AI tools are rapidly changing how creators write newsletters, build automations, brainstorm content, and grow their businesses. To understand how creators are actually using AI in their workflows, Kit surveyed 550 creators about AI tools, email marketing, automation, and creator workflows.
Two findings stood out:
- 57.3% of creators use AI tools every day.
- 89.2% always review and edit AI output before using it.
Creators are using AI heavily, and they’re being very deliberate about how. AI isn’t replacing creators. It’s becoming part of how they work, but on their terms.
This report walks through what 550 creators told us about how often they use AI, which AI tools for creators are most popular, how they’re using AI for email marketing, and what they want from the next wave of AI in the creator economy.
Real creators weigh in on AI
We surveyed 550 creators in April 2026. The survey achieved a 92.7% completion rate, giving us a sample that’s representative of working creators across the major business models.
Who answered:
- 59.3% are full-time creators (this is their primary income).
- 29.6% are part-time, side-income creators.
- The biggest business models represented: coaching and consulting (31.6%), online courses and digital products (23.1%), newsletters (16.4%), e-commerce (7.5%), podcasts and video (5.5%), and communities (5.1%).
This is a sample of working creators, not hobbyists. Most are running businesses that depend on the tools they use, including their email platform.
How often creators use AI
Daily AI usage is now the default for working creators. The full breakdown:
- 57.3% Daily
- 14.4% A few times a week
- 4.6% A few times a month
- 6.2% Rarely
- 17.6% Never
71.7% of creators in our survey use AI at least weekly. More than half use it every day. For context, broader workforce research from McKinsey and Pew has tracked rising AI adoption across knowledge work over the last 18 months, but creator economy adoption appears to be running ahead of the curve.
The takeaway: AI has gone from a novelty to part of the workflow for most working creators in less than three years.
How creators are using AI tools
When we asked creators what they actually use AI for, two use cases tied for the top, and both are about ideas more than output.
- 82.7% Writing or editing content (emails, posts, scripts)
- 82.7% Brainstorming or ideation
- 72.8% Research or summarizing information
- 48.2% Analyzing data or metrics
- 46.9% Creating images or visuals
- 46.9% Repurposing content across channels
- 33% Project management
- 18.8% Customer support or FAQs
Writing and brainstorming tied at the top, which says something. Creators aren’t just using AI to produce content. They’re using it to brainstorm. The AI is a sounding board as much as it is a writing assistant.
That pattern matches what companies like Adobe and HubSpot have reported about AI in marketing more broadly: the highest-value AI use cases are upstream of the deliverable, not downstream.
For creators, the implication is concrete. AI for creators isn’t a content-generation shortcut. It’s a thinking partner. Once you frame it that way, the workflows you build with it look different.
The most popular AI tools for creators
Most creators in our survey use more than one AI tool.
The era of “pick one AI” is over.
- ChatGPT (OpenAI): 73.3%
- Claude (Anthropic): 69.8%
- Gemini (Google): 39.5%
- Midjourney or DALL·E: 15%
- Perplexity: 14.4%
- Copilot (Microsoft): 6.8%
- Jasper, Copy.ai, or similar writing tools: 1.6%
ChatGPT and Claude are the dominant general-purpose AI tools for creators, with combined coverage above 140% (because most creators use both). Image tools are a clear second tier. Specialized AI writing tools have lost share to general-purpose chat assistants.
For Kit creators specifically, the takeaway is that any AI integration needs to work with the AI tools creators already use, rather than ask them to switch.
How creators use AI for email marketing
This is where AI in email marketing gets concrete. We asked creators how they’re using AI on the email side of their business specifically.
84% of creators have used AI for their email marketing. 66.5% use AI regularly for email work. 17.4% have tried it a few times.
Only 9.9% say they’re not interested.
Then we asked what creators actually want from AI inside their email platform. The list is telling:
- 63.4% want help summarizing what’s working in their account.
- 53% want subject line suggestions based on their content.
- 52.3% want help building email automations.
- 51.2% want automatic subscriber tagging.
- 39.3% want AI to draft emails or sequences from scratch.
The pattern: creators want AI to do the analysis and the structural work, the parts most people procrastinate on, more than they want AI to write the email itself.
That’s a meaningful signal for anyone building AI features into a newsletter strategy. The strongest creator AI usage isn’t replacing the creative voice but rather covering the operational and analytical work that surrounds it.
How creators use AI without losing control
Here’s the most counter-intuitive finding in the survey, and the one that defines the rest of the story.
89.2% of creators always review and edit AI output before using it. Only 3.5% use AI directly with minor tweaks. 0% trust it fully.
Translation: the “AI replaces the creator” narrative isn’t real. Even the heaviest AI users in the creator economy treat AI as an assistant, not a driver.
That posture shapes how creators think about AI taking action inside their accounts. We asked how comfortable creators would be with AI making changes to their Kit account automatically, like tagging subscribers or triggering automations:
- 12% Very comfortable, “set it and forget it”
- 42.7% Comfortable, as long as I can review changes first
- 19.8% Uncomfortable, want to approve every action
- 25.5% Not at all, wouldn’t use this
The split tells the real story: creators are open to AI taking action, but only if they have visibility, control, and an opt-out.
When we asked what would make AI taking action feel safe (creators could choose multiple):
- 56% want preview, undo, and audit log (all three).
- 34.2% want a clear preview before anything happens.
- 28.2% want the ability to undo any action instantly.
- 26.6% want a log of everything AI has done.
24.6% of creators told us they’re not excited about AI features in Kit at all. That’s a legitimate position we take seriously.
AI is not a default that should be pushed on creators who don’t want it.
AI built for creator control
We built the Kit MCP based on what creators told us in this survey. That means:
- It’s opt-in. You have to actively connect it. Most creators won’t, and that’s fine.
- You choose the AI tool. Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, or none. The Kit MCP works with the tool you already trust.
- Nothing happens without your say-so. Every action runs through your AI client, where you can preview, confirm, or cancel.
- You can disconnect anytime. One click.
For creators who write for a living, like authors, journalists, and voice-driven newsletter writers, Kit will always be a place where you can write and ship without AI in the loop. That hasn’t changed and it won’t.
Your AI tool, your workflow, your call. Read the companion post to see how we’re enabling creators to use AI on their terms.
Frequently asked questions
How are creators using AI?
Creators are using AI primarily for writing and brainstorming (82.7% each), research and summarization (72.8%), and data analysis (48.2%). Across the creator economy, AI is most valuable upstream of content creation, as a thinking partner, rather than as a content generator that replaces the creator’s voice.
What AI tools do creators use most?
The most popular AI tools for creators are ChatGPT (73.3% adoption) and Claude (69.8%), followed by Gemini (39.5%) and image-generation tools like Midjourney and DALL·E (15%). Most creators use more than one AI tool, and general-purpose chat assistants have largely replaced specialized AI writing tools.
Are creators using AI for email marketing?
Yes. 84% of creators have used AI for email marketing work in some form. 66.5% use AI regularly for email tasks like drafting newsletters, brainstorming subject lines, analyzing performance, and building automations. Only 9.9% of creators say they’re not interested in AI for email marketing.
Do creators trust AI-generated content?
Not without review. 89.2% of creators always review and edit AI output before using it. 0% of surveyed creators say they trust AI output fully without changes. The “AI replaces the creator” narrative isn’t supported by how working creators actually use the tools.
What do creators want AI to automate?
Creators want AI to help with the analytical and structural parts of email marketing more than the creative ones. 63.4% want AI to summarize what’s working in their account, 53% want subject line suggestions, 52.3% want help building automations, and 51.2% want automatic subscriber tagging. Only 39.3% want AI to draft emails or sequences from scratch.
Methodology
Kit surveyed 550 creators in April 2026 as part of an ongoing series of creator economy research. The survey covered current AI tool usage, AI for email marketing, comfort with AI-driven actions, and the AI features creators most want from their email platform.
Survey participants included full-time and part-time creators across the major creator business models: newsletters, coaching and consulting, online courses and digital products, e-commerce, podcasts and video, and communities. The survey achieved a 92.7% completion rate.
Survey was distributed to Kit users through email and product channels. All response percentages in this report reflect the share of respondents who selected each option; multi-select questions sum to greater than 100%. Anonymized aggregate results only, no individual responses are shared.
