Background: As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly embedded in digital marketing, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) face both opportunities and challenges. While AI enables enhanced efficiency and data-driven strategies, concerns remain regarding its potential to replace human creativity. Previous studies have primarily emphasized automation and productivity, leaving a gap in understanding how AI might support rather than replace creative marketing processes in SMEs facing resource limitations.

Purpose: The study investigates how AI can be integrated by SME marketing teams to support and enhance creativity instead of simply automating tasks. By focusing on creativity as a strategic asset, the research explores the relationship between AI tools and human innovation in digital marketing, contributing to both practical and theoretical understandings of AI’s creative potential in smaller businesses.

Method: A qualitative research approach was adopted using an interpretivist paradigm. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight marketing professionals working in SMEs and with experience using AI tools. Thematic analysis was employed to identify patterns and insights, guided by Amabile’s Componential Theory of Creativity as the theoretical framework.

Conclusion: Findings reveal that AI acts as a valuable creative assistant, supporting ideation, enhancing productivity, and enabling experimentation. However, the effectiveness of AI integration depends on thoughtful implementation, ethical transparency, and the preservation of human judgment and emotional sensitivity. The study extends Amabile’s theory by conceptualizing AI as an external environmental factor that can enhance skills, creativity related processes, and task motivation when appropriately managed. This research contributes to closing the literature gap on SME specific AI adoption and highlights the importance of balancing technological efficiency with human originality in the age of intelligent marketing tools.