When Will AI Replace the Marketing Function? A Technology Marketing Alliance Virtual Event

When Will AI Replace the Marketing Function? A Technology Marketing Alliance Virtual Event

July 9, 2025 Blog by

When Will AI Replace the Marketing Function? A Technology Marketing Alliance Virtual Event

The rise of generative AI has ignited a spirited debate around its potential to replace jobs across industries—and marketing is no exception. With AI tools increasingly capable of generating content, analyzing data, and even making strategic decisions, marketers are left to wonder: Are we witnessing the dawn of AI-powered marketing, or the sunset of traditional, human-driven roles?

This timely and thought-provoking question took center stage during June’s Technology Marketing Alliance (TMA) virtual event, “When Will AI Replace the Marketing Function?” The session brought together leading marketing voices to unpack AI’s current capabilities, its limits, and its role in shaping marketing’s future—not just as a collection of tasks, but as a strategic function.

With attendees and panelists eager to dive into discussion, Elizabeth Shea, REQ President and TMA Chair and co-founder, quickly introduced TMA and turned over the conversation to the moderator and panelists:

  • Moderator: Sue Keith, Vice President, Marketing Practice, Landrum Talent
  • Panelist: Nicole Leffer, CMO AI Advisor, A. Catalyst
  • Panelist: Cindy Zhou, CMO, KnowBe4
  • Panelist: Gary Sevounts, CMO, Simpplr

Setting the Stage: Framing the AI-Marketing Question

Moderator Sue Keith opened the panel with a reality check: AI is already embedded in many marketing tools—from predictive analytics and chatbots to content generation and media buying platforms. While these tools can streamline tasks and accelerate workflows, the panelists agreed that AI is still far from replacing the critical thinking, creativity, and emotional intelligence that define great marketers.

Rather than positioning AI as a replacement, the panel encouraged attendees to view it as an enabler—one that expands bandwidth, enhances ideation, and allows teams to spend more time on future-forward strategy and relationship-building. As Gary Sevounts put it, “As CMOs, we’re now adding a new hat of  Marketing-AI Product Managers, basically having a way to architect and build the GTM AI infrastructure – AI agents, workloads, and products to accelerate growth.”

AI’s Real Value Today: Productivity, Not Replacement

Throughout the discussion, panelists emphasized AI’s role in augmenting productivity, not replacing marketers. Tools like ChatGPT, Jasper, and Claude are helping teams:

  • Generate first drafts quickly—from blog posts to ad copy—serving as a launchpad for ideation.
  • Repurpose and personalize content at scale, increasing output without duplicating effort.
  • Extract insights from large datasets to support faster, more informed decision-making.

With all of the multiplying AI tools to choose from, Nicole Leffer offered some advice for getting started: ““The first thing I advise to stop trying to adopt multiple purpose-built tools before you’ve put in the time and effort to learn and fully adopt a single core tool – like ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini.”

At KnowBe4, Cindy Zhou shared how her team is taking these benefits a step further through an internal AI portal—part of the company’s broader initiative to become AI-native. The portal acts as a centralized hub for experimentation, allowing employees to explore and apply generative AI tools across campaigns, content creation, and analysis.

One particularly innovative use case Zhou highlighted was an AI-generated CISO persona, which simulates conversations with an archetypal IT decision maker. This tool enables the marketing team to refine messaging, anticipate objections, and stress-test campaign resonance before launch—ensuring communications remain sharp, relevant, and aligned to buyer expectations. By embedding AI into the team’s daily processes, KnowBe4 is driving not just efficiency, but also a cultural shift toward a more future-ready mindset.

Still, these outcomes rely heavily on marketers’ ability to give AI the right inputs and context. As Sevounts aptly put it, “Prompt engineering is becoming the new power skill.”

What AI Can’t Do

While several panelists expressed optimism about AI’s potential, the conversation also surfaced its current limitations. A few panelists held the belief that AI cannot create bold, original ideas or exercise judgment in emotionally complex situations. They argued that AI lacks cultural nuance, strategic vision, and the ability to truly understand an audience’s emotional drivers—gaps that make human oversight essential in creative and brand-critical work. However, another panelist disagreed, citing AI’s rapid evolution in areas once considered strictly human domains—especially when fine-tuned on industry-specific or brand-specific datasets.

To that end, some speakers pointed to AI’s inability to make ethical decisions or navigate interpersonal dynamics, both of which are vital to building and managing trust in marketing. In the end, the panelists agreed to disagree, acknowledging how AI can enhance efficiency and its strides toward replicating the authenticity and connection that human relationships deliver.

The Future of the Marketing Role

A major theme of the conversation centered on how AI is completely reshaping marketing roles. The panelists agreed that today’s marketers must be agile, data-literate, and AI-proficient, ready to lead in a world where intelligent systems assist with execution, but only a few believed that humans remain the strategic core.

The panelists polled the audience to understand how many organizations had already formed cross-functional teams to explore AI integration. “If that doesn’t exist in your company today, start it,” urged Sue Keith, highlighting the need for intentional infrastructure to support innovation.

The emerging marketer is less a content creator and more a conductor—part editor-in-chief, part data interpreter, part brand steward. Success will depend not just on knowing how to use AI, but how to guide it thoughtfully, ensuring outputs are aligned with brand values and business goals.

Final Thoughts

The TMA Q2 event served as both a wake-up call and a roadmap. AI is no longer on the horizon—it’s here. But the shift is about reinvention. Marketers who learn to wield AI as a creative and analytical partner will unlock new potential in their work.

The core message was clear: Don’t fear the future—shape it. Approach AI with curiosity, caution, and a collaborative mindset.

Ultimately, the future of marketing will still be powered by people—people who think deeply, connect authentically, and lead with both creativity and conscience. AI may help us move faster, but it’s the human touch that will continue to make all the difference.

If you weren’t able to join us for this quarter’s event and are interested in unlocking all of the details, you can tune in here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESU79MMH97k. And, if you know an executive-level marketer who may be interested in our next event, encourage them to apply for no-cost membership here: https://tmadc.org/membership/application/.