If you're using an AI social media tool as a "type a topic, get a post" button, it's a waste of money. The output sounds like every other AI feed, your audience can spot it, and the time you save in writing you give back in editing.
If you're using one to multiply a strategy you already have, it's the highest-leverage tool you can adopt this year. A good post takes 45 minutes if you're starting from your ICP and value prop in your head. With a tool that already has those on file, the same post takes 8 minutes.
The dividing line isn't the model, GPT-5, Claude, and Gemini are roughly equivalent for short-form social. The dividing line is what the tool knows about you before you prompt it. A tool with no strategy layer asks you to bring it on every prompt; a tool with one (ICP, value prop, voice profile) brings it for you.
A second factor that quietly matters: a quality floor. Without one, you see whatever the model produced on the first try, including bad drafts. With one, like SocialLens AI's self-scoring step, bad drafts get silently rewritten before you see them.
Worth it for strategy-led teams. Not worth it for "I just need posts." If you're in the second camp, fix the strategy first; the tool is downstream of the decision.