Generative AI and Your Business: What Are the Risks?
- Victoria Sandoval
- 17 hours ago
- 6 min read
With the rise of generative AI use in marketing across small and large businesses, you might be asking yourself a lot of questions.
How can generative AI help my business grow? What are the philosophical and ethical concerns when using AI? How can generative AI affect engagement? What scams are being created with AI? And what is each generation saying about artificial intelligence and how it is impacting everyone?
As we ponder the risks and keep in mind that the conversation is continuous as AI changes every day, what may be true today could change in the future.
Table of Contents
1) What Is Each Generation Saying About AI?
When we look at Gen Z, they seem to be largely part of the movement against AI. However, studies show otherwise: a 2025 Deloitte survey found that 76% of Gen Zers have used generative AI tools, higher than any other generation.
However, when using AI, most Gen Zers use it for education rather than productivity or entertainment. Millennials, meanwhile, reported using AI with tools they already use in the workplace. It is reported that Millennials use AI roughly 58% of the time. Gen X uses it about 36% of the time, while Boomers use AI more similarly to Millennials, about 56% of the time.
With the younger generations and the concept of AI becoming intertwined into the everyday norms of society, there has also been a decline in excitement around its usage. Gen Z’s excitement regarding AI when it was first introduced was around 51%; as time has gone by, that percentage has dropped from roughly to 11% from 22%, while negative sentiments about AI have quickly grown.
A significant example of this is when various university commencement speakers were booed for their comments during graduation speeches about their use of AI.
Yet another example is a few recent movies that used AI in their marketing or in the film itself. As a result, Gen Zers are now boycotting the movies.
An overall study also found that more than half of Americans, 52% to be exact, are more concerned than enthusiastic about the growing use of AI in everyday life.
2) Does AI Actually Help Engagement?
Although a study by SAGE Journal states that while the use of generative AI can make content creation faster, the study also reported improvements in people’s satisfaction when AI use is explicitly disclosed. But overall, the lack of authenticity, humanity, and creativity has shown a negative impact on click-through rates and effective engagement.
Using AI as a tool is not inherently a bad thing. In fact, there are many ways AI can support the creative and marketing process. Overall, the lack of authenticity, humanity, and creativity has shown a negative impact on click-through rates and effective engagement.
It's not always a negative idea to use AI as a tool. In actuality, AI may assist the marketing and creative processes in a variety of ways. It can help come up with ideas, offer an alternative viewpoint, or assist teams in overcoming a problem.
AI should enhance a brand's voice rather than take its place. Although generative AI might facilitate content creation, leaning too much on it can make brands sound and look like everyone else. When postings start using similar themes, patterns, or communication styles, firms may lose what makes their business unique!
3) What Are the Dangers of Using AI in Marketing?
Relying on AI marketing materials can lead to possible copyright infringement violations or, even worse, taking credit for work by an independent artist(s).
There is also the possibility of scammers hacking into your business or cleverly disguising themselves as legitimate BSB services. People have recorded instances where deepfakes of products have been created to harm a competitor’s business.
Yet, an even more detrimental danger is the lack of a recognizable brand voice and connection; people may have a harder time recognizing that the content isn’t actually from your brand.
Don’t believe everything you see on social media! As AI continues to advance, it’s becoming harder to distinguish between what is real and what is not. This uncertainty can create more opportunities for scams, misinformation, and deceptive content that could negatively affect your business and your customers.
4) The Ethical Concerns of Using AI
When we look at ethical reasons not to use AI, we run into a few arguments.
First is cybersecurity. When you feed text, images, content, and more into an AI algorithm, it stores that data and learns from it. Plugging sensitive data into ChatGPT or another generative AI service can open us up to phishing, malware, and ransomware issues that we may not have faced before.
According to a study done by HubSpot, 85% of cybersecurity leaders say that recent attacks have been empowered by AI. This also leads to privacy issues with your customers, especially when you are putting their data into AI.
Beyond security and privacy, there is also an environmental and ethical side to consider. To function, AI needs a significant supply of energy and physical infrastructure. In order to fulfill the increasing need for AI, data centers are rising, and in order to run and cool their systems, these facilities need a lot of water and electricity. Land, supplies, hardware, and other resources are also needed for the construction and upkeep of data centers.
The need for these resources keeps rising as more businesses and consumers depend on AI. Energy grids and scarce resources may be under more strain as a result, which could have larger consequences for communities and expenses.
5) So, Is AI Worth It for Your Business?
There’s a considerable amount to think about when it comes to using AI and generative AI for your business. Especially when it comes to using AI and generative AI in your business. AI can make certain tasks easier, help generate ideas, and give your team another perspective. But convenience should not be the only factor when deciding how much AI should play a role in your business.
Security and privacy risks, copyright concerns, misinformation, loss of authenticity, and the potential impact on your brand voice are all important considerations. There is also the question of customer trust. If your audience feels that your content has become repetitive, impersonal, or disconnected from your brand, the time saved by using AI may not be worth the impact on your relationships with customers.
When looking into AI-generated content, we asked ChatGPT a simple question: “Write me a caption for an Instagram post promoting my bakery.”
The response was:
“Life is sweeter at Milk & Honey! 🧁✨ From freshly baked treats to delicious desserts made with love, we’ve got something to satisfy every sweet tooth. Stop by and treat yourself—you deserve it! 💕🍰 #Milk&Honey #BakeryLove #SweetTreats #FreshlyBaked”
We then wrote our own version:
“Milk & Honey is the newest local bakery in Galveston. We offer cupcakes, cookies, and so much more. Everything is handcrafted with care for you! We would love to get to know you. Feel free to stop by and say hello! #GalvestonBakery #Bakery #LocalBusiness #GalvestonBakery”
The AI-generated caption is polished, but it could easily apply to almost any bakery. The human-written version feels more personal and welcoming, introduces the business as a local bakery, and invites customers to actually come in and connect. The hashtags also take a more local approach, helping the post reach people searching for businesses in the area rather than relying primarily on broad, generic hashtags.
6) Final Thoughts
There’s a lot to consider when it comes to using AI and generative AI for your business. While AI can make things easier and be a great tool for idea generation, reporting, and analyzing data, there are also security, privacy, copyright, and authenticity risks to consider. AI should support your business, not replace the human element.
When it comes to creative content designed to connect and engage with people, that content should be produced by humans. The goal is not to use AI for everything, but to use it where it adds value while keeping human creativity, strategy, and connection at the center.
For help navigating the AI landscape and how to best apply these new tools to your marketing, give us a call. JanMar Agency specializes in the human touch!
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