In a recent presentation titled Transforming Marketing With Generative AI: A Research-Based Approach, Kelly Cutler, Associate Professor of Marketing and Communication at Northwestern University, explored how generative AI is reshaping the marketing landscape and what organizations must do to adapt.
She begins by noting that most marketers feel excited about AI, but many lack the training needed to use it well. Seventy percent say their employer has not offered any AI guidance, which is why AI literacy is quickly becoming one of the most important skills in the field. Contributors such as Informatica reinforce that high-quality, well-managed data is essential for any AI strategy to succeed.
Cutler explains that CMOs are facing a major challenge: integrating new technology into marketing while still preserving the human strengths that define effective communication. AI can improve efficiency and personalization, but it cannot replace relationship building, empathy, ethical judgment, or cultural understanding.
The research shows that AI is already creating value in areas such as time savings, cost reductions, stronger customer insights, and more personalized engagement. Companies are using generative AI for content development, SEO and SEM improvements, email and audience targeting, analytics, video creation, and persona development.
She points to four major trends shaping the future: more advanced personalization, faster content creation at scale, deeper analytics and testing, and significant changes to SEO and advertising strategies driven by AI tools.
To help organizations respond, Cutler shares two guiding frameworks. The first is Bain’s Five Golden Rules, which focus on consumer-led thinking, holistic AI use, long-term planning, keeping core use cases in-house, and strong CMO leadership. The second is a four-step organizational process that includes forming a cross-functional task force, prioritizing use cases, creating a roadmap, and investing in AI training.
Cutler closes with a clear conclusion: marketing has always combined art and science, and AI strengthens both. Organizations that stay adaptable and pair human insight with AI capabilities will be positioned for the greatest success moving forward.
Read Cutler’s book, Search Marketing, A Strategic Approach to SEO and SEM.