing tools is rapidly evolving, with new applications appearing frequently, making it tough to tell what's genuinely useful and what's just hype. This guide offers a hands-on review of popular platforms to help distinguish between effective tools and passing trends.

This article reviews several tools based on their ability to create content, improve SEO, automate workflows, and conduct consumer research. We’ll look at tools for creating content, nailing your SEO, automating workflows, and even digging into consumer research.

the only one that actually helped me was the ai that summarized source articles into outlines before writing. i use it to generate 5-point briefs in 3 minutes, then i write from that instead of staring at a blank page. it cut my blog drafting time in half and lowered how “ai-ish” my final content reads.

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This guide offers a straightforward, hands-on review. We'll also touch on how some platforms, like the eesel AI blog writer, handle the entire content creation process from just a keyword, shifting how quickly teams can publish quality content.

What are AI marketing tools?

Simply put, AI marketing tools are software that use artificial intelligence to help marketers accomplish tasks. They can be thought of as assistants that can automate repetitive work, analyze large amounts of data, and create content more efficiently.

Their main function is to process information, find patterns, predict outcomes, and take over tasks that would otherwise be time-consuming. They are designed to augment marketing teams, not replace them.

Here are a few common things you can do with them:

• Generate entire blog posts from a single idea.
• Personalize email campaigns for thousands of people at once.
• Automate social media scheduling and reporting.
• Optimize your content to rank on Google.

How we selected the best AI marketing platforms

To ensure this list was useful, we established some ground rules, focusing on what matters to a marketing team.

Here’s the criteria used for every tool on this list:

• Real-world application: We looked for tools that solve common problems: Practical solutions for everyday marketing challenges.
• Ease of use: You shouldn't need a technical background to use a marketing tool. Everything on this list is user-friendly enough for marketers to get started quickly.
• Impact on efficiency: Does the tool save time, boost performance, or help with growth? Only tools with a clear positive impact were included.
• Specialization: Marketing isn't a one-size-fits-all field, so this list includes a mix of tools. Some are focused on a specific area, like SEO, while others are broader platforms that cover more ground.

A quick comparison of top AI marketing software

The 7 best AI marketing platforms in 2026

After evaluating numerous platforms, these seven tools stood out because of their specific strengths, user-friendliness, and the impact they can have on marketing work.

1. eesel AI blog writer

The eesel AI blog writer is designed to produce a complete, publish-ready article from a single keyword. It focuses on handling the entire content workflow, not just the initial writing.

Key features include:

• Automatic assets: This feature saves time by generating and embedding relevant images, charts, and tables directly into the post, removing the need to search for stock photos or build graphics.
• Authentic social proof: It automatically finds and embeds relevant Reddit quotes and YouTube videos to add social proof and context. This adds a layer of authority to the content.
• Context-aware research: The AI is designed to understand the intent behind your keyword. It conducts research to provide useful information, complete with citations.

The team at eesel AI used this tool to grow its own site from 700 to 750,000 daily impressions in just three months by publishing over 1,000 optimized blogs.

• Pros: Delivers a finished article, saving hours on research, writing, formatting, and asset sourcing. It is also optimized for AI Answer Engines (AEO), which is important for search visibility.
• Cons: It is designed for creating high-quality, long-form blog content. It is not intended for quickly generating ad copy or social media captions.
• Pricing: You can try it completely free. The Early Bird plan is $99/month for 50 blog posts.

2. Jasper AI

Jasper is a well-established and flexible AI writing tool. It’s a versatile option for marketers who need to write many different types of copy. With over 100 templates, you can use it for everything from Facebook ad copy and product descriptions to email subject lines and blog post outlines.

Based on Sprout Score comparisons, Jasper scored higher (8.2) for brand voice and long-form consistency, especially in team use.

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Its primary function is to help users generate content quickly. You choose a template, provide some context, and it generates several options to work with.

• Pros: The flexibility is a huge benefit. The Brand Voice feature is also useful; it can scan your website to learn your tone and help keep your content consistent. The large template library means you rarely have to start from a blank page.
• Cons: Jasper typically provides a first draft that requires further editing, fact-checking, and formatting. Users also need to source their own visuals, as the tool does not automatically generate assets or embed media.
• Pricing: The Pro plan, which most marketers would need, starts at $69 per month when billed monthly.

3. Surfer SEO

Surfer SEO functions primarily as an SEO optimization tool rather than a content generator. It's designed to help you rank the content you have already written.

Surfer SEO scored strong (8.0) in post-publish optimization and SERP alignment, but depends heavily on pairing with another tool like Jasper.

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Here’s how it works: you enter a target keyword, and Surfer analyzes the top-ranking pages for that search term. It then provides a detailed blueprint for your article, suggesting keywords to include, an ideal word count, headings to use, and a real-time "Content Score" that shows how well-optimized your article is as you write.

• Pros: It’s excellent for on-page SEO. The live Content Score provides real-time feedback and helps ensure all SEO bases are covered before publication. It also has useful secondary tools like an AI Content Humanizer and AI Detector to refine your text.
• Cons: The platform's AI writing capabilities are not its core feature compared to its optimization tools. The subscription cost may be high for users who only need content writing assistance, and it does not create visuals.
• Pricing: The Essential plan starts at $99 per month when billed monthly.

4. Gumloop

Gumloop is a no-code platform for building custom AI-powered workflows. It’s designed to help you automate marketing tasks without writing any code.

Using a visual drag-and-drop builder, you can connect different AI models (like GPT or Claude) to the apps you use every day, such as Slack, Salesforce, or Google Sheets. This allows you to automate tasks like enriching new leads with data, monitoring competitor activity, or creating weekly social media reports automatically.

Try Zapier to connect things.

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• Pros: The ability to create custom marketing automations is its biggest advantage. With over 120 native integrations, you can connect much of your marketing tech stack. You also get access to premium AI models without needing your own API keys.
• Cons: There can be a learning curve in designing entire workflows instead of just creating content. Its main purpose is automation, not writing long-form content.
• Pricing: Gumloop has a generous free plan that gives you 2,000 credits per month. Paid plans start at $37 per month.

5. Blaze AI

Blaze AI is a platform built to manage and generate a brand's entire content strategy across multiple channels, including social media, blogs, videos, and newsletters.

It aims to replace random posts with focused bets and function like an AI-powered marketing agency, providing strategy, content creation, scheduling, and analytics in one place. It’s for teams that need to scale content production across platforms and maintain consistency.

Created a custom 'Content Strategist' role in Expanse that maintains my brand guidelines and tone

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• Pros: It provides a comprehensive, automated solution for content marketing. Having it plan your calendar and create the assets to fill it can be a significant help for busy teams. It's a solid choice if you need to maintain a consistent presence on many different platforms.
• Cons: As an all-in-one platform, it might not have the same depth in any single area as a specialized tool. For instance, its blog writer may not be as robust as a dedicated solution focused only on long-form SEO content.
• Pricing: Blaze offers custom pricing. They position themselves as a more affordable option than hiring a traditional marketing agency, so you'll need to schedule a call to get a quote.

6. HubSpot AI

HubSpot offers a suite of AI tools called Breeze, which integrates AI directly into their well-known CRM and marketing platform.

This is a powerful set of features built into the HubSpot ecosystem, making it a reliable choice for teams who want a unified experience. This includes an AI blog writer, a prospecting agent to help automate sales outreach, and a customer agent for handling support tickets.

Hubspot's content hub has a pretty cool one that allows you to remix content. Blogs to social to email to whatever, adjust the tone to the medium, teach it your brand voice, generate stock photos, etc

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• Pros: The seamless integration is the key feature. If your company already operates on HubSpot, using these AI tools is straightforward. They can pull data directly from your CRM, enabling a level of personalization and reporting that standalone tools can't offer.
• Cons: Breeze is a broad and powerful suite, though users looking for highly specialized niche functions might occasionally pair it with other tools. Its AI agents are designed to work seamlessly within the HubSpot ecosystem, which is a major advantage for teams already on the platform.
• Pricing: Some basic AI features are available in HubSpot's free tools, but the more powerful agents are part of their premium plans. The Professional plan, for instance, starts at $800 per month.

7. GWI Spark

GWI Spark is an AI tool that addresses a different but crucial part of marketing: Understanding your customers. It's for figuring out what content you should be creating.

It provides a chat-based interface where you can ask plain-English questions and get instant insights from a massive, proprietary database of nearly a million consumer surveys across 50+ markets. It provides access to deep, human-driven data from its proprietary survey database. You can ask it things like, "What are the main news sources for Gen Z in the UK?" and get a data-backed answer in seconds.

Uploading data and asking it questions about the data - like which characteristics are the most common, or which have the highest association to specific results (our main point of contact on a sale can be in multiple departments. Which department has the highest impact on sales in terms of deal size, deal speed, and total lifetime value)

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• Pros: It offers high-quality, unique data that can form the foundation of a marketing strategy. It helps build customer personas, define target audiences, and create content that is more likely to connect. The chat interface makes market research accessible to everyone.
• Cons: This is purely a research and insights tool. It does not write blog posts or automate workflows. It’s for the strategic planning phase of marketing, not the day-to-day execution.
• Pricing: GWI has a free plan with 5 prompts per month, which is great for trying it out. Paid plans with unlimited prompts start at $150 per user per month.

How to choose the right AI marketing tool for your business

With many options available, how do you select the right tool? It's better to be strategic.

Here are a few tips to help you decide:

• Start with your biggest bottleneck: Identify what's slowing your team down the most. Is it the time it takes to write content? The struggle to rank on Google? Or the manual tasks that consume your day? Find the pain point, then find the tool that addresses it.
• Consider the end product you need: Determine the desired output. Do you need a first draft that your team can refine, or a more complete article with assets included to minimize post-generation work?
• Evaluate your existing workflow: Think about the tools you already use. If you're all-in on HubSpot, their native AI is likely the easiest path. If your workflow involves many different apps, a connector like Gumloop might be a good fit.
• Test the free trials: Almost every tool on this list offers a free plan or trial. Use them to find out which one feels right and delivers the quality you need before committing to a subscription.

To see how other marketers are using these platforms in their day-to-day work, check out this video for more examples and use cases.

A video reviewing five must-have AI tools marketing for businesses, explaining their use cases and benefits.

Using AI tools as a marketing co-pilot

The best AI marketing tools aren't meant to replace skilled marketers. They are powerful assistants - co-pilots that can enhance our abilities. They can free us from tedious parts of the job so we can focus more on strategy, creativity, and the big-picture thinking that drives growth.

The goal isn't just to produce more content faster; it's to create better, more effective marketing that connects with your audience and delivers real results.

If scaling your content marketing is a top priority, the next logical step is to see what a "complete article" generator can do for your workflow. You can generate your first full blog post with the eesel AI blog writer for free, so you can see the difference for yourself.