How To Use AI To Test Ideas, Refine Marketing, And Grow Smarter

Forbes

24-06-2025

Photo by Growtika on Unsplash
As a founder with a developer's background, I never considered myself a marketing pro—until I launched my company in 2006. Overnight, I had to learn everything I could about getting the word out. My strategy, as a bootstrapper, was simple: launch a free version while keeping my day job. I tested the idea, refined the product, and slowly gained traction. Over time, free users became paying customers.
Today, artificial intelligence is quickly reshaping the marketing landscape. But some fundamentals haven't changed: experimentation and listening to customers are still essential. What has changed is how easily and effectively we can do both, thanks to AI. Tools that once required global teams and big budgets are now more accessible to any entrepreneur, including solopreneurs.
While I wouldn't change my path—bootstrapping was the right move for me—I would have absolutely used AI for market research had it been available. Here's how I recommend today's founders harness AI for marketing research and sustainable growth.
Gather Pre-Launch Insight
Like an airplane without fuel, a great idea without customer demand will never take off. Before investing significant time or money, it's worth validating what people actually want. Sometimes your idea might have no market. Or, it might be one small tweak away from traction.
I've seen this firsthand. We once launched a new version of a product that, to me, seemed like a clear improvement. But usage dropped. I was stumped—until we polled our users. It turned out they didn't dislike the new version; they just wanted the option to choose. So we gave it to them. That simple insight made all the difference.
Today, AI can help uncover those kinds of insights faster. In a recent experiment, we used Google's Dynamic Search Ads to validate a new idea. As we prepared to launch our AI agents, we asked: What if we replaced traditional website forms with conversational agents that could interact with users and have some personality? We built a directory of 2,000 AI agents—each designed to replace a specific type of form. Then we handed the entire library to Google's AI—no headlines, no keywords, just the agent pages. Google's system analyzed the content, generated ad copy, selected keywords, and ran the campaigns. What we got back was instant market research. We saw which agents sparked engagement, which use cases drove traffic, and where demand really existed.
This approach helped us identify our top-performing use cases before committing major resources. And anyone with a website can do this: use AI to spin up new landing pages, run dynamic ads, and let the data show you where the opportunity lies. Instead of guessing, you can pre-validate ideas with AI and double down on what the market wants.
Optimizing Your Creative With AI
Nowadays, personalization is key. Research has found that 71 percent of consumers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions. What's more, 76 percent said they became frustrated when companies did not deliver that kind of tailoring. In one study, 65 percent of customers reported that targeted promotions were a top reason for making a purchase.
AI-powered tools can help you to gather important customer insights—who are your users, what do they need, and how do they behave—and tailor interactions to them accordingly. For example, you can use AI to analyze chatbot transcripts, support tickets, or survey responses to cluster users into personas and identify pain points or motivations.
With generative AI, companies can craft personalized messages and content at a fraction of the speed and price. As McKinsey notes, addressing small consumer groups with customized content has traditionally been cost-prohibitive and infeasible. With gen AI tools like ChatGPT, marketers can craft tailored content at scale while keeping costs down.
We're also seeing a major shift in how paid ads work, especially with Google. In the past, you could buy specific keywords and manually manage bids. Then came smart bidding strategies, where Google's algorithms optimized based on your campaign goals. Now, with tools like Performance Max, AI does nearly all the heavy lifting. You just give it your creative assets and goals, and it figures out how to serve the right ad to the right person at the right time. Manual optimization has basically become obsolete.
What's exciting is that AI is getting better and better at this. It means you can move faster, test more, and focus your energy on the creative and strategic side of marketing, while AI handles the execution and optimization. Unlike the first example, validating your ideas, this is more about validating which marketing messages connect with which audiences. AI accelerates that process.
In the end, the goal isn't to hand over your marketing entirely to machines, it's to hone your great ideas and amplify the messaging. AI gives founders the freedom to test more, learn faster, and make smarter bets without burning through resources.