Artificial intelligence emerged from a long history of philosophy, math, and reason. So what’s next in AI for B2B marketing leaders?

OpenAI’s roadmap for the development of artificial intelligence outlines the intimacy and scale this quickly evolving technology brings to modern B2B marketing operations. However, while the term ‘artificial intelligence’ wasn’t coined until 1956, the idea of creating intelligent machines has been part of human thought for millennia. Greek mythology features stories of Hephaestus creating intelligent robots, and the earliest sci-fi marvelled at humanoid automatons that could think, reason, and even mimic human emotions.

As we see it unfold before us, it can feel totally futuristic.

Driven by eye-watering investments, huge computation, and massive demand, not a week goes by without seemingly twenty new advances. Each Tuesday, on LinkedIn, I publish The AI Marketing Newsletter, which strives to inform marketers about advances in AI. Each week, AI makes another seemingly impossible leap. It can feel, at best, exciting, at worst, overwhelming. But one thing on everyone’s mind is this: if AI continues on its current trajectory, how long will it be before it can do my job?

To help understand how this may look, I examined AI’s present, near, and future state in relation to the OpenAI five levels of innovation to better understand AI for B2B Marketing Leaders. I have broken this down into three states: 

• State 1 First Contact: This is our current level, discovering AI’s capabilities for the first time.  
• State 2 Shadow State: This represents a point where we oversee AI, which is doing the bulk of the work.
• State 3 Dark Office: This imaginary future follows big tech’s desire to push AI to its limits to drive efficiency and productivity.

State 1: First Contact (2025 – 2027)

In this initial phase, AI plays the siloed role of an assistant. AI currently augments and optimises some existing roles within marketing, increasing efficiency and productivity, but your employees will remain the decision-makers.

Here is how a typical marketing department might evolve over the next two years

Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)

The CMO remains the key decision-maker, responsible for overall strategy, brand direction, and driving business growth. AI tools will provide real-time insights on market trends, customer behaviour, and campaign performance, allowing the CMO to make data-driven decisions faster.

AI Marketing Strategist (New Role)

Their role is to integrate AI into marketing operations, ensuring AI tools align with business goals and adhere to regulations. This role acts as the bridge between AI technology and marketing strategy, helping to deploy AI for tasks such as campaign optimisation and content generation.

Data Analytics & AI Insights Team

The existing data analytics team expands its role to include AI-driven insights and predictive analytics. With AI handling data processing and trend prediction, the team will focus more on interpreting insights and providing strategic recommendations rather than manual analysis.

Content and Campaign Teams (Enhanced with AI)

AI tools will continue to assist content and campaign teams by automating content creation (e.g., text, images, video). AI will optimise and automate digital campaigns (e.g., paid media, email, and social media), taking over repetitive tasks like A/B testing, audience segmentation, and performance monitoring.

Marketing Operations & Technology (AI Optimisation)

Marketing operations teams will use AI to streamline workflows and automate repetitive administrative tasks like budget tracking and reporting. AI tools will be deployed to monitor marketing operations in real time, make optimisation suggestions, and manage resource allocation automatically.

This First Contact state is very much a time for AI to provide marketers with an opportunity to test, learn and get accustomed to the possibilities it brings and how to integrate AI solutions into their department.

Download AI for B2B Marketing Leaders to learn how you can navigate these changes.

State 2: Shadow State (2028 – 2030)

As AI moves from siloed to multidisciplinary, I foresee AI being able to take on a dominant role in the marketing function. This state represents a shift in balance, where marketers become directors of the AI process, ensuring the alignment of AI’s decisions with overarching brand values and strategy. In this state, AI is making critical decisions far more quickly than any human could. For instance, AI algorithms might decide which creative formats to use, which audiences to target (including people and AI), and adjust messaging based on live data. The employee’s role here is to oversee and refine, stepping in to provide judgment calls or creative nuance. Here’s how the job functions may evolve to cater for AI taking a leading role in marketing: 

Chief AI & Marketing Officer (CAIMO)

A hybrid role where the CMO is now deeply embedded in overseeing marketing and AI-driven initiatives. The CAIMO will guide both human and AI efforts to ensure alignment with business goals, balancing data-driven insights with brand vision.

AI Marketing Architect (Expanded Role)

Responsible for designing and managing AI systems that run the marketing operations. This role will focus on implementing AI systems that manage campaigns autonomously, execute data analysis, and even handle creative ideation.

Campaign Team

This team manages AI systems that autonomously handle the end-to-end execution of marketing campaigns, including audience targeting, ad spend optimisation, content creation, and performance tracking. AI will handle much of the tactical work, requiring human oversight only for high-level decision-making or campaign fine-tuning.

Creative & Brand Oversight

AI tools will generate creative executions, from copy to visual assets, but the human team will tweak and approve high-stakes campaigns to ensure they align with the brand’s strategic goals.

AI Ethics Team

They will ensure AI models function ethically, comply with regulations, and uphold data privacy standards. As AI becomes more autonomous, this team will focus on managing biases in AI systems, ensuring ethical AI usage, and protecting customer data privacy. 

It will be during this state that AI will reveal huge efficiency and productivity gains with fewer people required to deliver more output, but it’s also the point where trust in the AI systems becomes crucial. When trust is established, organisations can move to the third state.

State 3: Dark Office (2033 – )

Imagine an office where the lights are off because no humans are needed to run the marketing operations. In this future office, Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) will move from multidisciplinary to interdisciplinary and be able to take responsibility for the entire marketing operation. Human oversight is limited to high-level strategic direction, periodic system audits, or handling rare edge cases. To quote Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, “95% of what marketers use agencies, strategists, and creative professionals for today will easily, nearly instantly and at almost no cost be handled by AI.”

Of course, Sam Altman needs to push the narrative of powerful AI models such as AGI, as that is how he ensures continued funding. But all said and done, AI has made massive advances in just two short years. The Dark Office may sound like science fiction, but go back five years and show someone in marketing what AI can do today with images, video and text, and they would think it impossible. So, how could the roles look for marketing in the future?

Chief AI & Marketing Officer (CAIMO):

This role will become even more critical as AI permeates every aspect of marketing. The CAIMO will be responsible for strategic leadership and oversight, guiding the interaction between AI systems and business needs.

AI Ecosystem Architect (Expanded Role):

This evolved role will focus on designing and managing a fully integrated AI ecosystem that autonomously handles all marketing operations. It will be crucial for managing the complex AI systems that automate every aspect of marketing, from real-time customer interactions to campaign ideation and execution. The architect will ensure systems remain agile and efficient in the face of evolving market dynamics.

Innovation Catalyst (AI & Human Hybrid Role):

This role will emerge as a blend of human and AI collaboration, where AI drives the discovery of new products, services, and marketing strategies based on predictive insights. AI will continually innovate based on consumer trends, competitive analysis, and market forecasts, creating new opportunities for market expansion.

AI Ethics & Regulatory Board:

This specialised body within the organisation is responsible for monitoring AI’s role in marketing and ensuring that the company’s use of AI complies with global regulations and internal ethical standards. As AI systems gain more autonomy, this board will ensure transparency, fairness, and accountability in all AI-driven marketing activities, especially in areas such as consumer data usage, personalisation, and decision-making algorithms.

Although I presented a narrative that suggests AI will take over the department, there are scenarios that could either slow advancement or stop it altogether. Here are some of the potential barriers and limitations to consider.

Curious to learn more? Download your free copy of AI for B2B Marketing Leaders.

Connect with the author, David Sloly, on LinkedIn

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