Cannes Lions this year has marked an important shift in the discourse of AI adaptation in marketing: no longer just promises, but actual implementation and performance. A common perception across multiple panels, or even brand showcases regarding this new integration, is that there should be no separation between generative AI and a creative and strategic approach.
From efficient content creation to personalizing campaigns at a large scale, the AI tech is clearly helping marketers achieve unprecedented productivity. But do they really know in-depth about their tools? What will be the next development of AI? And are they ready to face this new wave?
To answer these questions, Outcomes Rocket has conducted a comprehensive survey to understand the current situation in the field of marketing under this new wave of AI. From different industries, in different roles and organization sizes, 1,299 marketers have participated and expressed their perspective. The findings showed that marketers’ daily work has been assisted with generative AI massively; however, only a third of them have exposure to other forms of AI, such as agentic AI. The survey not only revealed positive angles of this adoption but also fear among newcomers in terms of job security in this field within the next two or three years.
Widespread AI Adoption in Marketing
The data showed that almost all of the participants (89.5%) use AI in their work. This is true cross-industry no matter what the job level or the size of the organizations, especially small businesses that do not have a large budget for marketing but need to compete with other big corporations.
Generative AI is dominating the AI market in marketing, with 93.5% of marketers utilizing the tools for content creation, including blog posts, advertisement copy, social media content, and other creative brainstorming purposes.
Standing at the top of the list is ChatGPT, with 94.8% of users choosing it as their main platform. This result is expected due to its ease of use, versatility, real-time interaction, and the ability to generate output across a wide range of formats and tones. The biggest differentiator for ChatGPT is that OpenAI was the first mover in the game, allowing this tool to be tested and experimented with by the public before any other competitor rolled out their own. As a result, ChatGPT will always be mentioned in any AI conversation, so naturally, it became the first pick for many users when it comes to generative AI.
Early Stage but Growing Interest in Agentic AI
However, generative AI is not the only answer to marketing. Agentic AI could be the answer to a fully autonomous AI solution. This single tool is capable of running a complete marketing campaign with minimum human interaction, from developing strategy, segmenting the audience, to creating content and distributing across channels, and even analyzing performance. This model will analyze historical data, competitor trends to determine which action is most suitable to take. It could be a new campaign, a new ad strategy, or an entire test of A/B testing. Unlike the traditional automation method, agentic AI learn from its results to produce the most optimal course of action.
Nonetheless, despite the immense potential, the implementation of agentic AI is still at the primary level, with only 33.3% of marketers having experimented with agentic AI. The current atmosphere around this tool is mostly reserved or unfamiliar. However, this is not a bad indicator; instead, it shows that agentic AI has promising growth and could be transformative to the entire field in the next 12 to 24 months. Once more, marketers and organizations have experimented with this model, and agentic AI can surely become the top contender in marketing technology.
Trust Issues and Training Gaps in AI Use
Accuracy has always been the top concern for every AI model that has been introduced, and application in marketing is not an exception. Over 93% of marketers experience the common problems with AI-generated content: inaccuracy, bias, or irrelevancy. Therefore, around 70% spend a lot of time revising or proofreading the output before publishing. It could be surprising that with such a high frequency of working alongside AI, only 42% of them are confident in spotting AI-generated content. Lack of official guidance and education could be the explanation. The survey revealed that 80% of participants did not have any formal AI training from their company. Not only does this figure demonstrate the lack of preparedness in the workforce, but it also sheds light on the inefficiency of the integration process of a new tool.
Job Security Concerns Are Rising
The survey also explored the sentiment towards the effects of AI regarding employment, which turned out to be quite negative. The pressure is present and high, with nearly 89% of marketers believing that AI will result in job losses in the next two or three years.
The statistics indicate that one-third of marketing activities will potentially become automated shortly, and junior positions are the most likely to be impacted. Automation will mostly target routine or repetitive work, which is the main responsibility of junior positions. Therefore, these fears among the less experienced marketers concerning long-term career security are truly reasonable and expected.
While most of them believe AI will take over lots of marketing roles, the advantages of using AI are undeniable, with 63% of participants viewing AI as a helpful assistant rather than a potential substitute. Their perception focuses on applying AI to boost overall productivity, reduce their time on routine work, which allows more time on creative tasks or strategy. On the other hand, a rather small percentage of participants (16%) believe that AI will take away all the marketing jobs. Although the concern for job security is high, the vast majority of them (over 70%) have not experienced any direct impact from these AI-driven threats. Looking at the big picture, advocacy for AI is stronger, suggesting a new transformation in the field for the better and not necessarily a takeover by AI.
Future Outlook: Continued Growth and Investment
Despite the undeniable ambivalence regarding marketing job security with this high rate of AI adoption, marketers are still open and eager to take the full advantage of this new technology. Overall, the feeling regarding the possibilities that AI has to offer is very positive. Almost eight out of ten marketers believe that generative AI will be the largest game-changer shortly and will bring significant change in creating content, engaging audiences, and developing campaigns.
In addition to content creation, predictive analytics and hyper-personalization are gaining rapid attention. Over 50% of the respondents believe that these data-powered tools will be used more often in the future to get a closer look at customer behavior, thus allowing the team to create highly personalized experiences.
In the meantime, 41.7% of marketers believe their institutions will invest more in AI tools and technologies within the coming year. Such an investment is evidence of the transformative power of AI. Investors are willing to bet their money on it, in the hope that AI will lead to growth and innovation.
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