Will AI replace digital marketing? Looking into the future from 2024
Nathan Binford
I build systems that grow businesses with digital marketing and automation.
AI is disrupting many industries but perhaps none more than marketing. Marketers are facing a very real challenge when it comes to staying relevant in the face of AI automation. But savvy marketers are finding ways to put AI to work on their behalf, turning the “Terminator” into their own secret weapon.
In 2024, AI’s impact on digital marketing is more significant than ever.
Will AI replace digital marketers, or will it create new opportunities for those who adapt?
The size and scope of the changes ahead of us is already becoming obvious in the marketing world and it’s unnerving to watch, as a marketer. According to a report by PwC, AI could contribute up to $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030, significantly impacting various industries, including digital marketing.
All these AI-powered tools we use are getting smarter and becoming more available. You could be forgiven for wondering if your chosen profession is still a place where you can thrive in the long-term.
This article reviews the current capabilities of AI in digital marketing, what human marketers excel at vs AI, and discusses the steps that marketing professionals should take to future-proof their careers.
AI Capabilities In Digital Marketing
AI is the approximation of human intelligence in computer systems -machines imitating the kinds of capacities people tend to identify with human thinking and reasoning.
These tasks include learning (gathering information and generating rules for using the data), reasoning (using these rules to reach conclusions) and self-correction, of course.
But they also include more of the “feels like magic” capabilities we’ve come to associate with AI: identifying visual images, processing vast amounts of data quickly, complex reasoning and logic, and so on.
Within the realm of digital marketing, AI is already widely used for:
Despite strengths in these categories though, it's essential to remember that when we talk about AI, we really mean machine learning algorithms. And these algorithms are designed to produce the most statistically likely results, which doesn't really allow them to be creative in any meaningful way.
The AI of today is not a replacement for the creativity and strategic potential of human marketers, and won’t be for the foreseeable future.
If you tried to replace your marketing team with AI today you’d be paying hundreds of dollars a month for tools that would go unused. There are many impressive AI marketing tools but none will replace the human that knows how to make it all work together to produce results.
Humans create with their hearts and creative minds, we can leverage emotions (not just imitate them). And this ability to communicate authentically and tell stories that resonate and create meaningful connections with your customers helps you convert them into value and growth for your business.
Marketing doesn’t work when it’s gutted of real creativity, empathy, and intuition. So far, AI content doesn’t hold a candle to the personal, human touch.
Experienced digital marketers also bring the benefit of deep knowledge and irreplaceable intuition about their clients, the state of the industry, marketing strategies, and evolving trends as well.
AI can help crunch numbers, extract data from documents, and even render an impressive amount of visual content. But without the deeper context or broader business strategy that marketers provide, this is just meaningless noise.
AI’s Current Impact on Digital Marketing:
There’s no overstating the impact of AI on the marketing field. Not everyone will thrive in this new environment because there is so much that is new and challenging. It's not that AI will force them out, or take away their opportunities, but they may not want to stay in marketing when it means so much learning and effort will be required.
Many marketers will probably opt out of the AI revolution when their skillset is automated and replaced by algorithms. Either by choice or by consequence though, it's safe to assume that anyone not willing to adapt to working with AI on a daily basis is going to be driven out of the industry, one way or the other.
Speed has always been important in marketing. Speed to market. Speedy growth. Always having to evolve to stay ahead of the curve just comes with the territory. And, above all, AI will absolutely help you speed up (and scale up) your productivity -and this is the golden goose for marketers.
The AI tools which are causing the most disruption to the marketing industry right now include:
And now that you can train a custom GPT on large amounts of data, including previous chat transcripts, ChatGPT itself can be leveraged as a very intelligent chat bot through the OpenAI API.
If You Want To Be A Marketer, Up-skill In AI Tech
Even if AI doesn’t eliminate the need for digital marketers altogether (and it won’t) our jobs will look very different in a few short years. Marketers who want to stay relevant will need to be able to up-skill and evolve in order to keep pace as AI increasingly surpasses human capability.
In order to protect themselves from falling behind, digital marketers are going to have continue to upgrade their skills with AI tools in order to be able use the technology effectively.
This will likely involve expanding outside of a strict domain focus to learn and combine skills across different areas like data analysis, strategic considerations and creative problem solving.
Scott Brinker, editor of ChiefMartec (and VP of Platform at HubSpot) discussed, on episode 82 of the Humans of Martech podcast, how “as AI matures, the marketer of tomorrow will become more a strategist”, i.e. someone who orchestrates and manages artificial intelligence to work increasingly smarter. (Source: Humans of Martech, Episode 82)
This suggests that the most resilient marketers will broaden their scope, learn how to do more things, and drive results in increasingly faster and more automated ways with the AI-powered systems they manage.
And Paul Roetzer, Founder of Marketing AI Institute, appearing recently on another podcast, said that “from automation and analytics to personalization...AI is already enabling marketers to deliver more tailored, actionable data, personalized to their customers.” (Source: Marketing AI Institute)
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So it’s not a question of if, or even when, it’s simply a question of how long it takes to reach its full potential.
The key takeaway is: while AI will make some skills obsolete, it’s also going to open up new horizons for those marketers who can use it correctly.
As digital marketing rockstar Neil Patel notes, “AI can do amazing things - that much is obvious. But it cannot completely replace the experimentation, testing, and creativity capabilities of people. So as long as you keep getting better and dial in on your creative energy, AI won’t replace you."
The Future of Marketing Will Be Human-Machine Collaboration
It seems obvious that the future of digital marketing is a battle royale with AI and humans in the ring together. However, instead of humans vs machines it will be a competition of humans vs other humans, both armed with impressive AI technology.
Although AI can take over repetitive tasks and share insights based on data, human marketers are still indispensable when it comes to creativity in strategy, building relationships with clients, and producing meaningful business outcomes.
We can only imagine how AI will continue to shape new opportunities and career paths for marketers, as it works its way deeper into our digital workflows.
And we’re not far from the point where the average company will be hiring “AI strategists” and “prompt engineers” that can wrangle the AI into producing high-quality output from the LLMs tasked with generating marketing content.
To prepare for this hybrid AI-human workforce, digital marketers must be equipped with a variety of skills such as:
AI literacy: Know how AI works, what AI can and can’t do for you, and how to generate creative, content, analysis, research, and ideas in bulk.
Data Analysis: Be able to look at large sets of data using tools like ChatGPT and data visualization plugins to understand and present the story the data is telling.
Creative Problem-Solving: Be able to quickly solve problems by implementing AI tools in new and novel ways.
Emotional Intelligence: Understand where the customers are coming from, what their needs and wants might be, as well as creating a connection with them in person (and via content).
Agility / Adaptability: Be able to quickly learn new technologies, tools, or best practices in different frameworks and constant evolution.
Developing this type of skills and adopting a mentality of constant learning will set any digital marketer up for success in the future, enhanced by AI.
Will AI Replace Digital Marketers?
No, AI will not replace digital marketers in general. But, yes, some digital marketers will find themselves unwilling or unable to make the necessary changes and they will almost certainly be causalities of the AI revolution.
AI is changing the way things are done in digital marketing from top to bottom but there’s no reason for fear. AI can do amazing things! It’s fun to play with!
I’m already using AI to brainstorm and outline content for my website www.NathanBinford.com, to generate all my blog images, to help me edit my videos and improve my audio, and much, much more.
The reality is that the more AI becomes involved in the mundane, day-to-day work of digital marketing, the more digital marketers will need to keep expanding and changing their skill sets to stay relevant.
This means building less siloed knowledge, and instead acquiring a more well-rounded skill set that combines an understanding of data with the ability to think strategically and solve problems creatively — one which prioritizes deep familiarity with these AI tools in practice.
In the end, the digital marketers who can tap into AI most effectively will be the ones who are rewarded individually and bring better outcomes for their companies. Instead of being afraid that AI will replace them, marketers should find ways to harness AI and put themselves in some semblance of control for what’s sure to be a wild ride.
Frequently Asked Questions
What tasks can AI automate in digital marketing?
In digital marketing, AI can be used to audit and report on data of all kinds, draft content and creative assets, assist with brainstorming, and recommend ad targeting/optimization and customer service through chatbots or virtual assistants. And the list keeps growing all the time…
How can digital marketers future-proof their careers against AI?
Although it is tough to predict what the future holds, digital marketers can safeguard against irrelevance by diversifying their toolkit — focusing on skills such as AI literacy and data, alongside creativity and emotional intelligence and agility; basically anything a computer can’t do. Plus it’s a good idea to just stay in learning mode and track trends, AI news, and all the hot new techniques surfaced in the industry.
What are the current limitations of AI in digital marketing?
AI is powerful, but it’s not perfect.? So far, there are still certain things that AI struggles with in digital marketing.
Here are a few of them:
Nathan Binford is a 20+ year marketer and technologist, running his agency from paradise, and helping other marketers take advantage of the huge opportunity to create lasting financial freedom during the gold rush of the AI revolution.
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