Will AI Replace Marketing Jobs? The Truth About AI Use in Marketing

Artificial intelligence (AI) toolsare evolving every day. With that, new use cases are constantly emerging, causing more businesses to complete tasks with AI. This growing dependence on AI has a lot of people asking, “Will AI replace marketing jobs?” and “Will AI replace digital marketers?”

While AIistaking the marketing world by storm, have no fear, we’re not about to tell you AI is taking over the world as we know it. Let’s explore how AI hashelped digital marketersand how it lacks some essential skills that marketing needs.

Looking for help integrating AI into your marketing strategy? WebFX is afull-service digital marketing agencywithAI and GPT integration servicesto help you enhance your marketing efforts. Learn more about how WebFX can help you today by giving us a call at888-601-5359!

The AI revolution is already here

Whether you like it or not, AI and all its friends have already taken over the marketing world. But when I say, “taken over,” I don’t mean we’re in aI, Robotsituation where human marketing professionals will be extinct in coming years. Far from that, actually.

From machine learning tonatural language processing tools (NLPs)and large language models (LLMs), the emergence of AI has significantly impacted how marketers and business leaders carry out day-to-day tasks and projects.50% of marketing professionalsalready use AI for their marketing strategies, and another 29% plan to use it in the future.

AI technology has carved a niche for itself in marketing in obvious and distinct ways.

Below are just a few ways AI is used in the marketing industry:

• Chatbots
• Customer service
• Automation
• Data collection
• Campaign personalization
• Translation
• Social listening

Again, these are only a few examples of AI use cases. If you want to learn more about how marketers use AI, gain more insight from real marketing leaders below!

200+ Senior Marketers Dish on How They Use AI

So, will AI replace marketing jobs?

If you’re wondering, “Will AI replace marketing jobs,” there are two sides to consider.

Yes, AI will replace and displace various marketingjobs, affecting some marketers more than others. It’s inevitable, especially with the rate at which marketing professionals and businesses are adopting AI tools.

But the jobs AI replaces or “takes over” are ones that many marketers see as time-consuming or don’t think much about to begin with, like analytics or simple customer service.

But will AI replace marketers? While it may replace a number of mundane marketing jobs, it is highly unlikely that AI will replace marketers themselves.

Why, you ask? Marketing is all about creativity, empathy, and understanding human behavior. Successful marketing needs originality and a creative spark only humans can possess. Despite its efforts to replicate it, AIdoesn’t have that capacity.

To demonstrate these points, keep reading to learn more about four marketing jobs AIcanreplace and four marketing jobs AIcan’treplace.

3 marketing jobs impacted by AI

We briefly touched on it, but now let’s look a little more in-depth at some marketing jobs impacted by AI:

1. Data collection and analytics

When doing research, it takes time to gather the right sources, analyze them, extract key points, and summarize information. AI, on the other hand, can do it in the blink of an eye. Through marketing AI tools, the data collection and analysis process takes less time, leaving more time for marketers to draw conclusions from findings and make data-driven decisions.

With the help of customer data that’s been collected and analyzed, AI can replace marketing jobs we don’t usually think about, like identifying the needs and preferences of audience segments, connecting with leads at different touchpoints, and more, all in a snap.

2. Online customer service and support

As mentioned earlier, one of the marketing jobs impacted by AI is customer service. Human customer service representatives can’t be available to help users online 24/7. With chatbots powered by AI and trained by your team on different prompts, users can enjoy 24/7 customer service even when your staff isn’t available.

Marketing AI for customer service helps your customers get the help they need fast and efficiently. It not only offers support to your customer service representatives, but it frees up more time for them by answering simple customer questions. While AI takes care of the easy questions, your representatives can dedicate additional time to help customers requiring more one-on-one assistance.

3. Content ideation

If you’ve been following AI’s impact on marketing and business, you’ve likely heard how teams use platforms likeChatGPTto create and brainstorm content.44% of marketersalready use AI for content creation and ideation in 2023, doing things like identifying content holes, finding ways to expand on topics, developing potential writing outlines, and more.

With AI technology constantly evolving, it’s not unlikely that content creation will become even more reliant on AI, with even more businesses using it to develop more in-depth content plans and article outlines.

4 reasons AI can’t replace marketers

Marketing is more than just trying to sell something or get someone to act. AI lacks a few key attributes of marketing jobs that AI cannot replace or eliminate.

1. AI lacks in-depth critical thinking

AI excels at gathering information and analyzing data, but at the end of the day, AI lacks the critical thinking skills needed to make decisions. It can help plan and develop ideas and strategies, but AI can’t account for unique factors that may influence a decision.

So, will AI replace marketing jobs that require decision-making skills? Not anytime soon — AI would need to learn and internalize critical thinking skills and effectively process outside factors affecting a decision in order to successfully make choices for companies.

2. AI doesn’t write with human emotion and empathy

Try as it might to sound human, AI cannot write content with the same sense of compassion and human emotion as real human marketers can. Sure, you could prompt ChatGPT to write a blog post in a humorous voice, but it’ll never translate emotions into writing in a way that sounds genuine or natural.

Great writing that connects with people and leaves a lasting impression on them features relatable, human emotions. People react to things they can relate to. Try as it might, AI is not human, and can’t accurately reflect genuine human emotions.

That brings us to our next point.

3. AI won’t build lasting relationships on its own

Because AI lacks real emotions, it also can’tbuild meaningful relationshipswith leads and customers as humans can.

人工智能程序只能做这么多,在这样一个世界where connecting with customers is vital to marketing success, a simple prompt to ChatGPT won’t be enough to convince a prospect to do business with you. So, rest assured — sales, outreach, and copywriting roles are marketing jobs AI can’t replace.

4. AI can’t develop original ideas

AI tools like ChatGPT andDALL-E通过互联网收集信息并使用它to come up with responses to user queries. That said, AI can’t come up with wholly original ideas because it relies on the ideas and findings of others to help users. So, in many aspects, content creation is a marketing job AI can’t fully replace. Sure, it can assist content creators with their work, but it can’t successfully do the job for them.

AI is a tool — embrace it!

If you’re still apprehensive about using AI in marketing, we get it. It’s a new tool that can doa lot, so it’s normal to feel nervous about it all. But while the prospect of using AI sounds scary, it’s a tool that should be embraced, and used responsibly, because it can do a lot of good for your business.

Take it from WebFX’s VP of Business Development Trevin Shirey:

Even if your company is planning on using AI more aggressively, you can still take AI integration one step at a time. When people are apprehensive about it, it’s more beneficial to view AI as a tool that you can harness for good rather than an entity that’s going to “take over” jobs.

Trevin says:

Get top-notch AI integration services from WebFX

AI integration is about more than just investing in a new tool and jumping into the next project. It requires proper planning and implementation that doesn’t happen overnight. Luckily, WebFX offersAI and GPT integration servicesso you can start embracing AI without the stress of having to integrate it by yourself.

WebFX is a full-service digital marketing agency home to 500+ team members who stay on top of the latest AI and martech trends. With over 25 years of experience, we can help you responsibly use AI tools to help drive your business forward.

Contact us onlineor give WebFX a call at888-601-5359to start your AI journey today!