You walk into a local restaurant one night and sit at the bar. You notice the menu and recognize that it is AI-generated.

The next day you walk by the poster board of a local grocery store. You notice a poster and recognize that it is AI-generated.

You do your daily doom scroll on your phone. You notice an ad from a local shop and you can’t quite tell if it’s AI but you’re pretty sure humans don’t have six fingers.

Artificial Intelligence is becoming a popular tool that small businesses use in hopes of saving time and money. For a lot of small businesses with a limited budget, the technology offers a very approachable solution. While many business owners believe AI tools are the remedy to their problems in an ever-evolving online market, others worry an overreliance on these tools have the potential to alienate the people wanting to buy their products and damage their reputation.

Local to Lethbridge, Keilah Pineda, says that she cannot stand the use of AI in local venues.

“I can understand why a corporation might use AI, because they just need to push content out. They don’t care the same way a local business should,” Pineda states, “When a local business does it, it makes me turn away because a local business should be genuine. Using AI content shows a lack of effort and lack of care.”

Local business owner in Fort Macleod, Amanda High, says she uses AI to generate logos, social media captions and handbooks because it’s easier, faster and cheaper.

However not everyone is convinced that AI is the right path. Some consumers, particularly younger audiences, believe the use of AI is lazy and lacks the emotional, human connection.

While the use of AI can lighten workloads and save money, human creativity and personal storytelling remain undeniably important factors in digital marketing. Small businesses may start to see a fall in their sales as AI-generated content often contains errors and lacks a personal connection to consumers. To many locals, supporting your local business means a lot, to both the local patrons and local business owners.

The perception a small business lacks a certain level of care for their consumer-base could prevent support from said consumer-base. In layman’s terms, if you don’t care about what customers think, why should we care about what you need.

A Computer Information Technology instructor at the Lethbridge Polytechnic, Stephen Graham, says it’s important to remember that it’s a tool and not something to use as a replacement for  human touch.

As Graham stated, the most effective way to use AI through a digital marketing lens is to support marketing efforts over replacing human involvement altogether. The answer is not to spend money you don’t have on a digital marketer, but to maintain a level of authenticity while using AI as the tool it’s intended to be.

Going forward local businesses will be faced with the act of utilizing a tool responsibly and simultaneously maintaining integrity to their consumers.