How AI has developed in marketing

Written by Pawel Zembrzuski, who joined our Marketing Team for a week of work experience

Could AI replace humans in marketing?

"Marketing refers to the activities a company undertakes to promote the buying or selling of its products or services. Marketing includes advertising and allows businesses to sell products and services to consumers, or other businesses and organisations."

Marketing covers a broad range of activities including advertising, market research, brand strategy and more. In short, marketing helps connect businesses with their customers and over recent years, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become an increasingly powerful tool in the marketing world.  

AI in marketing uses technologies such as Data Collections, Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Machine Learning (ML) to deliver customer insights and automate important marketing decisions. The development of AI in the marketing industry has moved rapidly over recent years, since the introduction of the first Large Language Model (LLM) in 1966 - and we've come a long way since then. Today, businesses utilise these LLMs, like ChatGPT, to help complete tasks quickly and efficiently.

But the question remains: Could AI completely replace humans in marketing, or will it always play a supporting role? Continue reading to find out!

The positive impacts of AI in marketing

Research

AI can complete tasks much faster than a human, especially when it comes to market research. For example, AI tools can scan multiple websites simultaneously and summarise the findings in seconds, whereas a human would need much longer to do this manually as they review sites asynchronously (one at a time). Search-based platforms, like Perplexity, even provide sources automatically which is particularly helpful for marketers who would like to go into depth on more niche or technical topics.

Content Creation

AI tools like Google Veo and ChatGPT can now generate content in written, video and image formats. This can help businesses create marketing materials for use on their websites or social media platforms much more quickly. However, AI content still needs human input and it has a long way to go before companies can be entirely dependent on it. Instead, many companies use AI as a starting point, tweaking and building upon what's generated rather than relying on it fully.

Customer Relationship Management

AI is also making Customer Relationship Management (CRM) processes more efficient. It can automate repetitive tasks like organising customer data, sending follow-up emails, and even drafting personalised messages. This not only saves time but can reduce human error. That being said, the human touch still matters, especially when it comes to building real connections with customers. 

Considerations when using AI in marketing

Reduced Traffic

One downside of AI in marketing is the potential drop in website traffic. Although AI may enable businesses to review and improve SEO, large amounts of users are converting from search engines to LLMs and chatbots like Microsoft Copilot and Google AI search for quick answers. The reason why could be because they don't have to explore different sources for an answer, but instead get it directly from the AI. However, this could make it harder for businesses to attract visitors to their own websites. 

A good example of this is from Google, the most famous search engine, who introduced Google AI in 2017. It now summarises all the links into one paragraph, which causes users to not scroll through or visit different websites, but simply read the AI summary. While useful for users, this means fewer people actually click on the links, which reduces website traffic for companies trying to promote themselves online.

AI Hallucinations

 AI hallucinations occur when an AI system generates information that sounds correct but is actually false or misleading. These errors can range from minor inaccuracies to major issues that could damage a brand's reputation or trust with customers.

Did you know that 96% of internet users are aware of AI hallucinations, and around 86% of them have experienced one first-hand? Although 72% of users still trust AI to provide reliable information, most have been misled by AI at least once. And whilst LLMs have worked to decrease the rate at which hallucinations occur, users still have the responsibility of verifying AI outputs to ensure the information is correct. That's why it's essential for marketers to always double-check AI-generated content before using it. At the end of the day, human judgement is still key.

Conclusion: We're Safe!

So, will AI replace marketers?

Well, it depends on how you look at it. Yes, AI will definitely take over some routine or repetitive marketing tasks such as analysing basic data or answering simple customer questions. But some marketers might actually welcome that! They might find those tasks "time-consuming" and it also frees them up to focus on the parts of the job that require creativity, emotional intelligence, and strategic thinking.

But whilst it may replace several everyday tasks, it's highly unlikely that AI will replace marketers. This is because marketing is about understanding human behaviour, building relationships, and thinking creatively - skills that AI simply doesn't have (at least, not yet!). While AI will play a bigger role in the future of marketing, it's very unlikely to replace marketers altogether. So for now, we can all breathe a sigh of relief! 

To find out more about the impact of AI in modern businesses, check out our blog on AI & UX in the digital age