Michael Epps Utley 
Organizations are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence (AI) to support their marketing efforts. This leaves many small business owners wondering if they should invest more in AI.
The marketing technology company HubSpot recently completed a study about how businesses use generative AI for marketing today. This article reveals what it found and can serve as a benchmark for how you could leverage the capabilities of AI.
Artificial Intelligence in Marketing: Top-Line Numbers
A Pew Research study recently reported that almost 100 percent of organizations will leverage AI in some way by next year.
That figure shows how pervasive AI-powered tech will soon be, and that includes its use in marketing.
According to the HubSpot survey, 68 percent of marketing leaders believe that their business will experience huge levels of growth once AI-powered tools are integrated into their operations. Just over 60 percent of those surveyed said that their company had already invested in artificial intelligence, most of which is in marketing tools.
Just over seven of ten surveyed report that AI makes employees more efficient and productive, and the same number say they’ve earned positive returns on their investment in AI-based tools and technology.
How Businesses Currently Leverage AI in Marketing
Here are the top ways companies use artificial intelligence to support their marketing efforts.
Content Creation
Of the companies surveyed by HubSpot, 48 percent say they use artificial intelligence to support some aspect of content development, making it one of the most popular uses of AI right now. They leverage it for everything from developing outlines to editing material before publication. The content types include blog articles, website pages, social media copy, calls to action, or product and service descriptions.
The study reports that people who use AI-backed tools like ChatGPT to create new content save an average of three hours per piece. The time saved is typically used on strategy development, monitoring metrics, and other critical aspects of marketing that can pay off in bottom-line results.
Data Analysis and Reporting
From assessing competitors to identifying target audiences to determining marketing campaign success, AI tools provide data analysis support for marketers. According to the HubSpot study, 45 percent of companies use artificial intelligence for this purpose.
Because AI can process vast amounts of data very quickly, it can identify patterns and trends that could be impossible for humans to find.
Conducting Research
Doing research can take a significant amount of time, and in the end, you may not come up with meaningful information or insights. That’s likely why 45 percent of marketers use artificial intelligence to conduct research, according to HubSpot. It can speed up the process and deliver better results. AI can eliminate irrelevant information to better answer queries, saving significant time.
AI-backed research tools can also sort responses into categories, highlighting the results that provide the best insights on a complex issue.
Marketing Skill Development
Marketing is complex and ever-evolving. It’s one reason 32 percent of businesses leverage AI to learn and develop marketing skills. Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing every aspect of education, encouraging people of all ages to pursue more personalized and responsive ways to learn new things and improve skills.
AI delivers personalized feedback and helps people track their learning journeys with easy-to-understand progress charts and actionable analysis. It provides interactive examples to help people master marketing tactics better and faster.
Embracing AI in Marketing
AI isn’t likely going away any time soon. On the contrary, its reach and usefulness only continue to grow. Marketers cannot afford to ignore these tools. Instead, understand how AI is being used effectively and ethically for marketing purposes to strengthen your marketing efforts.
Now that you know the most popular uses of artificial intelligence in marketing, isn’t it time to explore your options and see how you can put it to use?
