The State of AI in Marketing 2025 & Beyond: 7 Trends Shaping the Next 5 Years

The State of AI in Marketing 2025 & Beyond: 7 Trends Shaping the Next 5 Years

Most marketers are still using AI like it's 2023.

They're stuck in the prompt-engineering phase—treating ChatGPT like a really smart intern who writes okay first drafts—while the world has moved on to something fundamentally different.

Here's what they're missing: 88% of marketers now use AI daily, but only 26% have actually figured out how to generate tangible value from it. The gap between adoption and execution has never been wider.

And that gap? It's where your competitive advantage lives.

The AI marketing landscape of 2025 isn't about better prompts or fancier tools. It's about fundamentally different operating models that combine AI speed with human strategy in ways that were impossible 18 months ago.

The global AI marketing market hit $47.32 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $107.5 billion by 2028 at a CAGR of 36.6%. But market size doesn't tell you much. What matters is how the smartest organizations are actually deploying this technology—and why most are still getting it wrong.

After working with hundreds of marketing teams and analyzing what's actually working (versus what people are blogging about), seven trends have emerged that will define the next five years of marketing execution.

These aren't predictions. They're already happening.

1. The Agentic Revolution: From Prompting to Partnership

Remember when you had to explain to your AI what a marketing brief was? That era is over.

Agentic AI represents the shift from tools that respond to instructions to systems that proactively understand, plan, and execute complex marketing workflows with minimal human direction.

AI agents are moving beyond simple response generation to become autonomous systems that can assess context, make decisions about next steps, and dynamically determine actions based on ongoing interactions.

The numbers tell the story:

• 99% of enterprise developers are exploring or building AI agents

• By 2029, agentic AI will autonomously resolve 80% of common customer service issues without human intervention, leading to a 30% reduction in operational costs

• By 2028, 1 out of 5 marketing roles or functions will be held by an AI worker, shifting human expertise to driving strategy, creativity, ethics and managing a blended human and AI workforce

But here's what the breathless coverage misses: agentic AI without strategic direction is just faster chaos.

The real opportunity now is identifying small, incremental ways to integrate AI into existing workflows, going beyond text-based automation and embedding AI into decision-making processes.

What this actually looks like in practice:

Instead of prompting an AI to write five email variations, you brief a marketing agent on your campaign objectives, target segments, and brand voice. The agent then:

• Analyzes past campaign performance across those segments

• Generates personalized content variations for each

• Schedules send times based on engagement patterns

• Monitors performance and adjusts messaging in real-time

• Flags when human strategic intervention is needed

The Averi approach: Our platform was built for this exact shift. Rather than just generating content, Averi's AI agents handle the entire workflow—from campaign planning through execution—while knowing precisely when to bring in human expertise. The shift to agentic AI means marketing automation will become smarter and more autonomous, with tools evolving into dynamic agents that self-adjust based on ongoing interactions.

2. The Great Platform Consolidation

Your marketing stack has become a liability.

The average enterprise now manages 130+ applications with overlapping functionality, while marketing technology utilization plummeted from 58% in 2020 to just 33% in 2023—the lowest on record.

You're paying for tools you're not using. And the tools you are using don't talk to each other.

The consolidation wave isn't coming—it's here. And it's being driven by three forces:

Budget pressure: Marketing budgets dropped from 11.0% of company revenues in 2020 to 7.7% in 2024. CMOs are expected to deliver more growth with less money.

AI integration: Why maintain separate tools for content creation, analytics, scheduling, and optimization when AI-powered platforms can handle all of it?

Execution velocity: Companies using AI-powered marketing report 15-25% performance improvements when they consolidate rather than fragment their stack.

The math that matters:

• Companies consolidating their martech stacks achieve 50-77% cost reductions

• Organizations report 2,101% ROI improvements from strategic consolidation

• 44% of marketing SaaS licenses remain underutilized or completely unused

But here's the trap most fall into: they consolidate onto platforms that just do more of the same thing—combining five mediocre tools into one mediocre platform.

The real opportunity is consolidating onto platforms that fundamentally change how work gets done. Platforms that combine AI automation with human expertise. Platforms designed for execution, not just management.

This is why Averi exists as an integrated workspace rather than another point solution. When your AI, your expert network, your project management, and your creative execution all live in one place, magic happens. Not because it's more convenient (though it is), but because seamless integration enables entirely new workflows.

3. Multimodal Marketing Goes Mainstream

Text prompts are so 2024.

The next frontier isn't better writing—it's systems that understand and generate across images, video, audio, and text simultaneously.

Google Lens now handles nearly 20 billion visual searches each month, with 20% of those visual searches being shopping-related, reflecting its rapid adoption among users globally. Meanwhile, the multimodal AI market surpassed $1.6 billion in 2024 and is estimated to grow at a CAGR of over 32.7% through 2034.

What does this mean for marketers?

Your content strategy can no longer be "write blog post, maybe add some stock images." Multimodal AI integrates contextual information from different modalities to provide richer insights—a virtual assistant uses speech (audio), the meaning of words (text), and visual cues (images or gestures from a camera) to interact naturally with a user.

The practical implications:

• 20.5% of people worldwide now use voice search, driving marketers to adjust their SEO strategies

• Visual search is becoming integral to shopping experiences through Google Lens and Pinterest Lens

• Video content accounts for over 53.7% of total internet traffic

• By 2024 there will be 8.4 billion digital voice assistance devices used globally

But here's what nobody's saying:

Multimodal isn't just about creating in different formats. It's about thinking strategically across formats from the start.

The brands winning in 2025 aren't creating a blog post and then "adapting it" to video. They're developing concepts that work natively across text, visual, and audio mediums—with AI handling the format-specific execution while humans ensure strategic coherence.

This is where Averi's approach differs: We don't just help you generate a carousel after you've written an article. Our platform helps you think multimodally from the strategy phase—ensuring your core concept works across formats before you invest in execution. Then AI handles the heavy lifting of format adaptation while experts ensure quality across every medium.

4. Human-AI Teams Become the Competitive Advantage

The debate about "AI replacing marketers" is over. AI won. And so did humans.

The real story of 2025 isn't AI versus humans—it's the emergence of hybrid teams that dramatically outperform either alone.

Here's the data that matters:

• 88% of marketers now use AI daily, and 93% use it to speed up content creation

• AI-powered campaigns deliver 32% more conversions

• But human-generated content receives 5.44x more traffic than AI-generated content, with steady traffic increases over 5 months while AI content fluctuates

The pattern is clear: AI provides speed and scale. Humans provide strategy, creativity, and the judgment that turns good into exceptional.

25.6% of marketers report that AI-generated content is more successful than content created without AI, but when combined with responses of those experiencing equal success, that jumps to 64%. The winning formula isn't AI or human—it's both, working in concert.

What the winners understand:

The companies achieving 15-30% improvements in productivity, retention, and customer satisfaction aren't the ones using AI the most. They're the ones who've figured out the optimal division of labor between AI and humans.

AI handles:

• Data analysis and pattern recognition

• First-draft content generation

• Repetitive task automation

• Real-time optimization

• Scale without quality degradation

Humans handle:

• Strategic direction and goal-setting

• Creative breakthroughs and original thinking

• Judgment calls on brand alignment

• Relationship building (internal and external)

• Ethical oversight and quality control

This isn't theory. 65% of senior executives identify leveraging AI and predictive analytics as primary contributors to growth in 2025, but 78% of senior marketing executives say their organizations expect them to deliver growth using data and AI even as new tools are being integrated into workflows.

The Averi model embodies this philosophy: Our platform doesn't just give you AI tools. It gives you an integrated system where AI handles execution speed while a vetted network of human experts provides strategic guidance, creative direction, and the specialized skills your specific challenge demands. You get both. In one place. Working together.

5. LLM Optimization Replaces Traditional SEO

Google isn't dying. But it's not the only game anymore.

Search volume is predicted to decline by 25% by 2026 as users shift to conversational AI interfaces. Meanwhile, Semrush data shows an 800% year-over-year increase in referrals from LLMs.

The smartest brands have already shifted focus from "How do I rank on Google?" to "How do I get cited by AI?"

The new reality:

• ChatGPT has 700 million weekly active users as of August 2025

• ChatGPT ranks #12 in US Google searches with 30.4 million monthly searches

• 92% of Fortune 500 companies use OpenAI's platform in 2025

• Research shows GEO can boost visibility by up to 40% in generative engine responses

But here's the shift nobody's talking about:

Traditional SEO optimized for where you appeared (page one, position three). LLM optimization optimizes for how you're represented—as a primary source or a footnote? As an authority or an alternative?

The new rules:

• Entity authority matters more than backlinks

• Citation-worthy structure beats keyword density

• Cross-platform consistency builds AI trust

• Real expertise (E-E-A-T) determines whether you're cited or ignored

Reddit and Wikipedia dominate ChatGPT citations not because they have the best traditional SEO, but because they've established clear entity authority through human-validated answers and structured, fact-checked information that LLMs can easily parse and cite.

What this means practically:

Your content needs to be built for both human readers and AI extraction. That means:

• Answer kits instead of isolated articles

• Structured data that AI can confidently reference

• Cross-referenced authority building across platforms

• Content that works as both standalone pieces and parts of larger narratives

This is baked into how Averi works: When you create content through our platform, it's structured from the start for both traditional and LLM discovery. We're not bolting on optimization after the fact—we're building with both visibility systems in mind from the strategy phase forward.

6. Real-Time Everything (Hyper-Personalization at Scale)

Generic campaigns are dead. Long live the algorithm.

73% of business leaders agree that AI will redefine personalization strategies, and they're right. But most are thinking too small.

The hyper-personalization trend isn't about adding someone's first name to an email. It's about dynamically adjusting every element of every interaction based on real-time context, behavior, and predictive analytics.

What's actually happening:

• 44% of practitioners anticipate increased pressure to drive engagement and conversions, while 43% expect heightened demands to scale content output while keeping it personalized and relevant

• 24% of consumers want brands to better understand their needs

• AI enables delivering content before customers even know it interests them through predictive analytics

The technical reality:

Real-time personalization requires three things working together:

1. Behavioral data captured and analyzed instantly

2. AI systems that can make millisecond decisions about what to show

3. Content infrastructure flexible enough to adapt on the fly

Most organizations have one or two of these. The winners have all three.

But here's the catch: 78% of senior marketing executives say their organizations expect them to deliver growth using data and AI, even as new tools are being integrated into workflows. You're expected to deliver more personalization with the same (or fewer) resources.

The only way that math works? AI handling the execution while humans focus on the strategy.

Real-world example:

An AI can dynamically change landing page content based on:

• Time of day

• User's browsing history

• Geographic location

• Device type

• Traffic source

• Previous interactions with brand

• Predicted purchase intent

All in real-time. All at scale. All without human intervention for each variation.

This is why platforms like Averi matter: We combine AI-powered personalization engines with expert strategists who ensure your personalization actually serves your brand strategy rather than just "optimizing" you into generic sameness.

7. The Rise of Execution-First AI

Strategy has never been easier. Execution has never been harder.

Every company has a marketing strategy. Most of them are actually pretty good. The differentiator in 2025 isn't having a strategy—it's actually shipping it.

The data backs this up:

• 60-90% of organizations fail to achieve their strategic goals due to poor execution

• Only 37% of CMOs have developed successful cross-functional collaboration methods

• Organizations devoting 5%+ of budgets to AI see higher positive ROI rates, but investment focuses on comprehensive platforms rather than numerous specialized AI tools

The shift happening right now? From strategy-first to execution-first mindsets.

Companies with faster time-to-market capture up to 70% more market share than their slower competitors, while fast-execution organizations enjoy 30% higher growth rates than strategic planners.

What execution-first actually means:

• Shipping beats planning (but both matter)

• Iteration trumps perfection

• Speed creates competitive advantage

• Feedback loops drive improvement

• Done is better than perfect (when "done" meets quality standards)

Dollar Shave Club's 90-second video generated 26,000 subscribers in two days and led to a $1 billion acquisition. Not because their strategy was revolutionary, but because they executed fast and learned faster.

The AI role in execution-first marketing:

AI doesn't make strategy—it makes execution possible at previously impossible speeds. When you can:

• Generate campaign variations in minutes instead of weeks

• Test and optimize in real-time instead of quarterly

• Scale personalization without scaling headcount

• Iterate based on immediate feedback

Then execution becomes your advantage rather than your bottleneck.

But—and this is critical— 64% of CMOs lack budget to execute their 2024 strategy. The gap between strategic ambition and execution capacity has never been wider.

This is Averi's reason for existing: We don't help you build better strategies. We help you execute the strategy you already have. AI handles speed. Human experts handle quality. You handle direction. Everything else gets done.

What the Next 5 Years Actually Look Like

73% of organizations worldwide are either using or piloting AI in core functions, but only 13% have no AI adoption plans. That means the baseline is rising fast.

By 2030, here's what will separate winners from laggards:

Winners will:

• Operate with AI-human hybrid teams as the default

• Think multimodally from strategy through execution

• Consolidate onto fewer, more powerful platforms

• Optimize for both traditional and LLM discovery

• Execute faster than competitors can strategize

• Personalize at scale without losing brand coherence

• Deploy agentic systems while maintaining strategic control

Laggards will:

• Still be debating whether to "invest in AI"

• Maintain bloated tool stacks that don't integrate

• Think in single-channel campaigns

• Wonder why their content doesn't get discovered

• Spend quarters planning what could be tested in days

• Deliver generic experiences while competitors personalize

• Prompt AI like it's 2023

The gap between these two groups is already massive. And it's widening.

By 2025, a smaller group of industry leaders will begin to pull ahead of their peers, while many other companies will still be focused on upgrading tech infrastructure, data governance and AI skills.

The Averi Advantage: Built for What's Actually Happening

Most AI marketing platforms are built for what marketing was. Averi is built for what it's becoming.

We're not another tool in your stack. We're the platform that:

• Consolidates your fragmented workflow into one integrated workspace

• Combines AI speed with human expertise in a way that actually works

• Executes campaigns from strategy through delivery, not just planning

• Adapts to how you actually work rather than forcing you into rigid processes

• Scales without requiring you to scale headcount or budgets proportionally

Because here's what we've learned working with hundreds of marketing teams:

The future doesn't belong to the teams with the most tools. It belongs to the teams that ship.

And shipping in 2025 requires AI that understands context, humans who provide judgment, and systems that let both work together seamlessly.

That's not a feature. That's the foundation.

FAQs

How is AI marketing different in 2025 compared to 2023?

The fundamental shift is from passive tools to active systems. In 2023, marketers used AI primarily for content generation through prompting. By 2025, agentic AI systems can autonomously plan, execute, and optimize marketing strategies with minimal human intervention, while understanding when human expertise is essential. The focus has moved from "how do I prompt this better?" to "how do I integrate AI into my entire workflow?"

Will AI replace marketing jobs?

No, but it will reshape them. By 2028, 1 out of 5 marketing roles or functions will be held by an AI worker, shifting human expertise to driving strategy, creativity, ethics and managing a blended human and AI workforce. The marketers at risk are those who refuse to integrate AI into their work. The marketers thriving are those using AI to amplify their strategic and creative capabilities.

What's the biggest mistake companies make with AI marketing?

Treating it like a tool rather than a system. Only 26% of organizations have developed the capabilities to generate tangible value from AI despite 78% using it in at least one business function. The gap between adoption and value creation comes from fragmented implementation—buying individual AI tools without changing how work actually gets done.

How much should we invest in AI marketing tools?

Organizations devoting 5%+ of budgets to AI see higher positive ROI rates, but investment should focus on comprehensive platforms rather than numerous specialized AI tools. More importantly than the percentage is the strategic approach: consolidate onto platforms that integrate AI with your entire workflow rather than adding more point solutions to an already bloated stack.

How do we measure AI marketing ROI?

Track business outcomes, not AI usage metrics. Companies using AI-powered marketing report 15-25% performance improvements, but the specific metrics depend on your goals—conversion rates, content production efficiency, time-to-market, customer acquisition costs, or revenue impact. The mistake is measuring "AI adoption" instead of "business results from AI-enhanced processes."

What's the difference between AI-generated and AI-enhanced content?

AI-generated means the AI created it with minimal human input. AI-enhanced means humans developed the strategy and core ideas while AI handled execution, optimization, and scale. Human-generated content receives 5.44x more traffic than AI-generated content, but AI-enhanced content—where humans and AI work together—consistently outperforms either alone.

How do we optimize for LLM discovery?

Focus on entity authority, structured content, and citation-worthiness. Research shows GEO can boost visibility by up to 40% in generative engine responses. This means creating comprehensive answer kits rather than isolated articles, using structured data AI can reference, building cross-platform consistency, and ensuring content demonstrates real expertise through E-E-A-T signals.