How to protect your Marketing career against the threat of automation and AI

Developments in marketing software have taken place at a breathtaking rate, making many aspects of the marketing and creative function not just easier, but borderline obsolete.

The divergence into content by all specialists in the marketing field has meant many marketers now need to write the content that they’ve historically planned, delivered and assessed.

Why know that the rise of the T-shaped marketer has meant organisations in all sectors are increasingly looking for specialist marketers but with a broad marketing knowledge.

But several major developments have removed the mystique and skill required in some roles and replace it with machine learning. This means a number of aspects can be handled by AI technology.

Which roles might be at risk?

If you are a marketer who has built a career on the following types of skills, you want to follow the advice that follows in order to protect yourself and improve your chances of career longevity.

1. Design (Canva)

At the time of writing, Canva is embarking on major internet, radio and TV advertising supporting it’s cut-price graphic design software. For around £10 a month, users access thousands of ready made templates for social media graphics, documents, presentations and increasingly more complicated digital media like animation and video too.

It’s not an AI, but with the incredible breadth of resources, it has made the creation of a whole brand and all the supporting habits needed to successfully market a business available to anyone with an internet connection and device.

And although there are some limitations to what it can do when directly compared to products from Adobe or dedicated graphic designers and marketers with some design smarts, it is a very attractive proposition for many.

2. AI Copywriting for Marketing (Jasper)

A second area is copywriting. More and more marketers are turning to AI copywriting applications like Jasper to help them generate first draft content quickly, that can be edited and put in front of target audiences.

I’ve run a few polls on social media to evaluate feedback and it seems marketers are happy using it in this way. My experience is that AI generated copy needs some work to make it sound unique and relevant – particularly in technical B2B markets, but there is no denying the attraction in being able to punch in some key references and generate a fast and dirty first draft.

As it’s machine-led, it learns as it develops so it will improve the more work you put through it.

And there are softwares now that you can use for the upfront keyword searching and even the editing, so the whole process could in time, be completely outsourced.

For marketers trading on their ability to write, this could become a big challenge.

3. AI Video for Marketing (Synthesia)

Video is an expensive marketing commodity given the need to scripting, storyboarding, shoot and editing time. Because of this, and driven by the need for more digital video content, there is a developing market for AI video generators with products like Synthesia.

These technologies give organisations the ability to quickly turn any text, email or presentation into a professional-looking AI video.

They come pre-loaded with avatars and templates so you can quickly add text and create videos with no professional editing required. And they can be output in upto 65 languages.

These AI videos are not likely to replace personalised corporate presenters and interview “talking head” style videos, instead for any kind of training, staff or customer onboarding, corporate communications or explainer videos.
This could have a devastating impact on video focused marketing professionals if your organisation sees the power in swapping your expensive video skills for an AI software that can cover 75% of the work.