By: Paul Hiebert, Adweek
Artificial intelligence is no longer a futuristic buzzword in marketing circles, it’s a core part of how the industry operates today. A recent survey of ADWEEK readers showed that a vast majority of marketers and advertisers believe that their organisations are committed to the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into their daily operations. In concrete numbers, 78% of respondents indicated their company was serious about embracing the technology, while around one in five said their organisation was not.
This is not to say that this shift toward automation is stress-free and without any complications. In the same survey, 85% of respondents said they feel pressure to keep up with AI developments, reflecting the strain of constant innovation. However, sentiment around AI remains largely positive with 51% of survey responders saying they were excited about AI in the workplace. At the same time 39% felt apprehensive and 83% reported being either very or somewhat confident in using AI at work.
AdAge also reported that amid the shift toward increased AI adoption, the question of how employees will be trained to use these technologies remains open. Nicole Greene, an analyst at Gartner, noted that “early adopters of AI will likely wind up rising to the surface.” She added that many of these early adopters will then be responsible for educating their colleagues. “You’re going to have to have people that train people on AI,” said Greene. “Some of my most successful clients in the content ecosystem and advertising have specific workforce programs to help train and up-skill their employees.”
Some of the welcoming attitudes observed in ADWEEK’s survey may partly be driven by a strong sense of confidence among professionals. In fact, 83% of marketers and advertisers reported feeling either very or somewhat confident in their ability to effectively use and gain value from AI in the workplace.
When it comes to the pace of AI adoption among individuals, LinkedIn’s global data shows that marketers and advertisers fall somewhere in the middle compared to other industries. Between May 2024 and April 2025, the number of AI-related skills listed on marketers’ and advertisers’ LinkedIn profiles grew by 12%. In contrast, government workers led the trend with a 28% increase.
According to Angelina Eng, Vice President of Measurement, Addressability & Data Center at the IAB, the industry has yet to fully tap into AI’s capabilities. AI is already able to handle tasks such as building media plans, identifying audience segments, choosing media partners, predicting outcomes, and even using synthetic data to improve marketing mix modeling and sales attribution. Eng emphasized that this technology is poised to rapidly transform the entire media campaign process, from planning to execution and management, and warned that those slow to adapt risk falling behind.
Supporting data from Live Data Technologies shows us yet another shift: as AI adoption has grown, staff-level roles at marketing and advertising firms have declined. Meanwhile, managerial and director-level positions have remained relatively stable during this time.
The question still remains: how will the future of AI continue to reshape the marketing and advertising landscape?
