How Artificial Intelligence is Transforming the Marketing Sector

The Marketing in the Age of AI webinar brought together academic and industry leaders to explore how artificial intelligence is reshaping the marketing profession, marketing education, and workforce readiness.

Moderated by Josh Jones, CEO of QuantHub, the discussion featured three distinguished panelists: Bill Koleszar, Marketing Professor at the University of Alabama and former Chief Marketing Officer; Bob Van Rossum, President of MarketPro and a leading executive search expert for senior marketing leaders; and Della Clark, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Marketing at Illinois State University and a consumer behavior researcher with deep industry experience. Together, they examined how AI is transforming marketing capabilities, redefining entry-level roles, and accelerating the need for modern, skills-based education.

Josh Jones opened the session by framing AI as a foundational shift—comparable to electricity—that is becoming embedded across every function of marketing and higher education. He introduced QuantHub’s mission as an educational platform designed to integrate seamlessly with learning management systems and deliver modular, contextual AI learning. Jones emphasized that QuantHub’s approach focuses on AI literacy, ethical use, and domain-specific applications, including newly launched AI-in-marketing modules that help students connect classroom learning directly to real-world marketing challenges.

“People used to talk about digital marketing, and at this point, there’s no such thing as digital marketing. It’s just marketing. And we’re talking about AI and marketing now—but not too far in the future, we’re just going to be talking about marketing.”

–Bill Koleszar, Marketing Professor at the University of Alabama

Key Impacts Across the Industry

From an academic and practitioner standpoint, Bill Koleszar outlined three major areas where AI is already transforming marketing: content generation, strategy development, and marketing research. He highlighted how AI-generated text, video, and audio are dramatically reducing production time and cost, fundamentally changing creative workflows. Koleszar also explained that AI is increasingly capable of supporting strategic analysis—such as customer insights and competitive frameworks—allowing marketers to focus more on judgment and higher-level decision-making.

One of the most compelling insights shared during the webinar centered on marketing research. Koleszar described how synthetic data generated by AI can closely replicate real-world research outcomes, citing examples where AI-generated insights closely mirrored those gathered from interviews with chief marketing officers. This shift has major implications for how organizations conduct research, test ideas, and accelerate decision-making.

Della Clark, Ph.D. expanded the conversation by introducing the concept of AI’s “jagged frontier,” explaining that while AI performs exceptionally well in certain areas, it remains unreliable in others. She stressed the importance of teaching students how to critically evaluate AI outputs rather than blindly accepting them. Clark also highlighted the growing importance of agentic AI—systems that act on users’ behalf—and explained how marketers will increasingly design campaigns not just for people, but for the algorithms and AI agents influencing consumer decisions.

“We’re going to start having more agentic AIs filtering and being our gatekeeper. Companies are not going to market to consumers—they’re going to be marketing to the algorithms that people are using in their everyday lives.”

–Della Clark, Ph.D., Assistant Proffesor at Illinois State University

From the executive search perspective, Bob Van Rossum provided a candid look at how AI is reshaping marketing careers. Drawing from conversations with CMOs across global brands, high-growth companies, and nonprofits, he explained that many traditional junior-level marketing roles are disappearing. Tasks once assigned to entry-level marketers—such as basic content creation, testing, and research—are increasingly automated, forcing organizations to hire fewer junior employees and expect higher-level contributions from new graduates.

“If historically a company would have hired ten marketing coordinators or ten junior brand managers, now they’re hiring four. They’re hiring fewer junior-level roles, and the expectation is that those individuals can come in and do work at a much higher level, because AI can handle a lot of the repetitive tasks those roles used to do.”

–Bob Van Rossum, CEO of MarketPro

The Swiftly Evolving Future of AI-Integrated Practicum

A recurring theme throughout the webinar was that “AI in marketing” will soon simply be called “marketing.” Panelists emphasized that just as digital marketing became inseparable from marketing itself, AI is rapidly becoming embedded in every aspect of the discipline. As one panelist noted, textbooks often lag years behind industry realities, making it critical for educators to supplement traditional curricula with current, applied learning experiences.

The panel also explored the explosive growth of marketing technology. Today, there are more than 15,000 marketing technology platforms—up from just over 1,000 a decade ago—illustrating both the opportunity and volatility facing marketers. This rapid evolution reinforces the need to teach students adaptable skills, critical thinking, and AI fluency rather than narrow, tool-specific knowledge.

Another standout insight from the discussion was the idea that we are always using the “worst version” of AI we will ever encounter, because the technology continues to improve at a rapid pace. This reality underscores the importance of continuous learning and the need for educational models that can quickly adapt to emerging AI capabilities, tools, and ethical considerations.

“Students need to get as much exposure to AI while they’re on campus as possible, or they won’t be ready.”

–Bill Koleszar, Marketing Professor at the University of Alabama

Throughout the webinar, QuantHub’s role emerged as a practical solution to these challenges. By offering modular learning courses for higher education, QuantHub enables institutions to modernize curricula without replacing entire degree programs. These modules help students learn how to collaborate with AI responsibly, apply AI tools in marketing contexts, and develop the critical thinking skills employers now expect.

The webinar concluded with a clear call to action for educators, administrators, and industry leaders: prepare students not for yesterday’s marketing roles, but for an AI-driven future where strategic thinking, adaptability, and AI literacy are essential. As one panelist observed, entry-level marketers must now enter the workforce at a higher level than ever before—and QuantHub’s higher education offerings are designed to help bridge that gap between academic learning and real-world expectations.

QuantHub’s Marketing in the Age of AI Course: https://www.quanthub.com/marketing-in-the-age-of-ai/

Higher-Ed Course Catalogue: QuantHub’s AI Literacy and Modernized Learning Modules: https://www.quanthub.com/higher-education/