While marketers are finding AI very helpful, they are increasingly concerned about organizational readiness and the technology’s long-term impact on the workplace. That’s according to a new academic study, “The AI Paradox in Marketing: Fascination, Resistance, and Reinvention.”
In the study, published in the “Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity,” researchers interviewed 24 marketing professionals from organizations around the world. Participants said AI’s handling of routine and repetitive work gives them more time for strategic thinking.
“Even if you’re spending a few hundred dollars a month on AI, it feels like you’ve benefited the whole team,” said one participant. “It’s really exciting for us.”
They also say that technology is supporting them in several ways that were expected.
“The AI works like real cognitive support,” said one participant. “It helps reduce workload-related stress by automating certain tasks, allowing me to save time and focus on more important things.”
How will new salespeople learn the job?
The immediate benefits of AI are clear and appreciated by marketers. Their uneasiness begins with what it means in the long term, as AI expands to do the work that creates marketing technology.
Writing copy, testing campaigns, refining messages, and analyzing results are not just production tasks. This is where marketers learn what excites them, develop instincts, recover from mistakes, and gain judgment that prepares them for strategic roles.
The discussions also revealed organizational gaps that make AI adoption difficult.
Chief among them are the lack of AI technology, rapid skills obsolescence, and resistance to changing established ways of working. One of the participants pointed out the “real lack of critical skills” needed to carry out AI projects.
AI is not just another software release
Researchers argue that businesses need targeted training that includes technical skills, such as rapid engineering and tool selection, and non-technical skills, including creative judgment, behavioral reasoning, and change management. Instead of treating AI as another software deployment, organizations should view it as a workforce transformation that requires trust, experimentation, and continuous learning.
AI is becoming easier to use. Building teams that know when to trust, when to challenge, and how to use them responsibly is difficult.
Participants said that as AI takes over mainstream work, skills like rapid design, data analysis, and technical fluency become more important because marketers are increasingly evaluating AI work instead of producing all the drafts themselves.
10X your SEO with Semrush for Enterprise.
The world’s most powerful SEO platform, built for the Enterprise.
Request a demo
That puts judgment at the center of the work. Someone still needs to see when the AI misses the customer’s context, reaches the wrong conclusion, or spits out an answer that sounds convincing but is wrong. Participants identified creativity, good judgment, cultural understanding, and relationship building as skills that AI could potentially replace.
Marketing organizations are facing a challenge that goes beyond AI adoption. As AI takes over the work that once taught marketers their craft, companies will need new ways to improve the judgment, intelligence, and experience that comes from doing the work.
The study can be downloaded here. (No registration required)
