Based on what we’ve seen since the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, it’s hard to challenge this opinion. Generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Bard, Gemini, MidJourney, and many others have transformed how marketers think and approach their decision-making and work.
Still, most experts agree that consumer AI technology is still in its early days. It will only get better from here, playing a vital role in digital and conventional marketing.
In this article, we’ll give you a glimpse into the future of AI in marketing and evaluate some of the strongest trends shaping how brands engage with their audiences.
AI in marketing today: An overview
Marketers have been using AI-powered tools in marketing for years. However, the emergence of generative AI chatbots and content-generation tools has made AI technology more accessible than ever.
According to SimilarWeb, ChatGPT had over 550 million visitors in May 2024. Another study shows that users spend an average of 13 minutes and 34 secondsper visit on ChatGPT.
We’re talking about just one generative AI tool. Numerous AI chatbots and AI-driven tools are leveraging this technology for various forms of content production and changing the marketing landscape.
From image and text generation to personalization and analytics, AI is empowering marketing teams to scale their efforts and find innovative ways to engage their audiences.
E-commerce companies are using AI-powered product images, brands like Coca-Cola are creating AI-powered ads, and we’re even seeing AI models earn thousands of dollars on Instagram and other social platforms.
However, AI technology isn’t the one-click magic many believe it to be. An extensive survey of over 1,000 B2B marketing professionals found that 54 percent of marketers who don’t leverage AI either lack training or understanding of this technology.
This can hamper their growth and ability to compete because to create engaging AI content that’s not only accurate and engaging but also drives conversions, marketers need to understand how it works.
How AI enhances marketing efforts: Examples & use cases
So what exactly is the role of generative AI in marketing? Let’s discuss a few real-world examples.
Idea generation for marketing campaigns
Marketers are always looking for creative ideas and angles to engage their audiences in different ways. AI drastically accelerates this process by helping you generate unlimited ideas within seconds.
A study conducted in late 2023 found that 51 percent of marketers use AI tools to brainstorm new topics for their marketing content.
You can use AI to find unique blog post ideas or new angles for your website copy, generate ideas for article titles, or get suggestions for email subject lines.
Content creation
Marketers frequently use AI-powered tools to create blog posts, articles, social media posts, emails, case studies, and other content marketing assets.
Act! AI Writing Assistant is an excellent example of this technology.
Act! users can now generate accurate and engaging content for their landing pages, emails, articles, and marketing assets with complete control. You can personalize your content, tailor it to your brand voice, and translate it into multiple languages for better audience targeting.
For example, if you need a webinar announcement or a script for an upcoming video training, you can use Act! AI Writing Assistant, which is powered by OpenAI, to generate copy with just a few prompts.
This technology accelerates content creation and reduces production costs, allowing you to launch new SEO and marketing campaigns quickly.
Designing websites and landing pages
Generative AI technology allows marketers to create new websites and landing pages with just a few prompts. Using AI-powered site builders, you can easily generate designs and customize their content to fit your marketing needs.
Automating customer interactions
AI chatbots and support assistants have become a critical part of modern customer engagement strategies. These tools use AI and machine learning to understand user issues and respond with natural language in a conversational tone.
Studies show that 35 percent of consumers believe AI chatbots can resolve their issues most of the time. When done well, chatbots can reduce support costs, enhance customer experience, and provide marketers with priceless user insights to improve future marketing campaigns and conversion rates.
What’s next for AI in marketing: Trends shaping the future
AI systems have disrupted conventional and digital marketing. But the future of AIin marketing is even more exciting. Here are a few AI marketing trends to look out for in the coming years.
Advanced personalization
Advanced AI technology will help marketers move toward hyper-personalizationin all aspects of marketing. This means delivering highly customized content, offers, and experiences to individual customer segments based on their demographics or unique preferences and behaviors.
To keep up, brands must invest in AI tools capable of deep data analysis and personalization. Investing in an integrated CRM and marketing automationplatform can help you ride these changes.
A fully integrated CRM and marketing automation platform tracks user activity at different stages of the marketing funnel and gives you the insights to make data-driven decisions and personalize your marketing message, email copy, sales pitch, and customer interactions.
Realistic content generation
Future AI models will be capable of generating highly realistic and human-like content, including text, images, and videos.
Their quality is already quite impressive. With improvements in natural language processing (NLP) capabilities, the quality and engagement of marketing materials will continue to improve.
Marketers will increasingly use AI in advertising as well. From product image creation and ad copy to automated bidding and algorithm-based audience targeting, the use of AI in digital marketing will help brands reach their audiences more creatively.
However, ultimately, these advancements will make it harder to stand out from your competition. Everyone will be able to use these technologies to achieve a minimum level of content quality.
To navigate this challenge, you need to master AI prompt engineering and understand how you can add value to AI content to make it more credible and engaging for your audience.
Real-time customer journey mapping
In the not-so-distant future, AI will enable real-time mapping of customer journeys, allowing marketers to understand and respond to customer interactions instantly. This can lead to more agile and responsive marketing strategies.
Again, an integrated CRM system can prove vital in tracking customer journeysand giving you the insights you need to respond to changing market demands.
Deeper behavioral insights and predictive analysis
All digital marketing platforms track customer data in different ways. AI marketing tools will be able to better interpret customer behavior and provide users with deeper and more actionable insights.
AI algorithms can also use this data for predictive analysis to forecast future market trends and understand customer behaviors, helping marketers make faster decisions and stay ahead of the competition.
To take advantage of this, you must enable integrated user tracking on your website, apps, social platforms, and other digital assets. Without an integrated tracking system, your data will have holes, making its recommendations less reliable.
Embrace the use of AI in marketing to grow your business
Generative AI is any marketer’s dream technology. By fully embracing the AI age and getting hands-on with modern marketing tools, you can accelerate content creation, schedule repetitive tasks, leverage predictive analytics, and build much more meaningful relationships with your audience.
Act! is the perfect partner on this journey, empowering you with a full-featured and seamlessly integrated CRM and marketing automation platform, an AI Writing Assistant, and customer journey tracking tools.
Try Act! for free and experience the power of AI marketing.