The generative AI marketing landscape is starting to form – it’s a fascinating time to be a marketer of any stripe!
Big shifts are happening. How it plays out remains to be seen, but expect many paths forward, not just one
The net of it is that our roles as marketers in the age of Generative Marketing are going to change, likely at a very fast pace with disruptive scale. So get ready.
Sizing the Generative AI Marketing Space
Investment follows markets. Growth follows behaviors. If we look at the wider view on overall marketing technology and we apply a Generative AI acceleration factor against this, a story emerges. Anticipate a big bump in terms of the number of new, hyper-specialized offerings and also an acceleration of new services and AI-scaled evolution from the existing list of current marketing companies on the charts.
“AI in marketing market is valued at 47.32 billion US dollars in 2025 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 36.6% to reach 107.5 billion by 2028. The growing AI in marketing market signals a shift towards personalization and data-driven marketing strategies.”
Source: https://www.seo.com/ai/marketing-statistics/
While the above quote represents a purely Generative AI Marketing perspective, let’s also widen out to take a look at the overall marketing technology landscape:
Chart Source: https://chiefmartec.com/2025/05/2025-marketing-technology-landscape-supergraphic-100x-growth-since-2011-but-now-with-ai/ And yes, if you are into this sort of thing, please head over to the source link on this chart – lots of great information on the overall market for marketing tech both around sizing and also shaping.
Putting it together, while the overall marketing tech landscape shows 9% growth, the Generative AI sub-segment is exploding at 36.6% CAGR, acting as the primary engine for this next wave of innovation. This isn’t a shift; it’s a disruptive-scale change that will redefine our roles as marketers.
In addition to what might feel like more established paths and approaches around marketing tools and stacks, the generalized large language model players (OpenAI, Claude, Perplexity, to name a few) are also going to continue to actively play in our sandbox. In fact, this set of providers is where most of the common current use cases seem to be originating from.
And of course, all the established digital technologies are also developing a ton of new efforts around AI-enhanced advertising, AI-enhanced creative, and even AI-enhanced audience development. Think the Google and Metas of the world…
So, back to where we started this section: Investment follows markets. Growth follows behaviors. The investments are being made to meet what appears to be a very large market appetite. When it comes to Generative AI Marketing, early behaviors are visible, and the growth trajectory looks very healthy. (Not sure what your version of Generative AI Marketing calisthenics are, but whatever they are, hopefully you are doing them!)
Rubber Hitting the Road with Generative AI Marketing
Generative AI marketing excels across several key areas. While I’m sure you might find a few other areas (feel free to comment), the general vision seems to be a mix of doing things in less time (such as creating this chart), flexing of resources to more lights always on, and eventually being able to deliver marketing customization at a scale never seen before.
| Use Case | Description | Benefit(s) |
| Content Generation | Automated creation of blogs, ads, social media posts, email campaigns, product descriptions, and video scripts using AI models. | Faster content production, lower costs, consistent messaging, scales creative output |
| Personalized Marketing | Delivering individualized offers, recommendations, and customer journeys based on behavioral and demographic data. | Higher engagement, increased conversion rates, improved customer loyalty |
| Visual & Video Content Production | Quickly generating imagery and branded visuals for campaigns, as well as product demo videos. | Rapid asset creation, diverse visual content, enhanced audience engagement |
| Marketing Automation | Streamlining repetitive tasks like customer segmentation, lead scoring, and campaign deployment for higher efficiency. | Operational efficiency, fewer manual errors, frees up staff for strategic work |
| Chatbots & Conversational AI | Deploying AI-powered chatbots for customer support, lead qualification, and personalized user interactions across digital platforms. | 24/7 availability, faster response times, better customer experience |
| Advanced SEO and Ad Optimization | Using AI to generate keyword-optimized content, automate A/B tests, and optimize paid ad performance with real-time insights. | Improved ad ROI, increased website visibility, data-driven decision making |
| Dynamic Product Descriptions | Auto-generating and updating e-commerce product text based on inventory and seasonal trends. | Up-to-date product info, reduced manual workload, better SEO performance |
| Predictive Analytics for Campaigns | Forecasting customer behavior and campaign outcomes to allocate spend more efficiently and increase ROI. | More effective targeting, optimized budgets, higher campaign success rates |
Note: This chart was created with Perplexity.
Cost / Benefit Vs. Leader / Laggard Dilemma
So here we are. A marketing world with possibility. Much of it is still early. Some of it is unproven. A few instances are utterly made up (the hallucinations!).
Costs are real. And we all probably have a few bruises from previous plays. These initiatives face friction from existing marketing debt, a challenge I explored in a recent article. And those previous plays you made, they all have a will of their own, along with internal sponsors of their own. They won’t always die a quiet death, often for very valid reasons, so anticipate some resistance and drag even as you manage to start stacking your Generative AI Marketing implementations.
Benefits are also real. Early days, but the entire space is starting to take shape, including the entire dialogue around ROI.. I was even able to find an online AI ROI calculator! Like I said, the entire space is starting to take shape…
And of course, there is the instinct to want to play it safe, but if you are too safe, will you be left behind? (Leader / Laggard). Along with the requisite panic of not running fast all the time!!! “Innovators” accept high costs for a first-mover advantage, while “Laggards” face low costs but also risk competitive irrelevance, particularly around spaces (such as Generative AI) that are in high velocity modes.
Visualization produced via Google Gemini, illustrating the relationship between being a leader versus a laggard and the associated cost-benefit dynamics, based on the well-established “Technology Adoption Lifecycle.”
Future Burns Bright for Generative AI Marketing
Get ready to move fast (if you are not already doing so!), to embrace some ambiguity, experience your share of hiccups, and ultimately to find your Generative AI Marketing nirvana.
Just in case you aren’t sure… most of today’s marketing tech stack has started to integrate AI as a ‘backbone’ with some level of AI integration or enhancement being applied as a default setting. Likely at some point soon, we’ll be moving past ‘default’ and no longer be given the choice…
On the other hand, the aperture of possibility seems to be widening significantly!
As a final thought, please don’t accept to proceed into this new Generative AI promised land with blinders on. As you make the investments, I’d like to offer a final word of advice: AI alone is likely not going to get you there for quite some time, so please also invest in your staff. Training, encouragement of risk, trust in their skills, and their abilities to leverage AI for the benefit of your marketing team and your wider organization.
And now, over to you. Where is your organization today on the Generative AI adoption curve? Have you invested in the space and your people? Have you made the commitment, or are you still on the sidelines having the debate? Are you ready to make the leap, or are you planning to catch the next train?
Image Source: Sora