A new era of marketing: How AI impacts strategies and creativity

AI is transforming marketing faster than we can blink. Debates continue over how AI might impact the roles and responsibilities within marketing, how it will shape the workforce, and what marketing teams may look like in the future. But the question that’s top of mind for marketing departments (and every department, frankly) is… how do we take advantage of new AI tools?

To explore this new era of AI-driven marketing, we hosted a panel of top marketers and AI leaders. Sheila Vashee, CMO at Figma; Laura Jones, CMO at Instacart; Michelle Taite, CMO at Intuit Mailchimp; Yaniv Makover, CEO at Anyword; and Chetan Sharma, CEO of Eppo, explored the evolving role of marketing, changing team dynamics, and how these new tools are reshaping the way we work. The discussion centered around AI’s capabilities to personalize customer journeys, optimize marketing budgets, and enhance content creation.

A wealth of insights and honest reflections were shared, which we’ve compiled below to outline how marketing strategies are evolving.

The TLDR

• Content Creation: AI tools such as Descript and Midjourney have revolutionized content creation, enabling small teams to produce a wide variety of content. For copywriting, tools like Anyword, Grammarly, and Letterdrop are enhancing the quality and efficiency of output. While human oversight is still essential to plan, produce, measure, and align content to customer needs, the ability to generate content rapidly has led to an increase in experimentation, and dare we say, playfulness with some brands? With GenAI creative tools and writing assistants now commonplace, teams have much more internal ownership of their brand development and processes and are driving a far higher volume of content creation than previously expected.
• Hyper-personalization: AI is unequivocally empowering marketers by allowing teams to create personalized experiences for multiple target audiences simultaneously. The concept of resource allocation is being reconsidered as teams can now extend their reach and effectiveness. Even lean teams can create hyper-specific content for a number of customer journeys, allowing for additional insights and learning.
• Optimization: It didn’t take long for AI to begin optimizing performance marketing budgets, creative processes, and team operations. It’s becoming clear that the teams who are effectively integrating AI into their marketing processes, identifying repetitive tasks and then automating them, are reaping significant operational leverage. Marketing is a department, like any other, tasked to drive business goals forward. New GenAI creative and content tools help ensure that costs grow slower than top-line revenue. This optimization spans performance marketing, creative production, and team workflows.

AI’s impact on team structures

• Enhanced productivity: GenAI is a tool that teams are now encouraged to maximize before, say, expanding their headcount or leaving all of the brainstorming up to a costly creative agency. Teams can achieve more with less and can focus on strategic goals without losing the ability to iterate.
• Specialized tools: Various AI tools are being integrated into marketing workflows to accelerate creative processes and gain insights efficiently. For instance, Midjourney is used for conceptualizing visual ideas, while synthetic panels for research provide quick and accurate market insights. These tools streamline the creative process, allowing for rapid iteration and validation.
• Content ownership: Teams are leveraging AI to experiment with and validate concepts quickly. This approach facilitates focused production efforts so final outputs align more closely with initial ideas. The integration of AI in ideation stages helps teams to produce content that is both innovative and on-brand.

Strategic shifts

In many organizations, AI adoption is driven by top-down mandates. This is proving successful because there’s a measured process to integrate AI into workflows and an organization-wide drive to measure and demonstrate the real-world impact of these tools. But even with mandates in effect, significant production decisions rely heavily on human insight and traditional methods. While GenAI aids in generating and refining ideas, the final execution relies on human creativity and assessment so that teams can respond to market feedback and trends with agility.

Challenges remain

While AI-generated content is efficient, it still lacks the distinctiveness required for impactful marketing. Human judgment and creativity are essential. AI outputs must be refined to meet quality standards and effectively communicate brand messaging. Let’s be honest, we’ve all seen the canned posts (and auto-responses) on LinkedIn. Humans can sense when only an LLM is working behind the scenes.

Lastly, it’s true that teams can experiment and iterate more freely. But that experimentation means nothing without effective evaluation! Randomized control trials and AB testing are critical in determining the best-performing campaigns. Tools like Eppo — an end-to-end experimentation platform — can be a huge help here.

Looking ahead

The full impact of AI on marketing is yet to be realized. While current applications improve existing processes, future developments may lead to more profound changes in marketing strategies and customer interactions. We all need to stay informed and prepared for potential shifts.

And remember, the only successful AI applications for marketing are those that tie directly to business metrics. AI-driven initiatives must contribute to overall business goals and demonstrate their value in order to be used. Within these guardrails, there is more than enough room for play. The teams that remain curious, collaborative and engaged with new systems and tools will stay ahead of the curve and make the most of new opportunities.

Marketing is being actively reshaped. The future of marketing will be defined by those who embrace AI with an adaptive mindset. By harnessing AI as a set of superpowers, marketers can enhance their strategies, achieve greater efficiency, and create more meaningful connections with their audiences.