This is where most AI marketing goes wrong…

5 Tips On How To Market AI Effectively From Adobe’s Kylee Peña

At this point, AI is in EVERYTHING.
Your docs, your slides, your inbox, your editing tools, even your bidet. 

But just because AI is baked in doesn’t mean it’s well-marketed.

Slapping “now with AI” on a feature list isn’t enough.This week, Kylee Peña, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Adobe, joins us to talk about what ACTUALLY works when Marketing AI inside legacy products like Premiere and Photoshop.

From setting expectations with real demos to being brutally honest about limitations, this episode is a crash course in clear, trustworthy product Marketing.

Here’s what Kylee had to say in her own (lightly edited) words:

1️⃣. Aiding Creativity, Not Killing It. 

Kylee’s Take: “It’s not about replacing human creativity.

It’s about enhancing it.

Making workflows faster, smarter, more intuitive so people can focus on what they really want to do.

What makes an AI tool stand out isn’t just the tech. It’s the transparency in how you market it.

Don’t just say, ‘Now with AI. Woohoo!’

Lean into responsible messaging. Make it clear. Don’t hide it in a black box.”

No one wants to hear that a new tool is gonna take their job.

They want to know it’ll SUPPORT their work, not replace it.

When your messaging skips the fear and focuses on empowerment, people actually lean in.

Takeaway: The best AI products don’t replace people.

They remove the boring parts.

If your messaging focuses on the tech and not the transformation, you’re missing the point.

Show how it saves time. Show how it sharpens creativity. Show how it gets people to the fun part faster.

And whatever you do. Don’t hide it in buzzwords.

Transparent tools win. Black-box ones lose trust.

2️⃣. Don’t Chase the Shiny Thing. Stay Locked on the Problem.

Kylee’s Take: “It’s very easy to start shaping a feature or a product and then get knocked off course.

You see another tool launch something and suddenly everyone wants to pivot.

But if you know the core problem you’re solving and who it’s for, you stay the course.”

AI moves fast. Your competitors are shipping fast.

But chasing every headline feature is how teams end up with bloated roadmaps and diluted messaging.

Kylee’s approach is simple: build with purpose.

Ignore the noise. Focus on your user. Solve their problem better than anyone else.

Let everyone else race for attention. You race for relevance.

Takeaway: Don’t pivot because another company made noise.

Stick to solving the problem YOU set out to solve.

Clarity beats speed. Every time.

3️⃣. The Best AI Messaging Feels Like Real Life.

Kylee’s Take: “I was showing this tool not as a shiny demo, but in the context of a real situation I faced when I was a video editor.

That kind of messaging – grounded in real use cases – really resonates.

Especially with something that can feel a little threatening at first.”

People don’t trust vague promises.

Especially when it comes to new tech like AI.

That’s why Kylee always roots her messaging in real use cases.

Not just what the feature does, but what it helps someone like her actually do better.

The demo doesn’t need to be perfect.

It needs to be relatable.

Takeaway: Skip the hype. Show the moment.

AI features land harder when you show how they solve a problem someone already knows.

If you’ve used the tool yourself, lead with that.

Real stories sell better than perfect ones.

4️⃣. Great Marketing Starts Way Before the Launch.

Kylee’s Take: “It’s a lot of communicating upward and having meetings early enough in the process where you can communicate things before the rest of the marketing train has left the station.”

It’s easy to wait until the end to involve stakeholders.

But then it’s too late. The plan’s baked, the slides are approved, and the positioning is locked.

Kylee flips that. She builds alignment early.

She brings PMs, engineers, designers, and program managers into one living doc.

One decision-making process. One narrative.

That way, by the time marketing launches. Everyone’s already signed off.

Takeaway: The earlier you align, the less you fight later.

Don’t wait until launch to get buy-in.

Bring your partners in early, show your work, and let them co-sign the strategy before it hits the market.

Internal alignment is a marketing skill. Treat it like one.

5️⃣. Cut To The Chase.

Kylee’s Take: “People trust certain products.

But if you introduce aspects that feel a little squidgy, that trust erodes.

When we launched Firefly, we always highlighted what it was trained on. That helped creators feel confident using it.”

When it comes to AI, people aren’t just evaluating features.

They’re evaluating risk.

If your messaging feels vague, performative, or too slick. Trust drops.

Especially in industries like design, editing, or journalism, where ownership and originality matter.

Kylee and the Adobe team made transparency part of the product story.

They didn’t just say “safe.” They showed the receipts.

Takeaway: Trust is earned with details.

Don’t just say your AI is ethical or safe to use.

Say what it’s trained on.

Say what rights users have.

Say how you’re protecting their work.

If your users can’t explain it to their legal team, your messaging isn’t ready.

IN A MEME