• by Todd Wasserman , January 26, 2023

What’s ahead for marketing in 2023? Gartner recently posed that question and came up with five answers, which send marketers into slightly new definitions of their jobs.

Three of the points that Gartner identified involve AI, which the researcher predicts will make marketers’ decisions smarter, but will force them to be accountable for ethical AI.

Gartner predicts that by 2025, 70% of enterprise CMOs will identify ethical AI in marketing among their top concerns. The Gartner study comes as ChatGPT has recently forced the issue of AI marketing to the forefront. AI has no built-in ethical framework, so, as marketers use ChatGPT to create campaigns, the onus is on them to ensure that such use adheres to existing ethical concerns.

“Marketing is uniquely positioned to understand the superior CX that AI affords as well as its trust and reputational risks,” said Emily Weiss, principal researcher of the Gartner Marketing practice, in a press release. “This puts the onus on marketers to address the ethical issues that AI is raising in their practices, and the impetus to do so must come from the top.”

But overall, Garner sees AI as boon to marketers. The researcher predicts that using AI in marketing will reduce friction and eliminate redundancy, letting marketers “shift their budgets and resources to activities that support a more dynamic marketing organization.”

Relatedly, AI will cause marketers to focus on new areas in the near future. Gartner predicts that by 2027, 80% of enterprise marketers will establish a dedicated content authenticity function “to combat misinformation and fake material.”