Webinar recap: Digital marketing trends shaping the future

In the most recent Marketing Club webinar, Daniel Rowles, CEO of Target Internet and senior lecturer at Imperial College, discussed the impact of generative AI on digital marketing. He demonstrated the increasing use of AI in search results, prompt engineering, and the development of agentic AI. Rowles shared that 83% of marketers feel they are not fully utilising AI and so focused on helping students become more familiar with some of the industry leading tools. He explained throughout the session how students and young marketers can make the most of the developing technology.

AI’s impact on marketing 

During the webinar, Rowles shared examples of how AI can automate tasks, create content, and analyse data, enhancing efficiency and effectiveness in marketing. He went into detail on the concept of prompt engineering and provided tips for creating effective prompts to get better results from AI tools, and how to make the most of the responses. Rowles explained that creating detailed prompts will improve the quality of the output from generative AI and can save on time and resources.

AI tools like ChatGPT have had a major impact on search environments, and are constantly evolving, so it can be hard to keep up with the rate of change. Rowles emphasised the importance of understanding and utilising AI tools to stay competitive in the marketing industry, particularly for young marketers.

Advanced AI features 

Rowles also delved into advanced AI features like agent mode in ChatGPT, which allows AI to perform tasks autonomously and adapt to context. He explained how AI can connect to CRM systems and other tools to automate tasks and gather data, saving marketers time to be more creative. Although, the potential for AI has grown rapidly and the tools can now create interactive content and even build apps, showcasing the versatility of this emerging technology.

Another key area highlighted during the webinar was the value that AI can bring to marketers wanting to enhance brand consistency and automate repetitive tasks. These tools can be great for improving efficiency and in some cases accuracy, but it’s crucial that marketers don’t become over-reliant on them. In other words, it’s critical that  marketers keep a human in the loop.

Ethical considerations 

AI is an exciting tool and can be used for many different applications, but it does come with potential risks and ethical considerations, including the potential for AI to be used to create deep fakes, which impersonate people,  for malicious purposes such as fraud. Data privacy is also a leading ethical issue in AI, with many models collecting and processing vast amounts of personal data which creates risks of misuse and data breaches. Rowles also noted that when AI is used to automate too much of the marketing process, it can actually cause customers to turn away as they feel interactions are impersonal and they would rather talk to a human, particularly for customer service roles. Striking a balance between human and AI content can be difficult.

Having an AI policy that outlines acceptable and unacceptable uses of AI within an organisation is very useful for creating guidelines to follow. However, legislation often can’t keep pace with how fast the technology is developing and the AI field is lacking in formal regulations to adhere to. Rowles stressed to the webinar attendees the need for continuous learning and development  to stay ahead of the rapidly evolving AI landscape.

The future of the marketing industry 

AI is an exciting development for marketing, and while it has many critics, Rowles encouraged marketers to adopt a culture of learning and experimentation to stay competitive and adaptable to the changing environment. He discussed the potential for AI to automate many marketing tasks that will lead to a shift in job roles and skill requirements, particularly among junior roles. The need for young marketers to develop strong prompt engineering skills and work with AI is what will set them apart from other job applicants. They need these technical AI skills, along with a broad set of problem-solving abilities and an open mindset.

Final thoughts 

Rowles concluded the webinar by encouraging marketers to experiment with AI tools and stressed the importance of embracing AI by staying up to date with the latest trends and features.
While the future of AI, and marketing as a whole  is unpredictable, the best thing for marketers to do is to stay informed and adapt to the evolving AI landscape, embracing the technology to help them further their career.

If you want to stay up to date with the latest trends in marketing and how they could affect your career, sign up to become a member of The Marketing Club now. You’ll get access resources and insights that strengthen your learning and hear directly from industry experts.