Every week, I talk with B2B leaders who want to know how their organization compares to others in generative AI adoption. They also want to know where to get a definitive list of genAI tools. Some already have corporate-provided tools in place, while others are juggling a few team-specific tools. For the majority, content creation is the most widespread use case. These leaders are hoping that I’ll provide a list of tools to spark ideas or help their team cut through the noise. But here’s what I tell them: Before you build a shortlist, you need to understand who the tools are for and how content moves through your organization. That context is what separates a smart investment from another shiny experiment.

GenAI For Content Seems Easy But Quickly Exposes A Complex Reality

GenAI is reshaping how many organizations think about the content they create. It’s used across the organization to engage audiences, and it’s where teams often start experimenting with genAI. That’s where expectations often run high for both speed and scale of adoption. Content creation isn’t a tidy, purely centralized function, however. It’s a messy reality: The activities are fragmented within marketing and across departments. When leaders ask “What tool should we buy?” they’re usually trying to make things easier. But choosing a tool before understanding how content is created today, and by whom, is the wrong starting point. That’s why a decision framework is essential.

Whether you’re choosing your first genAI tool or trying to make better use of the ones you already have, recognize that:

  • Content creation is a shared responsibility. It doesn’t live in just one team. Marketing, sales, product, and customer success roles all contribute to your company’s content. Before making tech decisions, map out who’s creating the content, in which format, and for which audience. Look beyond the obvious creators and talk to a range of people doing content work. Find out what tools they’re already using (official or not), what tasks take the most time, what gets duplicated, and where they feel blocked. Pay attention to cross-functional handoffs, rewrites, version control headaches, and where the quality suffers. That visibility will clarify where support is needed and which use cases matter the most.
  • Tool choice depends on role, format, task, and skill level. Not everyone is a content specialist, and not every genAI tool fits every use case. A tool that works for writing long-form content may not suit design tasks or needs related to video, audio, or repurposing content across formats. The right choice depends on content modality, the type of task, and how skilled or confident the user is with genAI. You also need to consider how well the tool fits into existing workflows, supports brand governance, and meets the needs of cross-functional contributors.
  • Success comes from people, not platforms. GenAI won’t fix what’s fundamentally broken. It won’t untangle inefficient processes, repair collaboration gaps, or compensate for immature content operations. It can’t create strategic clarity where none exists. If your content strategy is outdated or disconnected from audience needs, adding genAI will only speed up the creation of low-impact content. To get real value, organizations must first address the underlying structure — how content is planned, created, governed, and measured — and ensure that team members are ready to use these tools well. GenAI amplifies what already exists, for better or worse.

Make Smarter, Context-Aware GenAI Investments For Content Creation 

Once you’ve made thoughtful decisions about which genAI tools to invest in, the real work begins. Start by aligning your team around clear roles, repeatable workflows, and shared success criteria. Make sure that the people using the tools understand how to apply them and have the space to practice, experiment, and provide feedback. Work with your content experts to establish guardrails that protect brand, privacy, and quality without introducing friction. This might include shared prompt libraries, role-based tool access, and embedded brand and legal checks. Make learning part of the workflow, not a one-time event, so that your teams stay confident and capable. Most importantly, treat this as a shift in how content gets created, not just who creates it. The more you ground your genAI strategy in how your organization actually works, the more value you’ll realize.

Read more about how to use a decision framework to choose the right genAI tool for content creators in the report, Make Smarter Investments In Generative AI For Content Creation (client access required). Contact us if you’d like to discuss how to build a genAI stack that reflects your content reality and helps your team drive greater success with content.