The fear that AI may take over one’s job is not only several years old at this point, but it’s also wide-ranging, spanning industries, generations and regions. For marketers, artificial intelligence leapt from a speculative trend to an everyday tool in what feels like a single budget cycle, targeting time-sapping chores and freeing teams to stay focused on strategy.
But has AI truly put on the gloves, stepped into the ring and challenged marketers for their hard-earned communications and advertising belts?
While some roles have seen a decline based on the limited hard data available, it has also created urgency and opportunity to upskill.
Here’s what we know, by the numbers.
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Unpacking What AI Is Actually Automating in Marketing
Marketing teams have largely adopted automation, with 85% utilizing it for various aspects of content creation, citing top benefits such as improved scalability and efficiency, as well as reduced costs.
It’s clear that markets are streamlining some of those familiar, repeatable tasks with AI, but there’s still a line it hasn’t crossed. Big-picture orchestration still depends on people who can ask the right questions, frame the brand narrative and push campaigns into new creative territory.
Lack of technical expertise is the second-largest adoption barrier for organizations, according to CoSchedule’s report, and the gap between automated doing and human deciding is where the modern marketer’s value is rising.
Algorithms excel at scale and speed, but it’s still humans who excel at insight and imagination.
What Tasks Are Brands Already Automating?
If a responsibility involves predictable inputs and measurable outputs, there’s a decent chance that AI software is involved in some way. For example, consider:
- Email marketing: Subject-line testing, send-time optimization and automated drip sequences can spotlight messaging that resonates.
- Social media scheduling: Bulk publishing, sentiment monitoring and auto-generated captions can encourage greater engagement.
- Programmatic advertising: Real-time bidding and audience targeting can outpace human media planners.
- Analytics and reporting: Instant dashboards can surface anomalies and predict campaign performance.
- Basic content generation: First-draft blog posts, landing-page copy and ad variations can put your writers one step ahead of the game.
Even teams without a dedicated AI tool still interact with algorithms, as already-adopted platforms continue adding AI features to their catalogs.
What AI Can’t Replace: The Human Edge
Machines may crank out iterations, but it’s people who can read rooms, spark emotions and decide when to break the rules for the sake of a bold idea.
While one employment analysis shows a decline in demand for creative execution-heavy roles — such as copy editors and graphic artists — it also shows creative director and product designer roles holding steady. The report’s author, Henley Wing Chiu, cautions that correlation ≠ causation, though, and notes that many things outside of AI also influence job statistics.
Still, recognizing exactly where AI helps — and where it still doesn’t compete — prepares marketers for shifting job opportunities.
The State of Marketing Roles & How They’re Changing
AI skills are tied with data and analytics skills for the top spot on organizations’ marketing skills checklist; 40% of marketers responding to Econsultancy’s The Future of Marketing questionnaire highlighted these as the top skills for teams to develop over the next two years. Meanwhile, the report shows a lack of adequate training as the second biggest challenge, reflecting similar findings from CoSchedule’s report.
More and more, marketers need to come to the table with AI tool experience while employer-provided up-skilling, re-skilling and training catch up.
And while Chiu found that job listings for execution-oriented creative positions have fallen considerably over the past two years, strategic creative leadership roles remain comparatively stable.
Influencer marketing, meanwhile, is booming. New job postings for influencer marketing specialist roles jumped 18.3% year over year, while customer marketing specialist roles increased 5%.
It seems that the surest path forward for marketers is to align themselves with work that combines deeply human elements, storytelling and AI fluency.
It may just well be the case that influencer marketing remains a bright spot because brands are craving genuine voices that AI can’t recreate at scale without sacrificing credibility.
Future-Proofing Your Marketing Career: Skills and Mindsets for the AI Era
If AI automation handles execution, competitive edges increasingly come from the know-how to guide, critique and ethically deploy those tools.
For job-seeking marketers, an intentional learning path focused on AI is the best route forward. Christina Inge, an instructor at the Harvard Division of Continuing Education’s Professional & Executive Development and author of “Marketing Analytics: A Comprehensive Guide and Marketing Metrics,” recommends:
- Becoming familiar with the core concepts of AI and machine learning.
- Working on projects that use data analysis and AI applications.
- Collaborating with data teams and learning how to use AI tools for content strategy and search engine optimization.
- Building a portfolio that demonstrates AI expertise by showcasing projects.
Thriving in this environment also requires a mindset shift. Curiosity beats caution, ethical judgment trumps blind automation and creativity remains the currency that algorithms can’t mint. When marketers pair human traits with AI fluency, they can circumvent disruption while accelerating their careers.
Essential Skills for Marketers in an AI-Driven World
To tee up that acceleration, focus on cultivating relevant capabilities, such as:
- AI tool proficiency: Prompt engineering, model fine-tuning and workflow automation.
- Data analysis and visualization: Translating raw numbers into actionable insights.
- Strategic thinking: Aligning AI outputs with brand goals and audience needs.
- Creativity and storytelling: Crafting narratives that resonate across channels.
- Empathy and customer insight: Reading emotional cues that algorithms can’t detect.
- Ethical judgment: Guarding against bias, protecting privacy and ensuring transparency.
- Collaboration with data teams and developers: Bridging the language gap between marketing objectives and technical implementation.
And start small! Spin up a pilot project, partner with analytics colleagues and document measurable wins. Each experiment sharpens your skill set and becomes proof in future interviews.
Take the Lead: Embracing AI as a Marketing Ally
AI excels at the tedious, mundane stuff that once clogged our days. But the technology can’t pitch the big idea, cultivate genuine relationships or weigh brand-defining trade-offs.
Specialist and other human connection-heavy roles surge thanks to their unique knack for credibility and connection — qualities that algorithms can’t replicate. Marketers who prioritize AI fluency without ignoring deeply human traits will set the pace for the industry’s next chapter.
This article was created with help from contentmarketing.ai, and edited and proofread by Chad Hetherington and other members of the Brafton team.
