Opportunities, And The Future Of The Industry
The recent proliferation of AI-generated content, such as a viral Instagram post featuring bunnies jumping on a trampoline, demonstrates the technology's capabilities and raises questions about its applications in marketing. The marketing industry is at the forefront of AI development, with many tools already available to marketers.
Guest emphasizes that the real challenge lies not in the technology itself but in the mindset of marketers. To harness AI's full potential, marketers need to reassess their organizational design, data strategy, and metrics for success. Guest suggests building a team with a prompt engineer and data scientist at its core, surrounded by more traditional roles that incorporate AI (Guest, 2025). She recommends leveraging existing marketing technology (martech) AI tools, providing training sessions to ensure teams can effectively utilize them.
Guest advises marketers to adopt a hybrid approach, starting with off-the-shelf AI tools and evolving towards bespoke solutions as their AI maturity grows.
This is largely attributed to AI's ability to analyze vast amounts of customer data, identify patterns, and provide personalized experiences. For instance, AI-powered chatbots can help businesses provide 24 → 7 customer support, while AI-driven content generation can enable companies to produce high-quality content at scale.
The use of AI in marketing also raises important questions about data privacy and ethics.
As AI algorithms become increasingly sophisticated, they require vast amounts of data to function effectively. This has led to concerns about how businesses collect, store, and use customer data. According to a survey by Pew Research Center, 72% of Americans believe that online advertisers have too much access to their personal data (Pew Research Center, 2019). As a result, businesses must prioritize transparency and accountability in their use of AI and customer data.
The future of AI in marketing holds much promise, but it also requires marketers to develop new skills and competencies.
More takeaways: Check hereRosie Guest is the Chief Marketing Officer and Communications Officer at global financial services provider Apex Group .◌◌◌ ◌ ◌◌◌