AI in marketing: how to stay relevant as tools evolve

Executive overview

AI is already reshaping marketing workflows — from content creation to dynamic personalisation at scale. Marketers who treat AI as a companion rather than a threat will have a structural advantage. Process-driven, repetitive work will be automated; the roles that survive will be built around creativity and judgment.

The marketer's job is to stay human where it matters, and let AI handle the rest.

What AI looks like in practice

• Samsung: AI generates dynamic assets on the fly, personalised by location, time of day, and user context
• Verizon: AI scraped thousands of videos to build a bespoke song for a 30-second ad — weeks of work done in days
• Personal use covers ~80% of daily tasks: notes, research, email validation, concept creation, prototyping

The current state of AI tools for marketers

• Most AI tools are still siloed — data must be manually moved between them
• Bundling of tools is coming as hardware improves; big tech partnerships are already pointing in that direction
• OpenAI's GPT model marketplace mirrors the App Store model: task-specific, downloadable, developer-built
• Leonardo AI combines image and video creation with fine-tuning in one interface
• ChatGPT and Grammarly remain the most used day-to-day tools

Upskilling: what marketers should actually do

• Finesse existing marketing skills, then layer in AI tools on top
• 99% of marketing tools will be AI-powered; the question is which ones serve you best
• The term "AI" is broad — familiarity with specific applications matters more than general awareness
• AI fatigue will hit people talking about AI, not the technology itself; it will become invisible infrastructure

Jobs, creativity, and the long view

• Repetitive, process-driven roles will be eliminated — not because AI is hostile, but because automation is efficient
• The task for society is training the next generation for roles that work alongside AI
• Human creativity retains a unique edge: people judge creative work differently when it comes from another human
• Creativity is the core connective tissue — technology changes the medium, not the need to tell stories
• At a foundational level, AI's biggest value is augmenting human capability: genome mapping, safety systems, digital twins

What good marketing still requires

• Know your channels and audiences — the basics don't disappear
• Respect the consumer's attention; the average person is already overwhelmed by data and apps
• Make brand engagement as frictionless as possible
• Success = the end user understanding who you are and getting served well