Outdated AI Drains Marketing Budgets and Wastes Team Time – MarTech Cube
Hootsuite launches OwlyGPT, the first social AI assistant powered by real-time social data, giving marketers the answers outdated AI tools can’t
Marketers are pouring time and money into generative AI tools, yet seeing little in return — and it’s impacting their bottom line. That’s according to new research from Hootsuite, based on a survey of social media managers (SMMs) and senior marketing leaders across the UK and US.
AI adoption is soaring, with nearly 80% of SMMs using AI tools up to 20 times a day and 83% of marketing leaders increasing their AI budgets. Yet higher use and spend haven’t translated into stronger results or greater confidence. At the core of the issue: most generative AI tools rely on outdated static web data or external sources* that aren’t designed for the real-time, fast-changing pace of social media.
That’s why today, Hootsuite is launching OwlyGPT: the first generative AI assistant built for social media. Powered by live social data and customized for each brand, OwlyGPT helps marketers cut through the noise and create content that resonates, surfacing insights based on what audiences care about right now.
AI attitudes shift from concern to necessity
Marketers’ attitudes toward AI have transformed over the past 12 months. A year ago, nearly half (49%) of global SMMs feared AI might make their jobs obsolete. Today, 52% say they couldn’t imagine doing their job without it, and nearly half (42%) report spending up to 24 hours using AI to inform their social strategy.
Leadership echoes this shift: 88% actively encourage their teams to use AI tools, and 87% have a formal AI strategy in place. But while adoption is rising, so are the growing pains.
The ‘real-time’ knowledge gap
In an industry where speed is everything, marketers have a false sense of confidence. While 64% of senior marketing leaders believe their teams are using AI tools powered by up-to-the-minute data, only 39% of social media managers agree — revealing a significant disconnect between the AI solutions marketing leaders invest in and trust, and the performance experienced by teams on the ground.
Even more concerning: the research reveals many leaders overestimate how current the insights generated by their AI tools really are. The disconnect stems from a fundamental flaw: most generative AI tools aren’t designed to track real-time audience behavior. Instead, they draw from static web-sourced data with cut-off knowledge points, leaving marketers without the fresh, relevant insights they need to respond to fast-moving trends.
Billy Jones, Head of Marketing at Hootsuite, says: ““Real time is the new bottom line. Social moves at the speed of culture and marketers need tools that can keep up – but the truth is, most generative AI tools are already out of date the moment marketers use them. Traditional AI has its place, but falls short for marketers who operate where their customers do: on social. If they can’t reach their audience with data that reflects what’s happening right now, they can’t drive real impact. That’s the gap OwlyGPT is closing.”
Social teams stuck chasing insights, draining time and revenue
The limitations of AI insights are pushing social teams into an inefficient, manual grind: 40% of SMMs regularly verify AI-generated outputs, and a staggering 47% spend between 11 to 24 hours each week manually scanning social platforms to find relevant trends and insights. That’s up to three full working days before publishing a single post, costing businesses almost £25,000 per employee annually.**
This also hurts campaign performance. Over half (59%) of senior marketers say their social campaigns underperform because the trend has moved on by the time content is ready to go live. This leaves social media teams stuck in a relentless cycle of chasing trends manually, only for campaigns to miss the mark.
Budgets rising, waste mounting
Amid ongoing challenges with AI tools, it’s no surprise that 81% of senior marketers admit wasting budget on AI that didn’t deliver. Nearly a quarter (24%) say they’ve lost up to 20% of their marketing budget on AI, while one in five (20%) report wasting more than a fifth on underperforming AI solutions.
And this is happening at the worst possible time. Half of marketing leaders are under pressure to prove the value of social and marketing spend, while nearly a third face budget freezes (28%), job insecurity (27%), or heightened C-suite scrutiny (27%).
Hootsuite launches OwlyGPT to meet the moment
To bridge this widening gap between AI promise and performance, Hootsuite has launched OwlyGPT, the industry’s first social AI co-pilot trained on real-time social media data.
Unlike traditional AI tools trained on outdated sources, OwlyGPT is purpose-built for marketers. It understands trends, brand tone, and performance data, surfacing real-time insights generated from the conversations happening across social every day. Designed for the speed of culture, OwlyGPT addresses the fast-moving challenges social media teams face, helping marketers stay relevant, move faster, and make smarter decisions.
Irina Novoselsky, CEO at Hootsuite commented: “This should be a wake up call to all marketers: traditional AI isn’t as sophisticated as you think it is. With five billion people spending up to five hours a day online, social is one of the richest sources of real-time data sources available and yet, traditional AI tools still can’t harness it, leaving the insights marketers truly need hiding in plain sight. OwlyGPT brings them to the surface, turning insights from real-time social data into real business impact.”
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