The fact examine on AI for SMMs
If you happen to work in social, you’re surrounded by AI guarantees. Each software claims to “do all of it”, and your feed is stuffed with “50 prompts each SMM wants”.
Let’s be actual: AI should not do your job. It ought to do the grind. 93% of entrepreneurs use AI, however the winners are these utilizing it to offload repetitive duties to allow them to concentrate on high-level technique and actual human connection.
Seven AI workflow performs for 2026
Listed here are seven concrete methods to plug AI into your workflow with out dropping management of your model.
Automate your reporting narratives
Export your efficiency knowledge and ask AI to flag underperformers and summarize wins. You validate the “why” whereas the machine handles the “what.”
Draft a primary‑cross content material calendar
Give AI your themes, audiences and posting frequency. Let it recommend a month-to-month calendar with concepts, codecs and posts able to be printed. Deal with it as a draft to keep away from overly generic content material: refine subjects, posts, cadence and priorities primarily based in your viewers.
Flip one lengthy asset into many posts
Feed AI with a webinar, report or weblog publish and ask it to extract platform-specific content material. This lets you repurpose your content material to the utmost extent potential.
Discover visuals quick, then curate
In a world the place most natural social content material immediately is visual-first and text-second, almost 49% of entrepreneurs worldwide now use AI day by day to create and edit photographs and movies.
Use AI to generate a number of visible instructions quick. Specify temper, model colours and elegance, then let it produce quite a few ideas in a day as a substitute of weeks.
The identical applies to video: storyboard ideas, video enhancing, changing lengthy content material into brief content material, producing subtitles, and many others.
Maintain what feels on‑model, discard what would not and refine your winners along with your design workflow if wanted.
Summarize social listening knowledge in real-time
Use AI to scan mentions throughout all platforms to summarize the highest buyer ache factors. It turns uncooked knowledge into actionable intel.
Spin up A/B take a look at variants at scale
Take your best-performing caption, picture and video from the final month and ask for variations. Check them on completely different profiles to see which one is most profitable.
Draft neighborhood engagement starters
For top-volume and recurring feedback, use AI to draft responses that align along with your model picture. Feed it with a information base to make sure relevance. And remember the human contact!
Safeguards to maintain your model human with AI
The extra you utilize AI, the extra you want guardrails. With out them, it’s straightforward to ship content material that feels generic or misaligned along with your values.
52% of social customers say they’re involved about manufacturers posting AI‑generated content material with out telling them. Belief could be very a lot on the road!
Set “AI can/AI can’t” boundaries
Map the levels the place AI is allowed (ideation, drafts, summaries, variations) and the place it isn’t (disaster communications, delicate subjects or authorized statements). Clarify who indicators off earlier than something goes reside.
Shield your model identification
Share an up to date identification information together with tone, vocabulary, colours, fashion and viewers. Don’t simply ask for “a social media graphic” or a “social media publish.”
Bear in mind, you cannot cease individuals from utilizing your identification. Not too long ago, Instagram content material creators held a faux photoshoot utilizing generative AI to mannequin for the Rhode magnificence model, all with out the model’s consent, elevating questions on authenticity.
Audit for “AI drift”
AI fashions are inclined to revert to “common” over time. If the AI content material seems like a generic robotic, refresh your prompts.
Set up a verification protocol
AI is a inventive associate, not a journalist. By no means publish AI-generated statistics, details or product specs with out verifying the supply. A single hallucination can tank your model’s credibility.
Shield your sources and their confidentiality
By no means feed delicate buyer knowledge or inner technique into public AI fashions. Guarantee your group makes use of enterprise-grade environments to maintain your proprietary model intelligence off the open internet.
Put AI to give you the results you want in 2026
Carried out proper, AI doesn’t change social media managers. It provides them the area to do what machines can’t: construct real relationships.
The workflows above are only the start of how social is evolving. In our 2026 Social Media Traits eBook, we dive deeper into the 13 shifts shaping this yr’s panorama.
Able to degree up? Create a free account on Iconosquare, your new favourite social media administration platform, to centralize your publishing, analytics and engagement in a single place. AI helps you create; we provide help to handle the chaos and show it is working!
