How 9 Clouds is Using AI in 2026
A few years ago, artificial intelligence (AI) felt like something marketers were just “testing out.” Today, it’s a part of our everyday lives.
As a small digital marketing agency, we’ve found that using AI helps us reduce repetitive work, speed up research, and improve collaboration.
Instead of spending hours summarizing meeting notes or analyzing extensive reports, our team can spend more time developing creative ideas and strategic recommendations for our clients.
Here’s a look at how we use AI at 9 Clouds, from digital strategy to project management.
Using AI for Meeting Notes and Client Communication
One of the AI tools our account team uses is Granola, which is described as an “AI notepad for back-to-back meetings.”
Like most digital marketing agencies, we spend a lot of time in meetings, including client calls, project kickoffs, internal strategy sessions, and one-on-one trainings, to name a few.
Granola helps turn conversations into organized notes and summaries automatically.
Instead of scrambling to write out every detail during a meeting, our account team can stay focused on the discussion itself since Granola listens and takes notes throughout the entire conversation.
After the meeting, Tessa Donovan, Account Manager and Sales Associate, said,
“You can state requests or ask questions like ‘draft me a meeting recap’ or ‘what CRM did they say they use?’ and it uses AI to review the transcript and pull out relevant information.”
AI Helps Us with Productivity
Our entire team uses AI-powered productivity tools to assist with repetitive tasks. The two tools we use the most are Zapier and TextExpander.
Zapier helps automate workflows between platforms. Instead of manually moving information from one tool to another, we can build automations that allow different platforms to talk to each other, essentially.
For example, we use Zapier to connect Meta Lead Ads directly to an auto dealership client’s CRM. When someone fills out a lead form on Facebook, the information automatically flows into the dealership’s system as a lead in real time.
On the other hand, TextExpander helps our team communicate faster and more consistently. Whether we’re writing email responses, monitoring ads, or documenting internal processes, having reusable snippets (keyword shortcuts) and prompt templates saves us a lot of time.
To put that into perspective, across 17 team members, we’ve saved 16 hours (2 full work days) in one week, spanning 1,011 snippets!
Personally, I use TextExpander every day. A really simple expander I use is the green checkmark emoji (✅). Instead of searching for the emoji and copying and pasting it, I type in “gc” to add the green checkmark when I complete a task.
AI Helps Us Generate Better Ideas
Sometimes the hardest part of marketing (or any creative work) is staring at a blank page. This is where AI can also be very useful.
Our team regularly uses AI tools like Perplexity, ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Microsoft Copilot for brainstorming, research, outlining, and problem-solving.
These AI tools help us:
- Explore ad copy angles
- Simplify internal reporting
- Organize large amounts of data
- Find keyword ideas
- Generate images for ads
- Create training outlines for clients
- Conduct site content audits
- And more!
While AI can generate content quickly, it can also get facts wrong, sound robotic (because AI is pretty much a robot), and miss important details about the client and their strategy.
That’s why we use AI for efficiency purposes, not to rely on it for everything we do. The best results happen when we combine our strategy, creativity, and industry knowledge with the speed that AI provides.
AI Helps Improve Platforms We Already Use
One thing our team has noticed recently is that AI is no longer just a separate tool. It’s built into almost everything we use already.
Platforms like HubSpot, Canva, and Meta have added AI features directly into their products, and we’re actively using many of them.
In HubSpot, AI tools can help streamline content creation, reporting, email drafting, and CRM organization.
Jordan Maxfield, Senior Digital Strategist and Digital Marketing Lead, said about HubSpot:
“You never have to leave the platform to open another AI tool, and because it’s already sitting on top of your own CRM data, you don’t waste time repeating or copying over prompts — the AI already knows what it needs to help you.”
In Canva, Canva AI can instantly create branded designs, like flyers and videos, based on a single prompt.
Canva also has some cool AI tools, like Magic Edit (adds elements to an image), Magic Eraser (removes certain elements from an image), and Magic Grab (detaches a certain element so it can be moved).
Across Meta’s Ads Manager, AI optimizations (like Advantage+ placements, audience, and creative) have become a major part of ad campaign management, audience targeting, and creative testing.
We’ve found that Meta’s AI features aren’t always the best fit for every campaign. Sometimes they work great, but oftentimes, they can completely change the image or copy from what was originally planned. That’s why it’s important to double-check which AI settings are turned on before publishing.
More and more marketing tools are including AI in some capacity, so learning how to use these features now can help teams stay adaptable moving forward and improve productivity.
AI Tips We’ve Learned Along the Way
After using AI tools across our agency for the past few years, we’ve learned a few takeaways.
1. Start Simple
You don’t need a complicated prompt to get started. Asking AI basic questions or giving it rough ideas can give you the inspiration you need to get a project going.
2. Use AI for First Drafts
AI works best for first drafts, brainstorming, and organization, not final deliverables. Human editing, strategy, and creativity still matter. AI can help you move faster, but people are still what make marketing authentic and trustworthy.
3. Save Good Prompts
If you find a prompt that works well, save it. Tools like TextExpander make it easy to reuse these prompts across your team.
4. Compare Your Options
Different AI platforms give different results. Sometimes the best ideas come from comparing responses across tools.
For example, I like to bounce between ChatGPT and Claude if I want a different opinion on a prompt.
Ready to Explore AI for Your Business?
Our team is actively helping businesses like car dealerships, manufacturers, and healthcare clinics, explore how AI can improve marketing workflows, content creation, reporting, automation, and customer experience.
Whether you’re looking for team training, workflow development, or marketing automation assistance, we’d love to help.
See how we can assist your business »
Angie Vognild
Angie is always looking for creative ways to connect with an audience, whether it’s through a video, an infographic, a blog post, or a website. When she’s not being creative at work, Angie enjoys traveling and cruising the world. Learn more about Angie.
