Alter Agents and Smartly Release New Research Showing 99% of Marketers Use AI, With Human Creativity and Oversight Key to Its Future
Alter Agents, a market research consultancy, and Smartly, an AI-powered advertising technology company, today announced findings from Smartly’s The Agentic Era: A Marketer’s Guide, a new study examining how marketers are using artificial intelligence (AI), the opportunities it creates, and the skills they need to succeed as AI becomes more integrated into their work.
The study of 500 marketing professionals in the United States and United Kingdom found that 99% use AI professionally or personally, signaling that adoption is no longer the primary question. Instead, marketers are increasingly focused on how AI can enhance their capabilities and help them accomplish more. Eighty-one percent agree that AI enables them to bring bigger projects and ideas to life than they could on their own, while 95% identify training in strategic or uniquely human capabilities as valuable for addressing their AI skills gaps.
“The question is no longer whether marketers use AI, but how they are using it to achieve more without losing what makes their brands distinctive,” said Julia Berk, Senior Director of Research and Insights at Smartly. “As AI takes on more of the work behind advertising, human creativity, strategic judgment and oversight become even more important. These findings reinforce that the future of marketing lies in combining human creativity and AI to drive better business outcomes.”
Read More – How to Build an AI-Driven SEO Framework from Scratch
Additional findings include:
- AI expands creative possibilities, while human creativity remains essential. Eighty-five percent appreciate when brands use AI to bring concepts to life, although nearly two-thirds worry it could make creative work feel less distinctive.
- Human oversight remains a priority. Seventy-seven percent are comfortable with AI in advertising when a human has final approval, while 81% say they would trust a brand more if it disclosed AI-generated advertising.
- Less-experienced marketers are embracing AI more extensively. Marketers with fewer than 10 years of experience are twice as likely as their more-experienced counterparts to report using AI for at least 75% of their daily tasks. However, 46% of more-experienced marketers associate AI with stress, compared with 26% of those with less experience.
- Marketers recognize the need to develop new skills. Ninety-five percent identify training in strategic or uniquely human capabilities as valuable for addressing their AI skills gaps, including creative brainstorming, strategic planning and ethical AI use.
Read More – How E-Commerce Brands Can Use AI Content Detection to Protect SEO and Credibility
The findings also helped inform the five principles for the next era of advertising Smartly recently introduced, emphasizing the importance of combining AI-powered capabilities with human creativity, strategic thinking and oversight as the advertising industry enters the agentic era.
Write to us [editorial@demandmediaagency.com] to learn more about our exclusive editorial packages and programmes.
