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Master Theses Digi 2026

The Influence of AI Tools on cost efficiency and perceived creative quality in Social Media Content Creation

Based on a quantitative analysis of Swiss social media campaigns, the study investigates whether the use and intensity of AI tools affect production costs per content piece and campaign quality ratings.

Christophe Hutmacher

/ 2 min read

Generative AI is becoming part of everyday content creation in advertising agencies. This study examines whether AI tools actually improve cost efficiency and creative quality in Swiss social media campaign production — and shows that the real value of AI depends not on simple adoption, but on how deeply it is integrated into creative workflows.

Christophe Marcel Hutmacher

13 Jun 2026

Generative AI is reshaping social media content creation by supporting ideation, copywriting, visual production, and post-production workflows.

Topic
This Master Thesis examines how generative AI tools influence cost efficiency and perceived creative quality in social media content creation. Based on a quantitative analysis of 148 Swiss agency campaigns, the study investigates whether the use and intensity of AI tools affect production costs per content piece and campaign quality ratings. It also explores how these effects differ across ideation, copywriting, visual creation, and post-production.

Relevance
Generative AI is rapidly changing how agencies produce social media content. While many organizations already experiment with AI tools, there is still limited empirical evidence on whether these tools actually improve efficiency or creative quality in real campaign settings. This topic is highly relevant for practitioners because agencies face increasing pressure to produce more content, faster, and with limited resources, while still maintaining high creative standards.

Results
The results show that simply using AI tools does not automatically reduce production costs. However, higher AI intensity is significantly associated with lower cost per content piece and higher perceived creative quality. The phase-specific analysis shows that efficiency gains are strongest in post-production, while quality-related benefits are strongest in copywriting. These findings suggest that the value of AI depends less on adoption alone and more on how deeply it is integrated into agency workflows.

Implications for practitioners

  • Agencies should focus on systematic AI integration rather than isolated experimentation.
  • AI appears particularly useful for efficiency gains in post-production tasks.
  • Copywriting is a promising area for improving perceived creative quality through AI support.
  • Human oversight remains essential, especially for brand consistency and strategic judgement.
  • Competitive advantage will depend on combining AI capabilities with human creativity and workflow design.

Methods
The study used a quantitative research design based on survey data from Swiss marketing agencies. Respondents reported campaign-level information on AI use, AI intensity, production costs, number of content pieces, perceived creative quality, agency size, AI experience, and campaign complexity. Cost efficiency was measured as cost per content piece and log-transformed for regression analysis. Multiple linear regression models were used to test the hypotheses, while additional exploratory models examined phase-specific differences across ideation, copywriting, visual creation, and post-production.