Reflections And Resolutions: Lessons For The Future Of AI In Digital Marketing

Lisa leads marketing at Kaltura. She enjoys finding the right balance between the art and science of marketing.

2023 has been a standout year for AI innovation, most notably the rise of generative AI (GenAI) and machine learning (ML), which have been integrated into numerous industries and business operations.

Marketing is no exception.

AI is already making a measurable impact at my company, enhancing marketing workflows in areas such as content personalization, lead qualification, and analytics-driven insights, and also infusion into our products. And we’re not alone. HubSpot, Zapier and Salesforce are among those companies incorporating AI solutions into their pipelines and their products.

But as with any high-impact innovation, many companies are anxiously anticipating what comes next. Based on research and our experience with integrating AI, it is becoming clearer where and how AI will deliver the biggest impact on marketing in the coming year.

AI Adoption In Marketing

Our end-of-year report found that 69% of marketing departments have invested in paid subscriptions for AI tools, with another 29% planning to subscribe soon. This increase in integration and investment in AI technologies within marketing departments demonstrates how AI is becoming a critical component of modern marketing strategies. Fifty-two percent of individual marketing and event professionals have already integrated AI into their marketing toolbox, while 36% are experimenting with it.

Despite this positive outlook, perceptions vary among marketers as to AI’s value. Many perceive AI as only “somewhat valuable,” but as marketers increasingly integrate AI into their day-to-day lives, its value will continue to climb. It is the marketers who use AI more frequently that view it as more valuable.

As more companies experiment with AI in their systems and discover effective ways to implement it, I believe its use in marketing strategies—as well as its perceived value—will grow exponentially.

AI In Practice

AI will play a growing role in collecting, automating and processing large amounts of data required for keen, comprehensive data analytics. The efficiency with which AI can process and analyze materials allows marketers to garner important insights swiftly and take action based on them, from new targeted content to faster data-driven decisions.

As more companies utilize AI to generate their data analytics, more will begin to make better analytics-based decisions. Resources will shift from data analytics to decision-making, allowing marketers to not only glean insights from past endeavors but to mold new strategies more effectively for the future.

AI improvements to data analytics can also lead to a hyper-personalized approach to user interaction, yielding better lead generation and better user experiences. With its ability to provide attendee assistance, AI-powered search and personalized content recommendations based on user feedback, AI allows marketers to best tailor experiences to attendees.

For example, when looking at event marketing, post-event insights can be provided faster, enabling marketers to follow up with attendees swiftly and in a more personal manner. More specifically, AI can monitor attendee engagement in real time, providing important information to marketers about the effectiveness of events as they unfold. This will likely yield more customized experiences for participants as well as higher engagement.

Beyond its data-driven value, AI has also grown as a useful tool for content creation, specifically in repurposing long-form documents, videos or event presentation recordings into unique bite-sized content reels quickly—a process that used to require a tremendous amount of marketers’ time and resources.

By creating content reels for users, AI’s scalable “content repurposing” can help marketers engage more strategically with leads and convert them into paying customers.

Challenges And Concerns

Despite the amazing potential benefits, marketers also agree that these promising new tools are not without their challenges.

Security and privacy are AI’s primary challenges—48% of business leaders said their biggest concern about AI involves the security and privacy of their data. But as reliance on AI increases, new systems will develop to ensure data security will indeed grow more robust.

Furthermore, marketers are concerned about integrating AI content into existing materials. Many, myself included, are curious to see if AI can truly understand and replicate a brand’s unique tone of voice when generating content. To mitigate these concerns, even the most AI-reliant marketers must recognize how important it is to always review and rewrite AI-generated content to ensure it is accurate, aligns with the brand’s standards and resonates with target audiences.

After all, AI should be used as a tool for creating content, not as a full-stop replacement for human content creators. Acknowledging these challenges is the first step to overcoming them.

Change Is In The AI-r

What we are seeing in use is a mere fraction of AI’s impending impact. Predictions vary far and wide about the impact AI is going to have—some far-fetched, some concrete and many we haven’t even thought of yet. But one thing is clear—the only way to bring AI’s potential to bear and to learn more about what the future holds is by incorporating it into marketing workflows, experimenting with its vast capabilities and altering marketing methodologies as we learn.

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