There’s a lot of talk about generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) taking over people’s jobs. According to IDC forecasts, GenAI will replace 30% of marketing efforts by 2027, such as search engine optimization (SEO), content and website optimization, customer data analysis, segmentation, lead scoring and hyper-personalization.

A study of chief marketing officers in the Asia-Pacific region (excluding Japan) showed that 37.8% of chief marketing officers had started implementing GenAI last year. Over the next 12 months, 51% of CMOs say their top business goal is to improve the quality of content marketing, which will require greater use of artificial intelligence.

IDC made the following predictions about how artificial intelligence will impact marketing over the next four years or so:

Dynamic Journey Orchestration: By 2028, A2000 will leverage data and artificial intelligence to automate 30% of actions in the buyer journey in marketing and sales, moving toward sensing and dynamically servicing buyers on their chosen "adventures."

GenAI replaces marketing jobs: By 2027, GenAI will take on 30% of traditional marketing chores, such as SEO, content and website optimization, customer data analysis, segmentation, lead scoring and hyper-personalization.

Two-way AI marketing takes over: To reduce content ingestion, by 2026, more than 50% of consumers will use artificial intelligence via mobile devices to discover, evaluate and purchase most of the products and services they want.

Conversational marketing goes mainstream: By 2026, ubiquitous emotion and intent artificial intelligence will drive 50% of A500 companies to conduct all marketing activities as real-time, two-way conversations, increasing purchase conversion rates by 40%.

While artificial intelligence will increasingly be used in marketing, that doesn’t mean humans will no longer play a role. IDC research analyst Lavanya Jindal said marketers will expand their skill sets to include customer "storytelling," data analysis and cross-functional collaboration across IT, sales and operations.