Will AI Destroy Digital Marketing?

Grant Stain • September 28, 2025

Far From It. It’s Just Getting Started.

Every so often someone asks me: “Is AI going to kill digital marketing?” My take? It’s not going to destroy it. It’s going to help it.

Marketers will use AI to push creativity, innovation, and impact even further. The race is still to the top, just with new tools, higher stakes, and more exciting possibilities.


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Why the Fear Exists


It’s natural. AI seems capable of everything from writing articles to designing images, analysing mountains of data, optimising ad spend, managing campaigns almost automatically. If you look at some of the popular media narratives, AI can replace jobs, take over repetitive tasks, make decisions. The question is: what part of marketing is replaceable, and what part will always need the human spark?


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What the Data Tells Us


Instead of doom-scrolling about AI, let’s look at what the numbers show, and they point very strongly in the opposite direction.

• Adoption is widespread. Around 94% of organisations now use AI in preparing or executing marketing operations. 

• Marketers are embedding AI fast. 69% had already integrated AI into their marketing ops in 2025. 

• Growth projections are huge. The AI in marketing market is valued at about US $47.3 billion in 2025 and is expected to grow at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 36.6% to more than $100 billion by 2028. 

• Generative AI is on the rise. Many marketing teams are using generative AI tools, for content, design, targeting, and 78% of those users report a positive impact. 

• Small businesses are getting in on it. Over half of small businesses use AI for marketing; many cite time savings and improved content creation as the biggest benefits. 

• Efficiency/cost savings + creative. For example, Klarna reported that by using generative AI & AI tools for image generation, they cut image-production costs by about $6 million per year, slashed lead times (six weeks → seven days for certain image assets), and increased campaign throughput. 


These stats don’t show decline; they show transformation. They show more people using, investing, benefiting. They show marketers having more freedom to experiment (once the boring, repetitive stuff is handled by machines, there’s more headspace for daring ideas).


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What Will Always Need the Human Marketer


To be clear: not everything in marketing is automatable. Some things will always need humans:

• Vision, strategy, and brand soul. Deciding why you do something, what story you tell, what values you hold, how you connect emotionally with people, that’s not just a process.

• Creativity and originality. AI can remix, but the real breakthroughs come when humans imagine something weird, unexpected, and disruptive.

• Judgement, ethics, nuance. Biases, cultural sensitivity, trust, and authenticity, in many cases, AI doesn’t automatically know ethics. Humans must guide, check, and correct.

• Relationships & context. Deep customer insight, understanding changing social norms, adapting when markets shift, this stays human.


Humans + AI is the combo. AI does what it does best: processing, automating, scaling, exploring variants. Humans do what they do best: meaning, intuition, innovation, pushing the limits.


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Why AI Will Propel Digital Marketing Forward


Putting it all together, here’s how I see AI driving digital marketing into its next phase:

1. Better personalisation at scale

AI lets you tailor messages, creatives, offers, and timing based on data that humans alone couldn’t tease out. That means more relevant, more resonant campaigns.

2. Faster experimentation

If we want to test 50 ad creatives instead of five? If we want to try new formats (video, interactive, AR/VR) without massive cost penalties? That’s more possible now.

3. More creativity, less repetition

The repetitive tasks (data crunching, scheduling, formatting) get off-loaded, leaving marketers freer to think, design, and experiment.

4. Insight-driven decisions

Predictive analytics, trend detection, response modelling, AI gives more visibility into what’s likely to work (or not), which reduces risk and wasted money.

5. Higher ROI, lower costs (ideally)

Companies like Klarna have shown that using AI reduces costs significantly, speeds production, allows more campaigns. That increases the leverage you get from each marketing dollar. Efficiency freed up = budget & time for more bold moves.

6. New kinds of marketing & channels

Generative content, interactive experiences, real-time personalisation, dynamic creative optimisation, all these become more accessible. What felt futuristic five years ago is becoming standard.


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What Needs Doing to Get It Right


Of course, the upside isn’t automatic. To make the most of AI in digital marketing:

• Invest in skills & culture: marketers need to learn how to work with AI (not fear it).

• Maintain human oversight to catch biases, ensure originality, and preserve brand voice.

• Prioritise ethics, transparency, data privacy, consumers increasingly care about how their data is used, and brands that screw up here lose trust fast.

• Use AI strategically, not as a gimmick. It’s tempting to chase tools, but what matters is aligning with your brand, audience, and long-term goals.

• Keep experimenting. What works today will evolve. Early adopters who experiment responsibly will lead.


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So, Will AI Destroy Digital Marketing?


In short: no. If anything, AI will strengthen digital marketing. It will force us to be better, more creative, more thoughtful, more human in what truly matters. It will shift the work, but not erase the value. It will open up new possibilities for those willing to lean in.


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Conclusion: There’s Never Been a Better Time to Be in Digital Marketing


If you’re a wannabe marketer, a small business owner, or someone sitting on the fence thinking, “Should I invest in digital marketing, build these skills, work in this field?”, this is a great moment.


AI isn’t a threat; it’s a superpower. If you combine your human instincts, taste, creativity, and empathy with smart AI tools, you’ll be doing things no one’s seen before. You’ll deliver more value, reach more people, tell stories in fresher ways.


So: if you’ve ever thought of stepping into digital marketing, now is your moment. The tools are getting better, the playing field is expanding, the rewards for creativity & strategy are soaring.


Don’t wait. Start learning, experimenting, failing, refining. Because the future of digital marketing isn’t being destroyed, it’s just beginning.


To your success


Grant

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Is it dreaming about success that keeps you awake at night? If so, you’re just like me and every other true entrepreneur. The business ideas, the lifestyle dreams, the people you could help, the lives you can change. Having the ideas and the vision is only the beginning, but a vital part of the process. So how do you take those dreams and make them a reality? "The million dollar question, literally!" There have been so many books, films, courses, systems and groups dedicated to the theory of success and I have studied many of them. And yet, despite a good proportion of this material having valuable content, the percentage of people that consume it and then achieve success, is small. Why do you think this is, and has this happened to you? Some will argue that time is the issue, some will make other excuses like money or lack of support, some will even blame the government or their family! Well, there is one fact in my observations, that will be the foundation of your success. It will underpin every decision you make, every action or non-action. Without it, there is NO CHANCE of success. "Responsibility." Taking full responsibility for everything that happens to you and all of life’s situations. If you do this, you will know that your actions influence your outcome and even when things that happen appear to be beyond your control, taking responsibility is key. This may sound counter intuitive as “taking the blame” for your situation can be hard and if you’re not ready to accept it, can cause you all sorts of issues. However, when you are ready to embrace the fact that everything that happens to you is either directly or indirectly your doing, then you can begin to pivot with speed and keep your course to success on track. The alternative is to blame others, host your own “pity party” (thanks to Zig Ziggler for that little gem) and never take the steps needed to increase your chances of success. This is explained in detail in chapter 6 of The 10X Rule by Grant Cardone. “Successful people accept very high levels of accountability” and then goes on to say, “Those who give their control over to another for their success, or lack of success, will never be in control of their lives or their futures”, wise words in my view. So ask yourself this. Have you ever blamed your circumstances or someone else for the undesirable situation you find yourself in? When you can adjust your thinking and accept responsibility, you’ll be amazed at how much more action you can take and finally you’ll have the foundational thinking in place to achieve your dreams. Then the really hard work begins!

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This week I had the pleasure of interviewing entrepreneur, Rob Pendleton from Pendleton Global, whom I found fascinating as he has seen both sides of the business spectrum. His early career was as a high flyer with PWC where he developed his in-depth knowledge of business growth and helped HUGE businesses all over the world build refine and build their systems for growth. Fast forward to today and Rob is now the founder of Pendleton Global, the business growth experts who help small businesses scale and achieve their potential using the principles honed in the corporate world. The part that really interests me is that Rob gave up an extremely well paid corporate job, in favour of starting his own small business in, initially, the travel and tourism industry. Getting to the bottom of “why” he did this is pretty complex as it is for most entrepreneurs, but ultimately it comes down to this. "If you’re an entrepreneur at heart, working for someone else will NEVER satisfy you, no matter how much you get paid." A quote that sums that up for me is thanks to one of my entrepreneurial hero’s Grant Cardone: “ As long as you are alive you will either live to accomplish your own goals and dreams or you will be used as a resource to accomplish someone else’s goals and dreams. ” Grant Cardone, 10X Rules. Rob’s dream was always to run his own global coaching network, using his patented system “The Business Waterwheel™” but he knew to be credible he needed to run and sell a couple of small businesses himself. The big goal was always in his mind and when he had finally had the experience of building and exiting his own creation he knew he was ready. Due to this mindset, I asked Rob about this and he gave some really insightful responses that you can see by watching the full interview here . If you are thinking of starting your own business, I’ve also recorded a 10 min video for you showing the three main secrets you should know if you are thinking of trig the plunge and beginning your entrepreneurial journey. Although, as per the sub-title, my experience tells me if you are still reading this, you probably already are, you just haven't started yet.

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