With an unsteady economy and AI tools quickly taking over many entry-level positions, careers in marketing – and beyond – can feel more precarious than ever. Yet there is a real upside for those ready and able to seize it. In marketing, that advantage looks like this: professionals who adapt, think critically, and weave AI intelligently into their workflows can move faster, refine strategy and targeting, and devote more time to initiatives that truly drive results. We’re still in the early stages of the AI era, but more than ten years as a marketing leader have revealed some consistent trends. Across my own team and the in-house teams we partner with, certain PPC marketers are clearly better equipped than others to thrive as AI reshapes the role.
1. Learn the tools, but don’t be limited by them
You’ll never be able to track every new AI product that hits the market. What you can – and must – do is identify which tools are worth testing and for what specific purpose. Experimenting just to say you experimented leads nowhere. If you can’t clearly articulate the outcome you want, understanding a tool in isolation doesn’t offer much value. Selecting the right tools to try is only the beginning. You also need to define how you’ll evaluate performance and, if the results look promising, how that tool will integrate into your broader channel strategy and martech stack. I’ve already seen numerous AI solutions rolled out with excitement, only to be abandoned or to trigger unexpected downstream issues after being…