How Is AI Impact Digital Marketing?

Artificial intelligence (AI) continues to be the center of much discussion. With the bravado of a classic science fiction novel, we’re seeing the real-time evolution of how machines render works of art, write content in seconds, and change entire business workflows.

Mark Twain is most often attributed with the brilliant saying: “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” No one is certain who said it first —but this is the perfect time to rhyme their sentiment.

Most people are now familiar with at least some of the AI integrations available to them, but for those who study emerging technologies, there are familiar patterns of progress unfolding with this advancing story.

AI helps us do amazing things with internet searches, website optimization, and SEO rankings. It can also pull from a global library of human-generated data to composite digital paintings and compose logical, accurate blog content. Many people are concerned about whether AI might render us mere mortals obsolete.

As we look closer at the impact of AI on digital marketing in 2025, we witness the narrowing of that gap between our wondrously unique human spirit and an impressive counterfeit. Great marketers know how to bridge the two worlds to combine the insight and efficiency of machinery with the powerful strategic touch of human guidance.

Table of Contents

• Disruptive Technology: A Brief Glimpse at the Past
• AI Marketing in the Present
• AI’s Impact on Content Marketing
• Challenges and Risks of AI in Marketing
• AI in Marketing in the (Near) Future: Looking Ahead in 2025
• Revolutionary Innovation: Reflecting on AI in Marketing for 2025 and Beyond

Disruptive Technology: A Brief Glimpse at the Past

The Linn LM-1, invented in 1980, was the first drum machine to use recorded samples of real drums, allowing musicians to program patterns that replayed these sounds—even automating playback without recording to tape.

If this seems like a strange detour from AI in marketing, don’t worry—it will make sense soon enough.

Machine and Man

When recording studios purchased their first Linn drum machines, trepidation spread across the music industry: “Machines are going to put us, drummers, out of work!”

Two years later, the first compact discs arrived in Japan, ushering in the era of “CD-quality sound.” Now, sampling keyboards could recreate practically any instrument with pristine sound, allowing humans to mimic instrumentalists in revolutionary ways, with ease, threatening live orchestras, pianists, and even the existence of the music union.

Go home, folks. It’s over.

Except, something very interesting happened.

Surprise: Breakthroughs in Technology Often Illuminate Humanity’s Strengths

With the Linn drum machine, people soon appreciated just how difficult it was to mimic the feel of a live, professional drummer. Instead of ending the age of session drummers, the best talents were in higher demand than ever. Meanwhile, drum machines gave birth to dozens of radical new genres of music.

Similarly, sampling keyboards that replicated orchestras found their niche, but forty-plus years later, every movie studio doubles down on the marketability of live, orchestrated movie soundtracks.

There’s always been a common thread sewn between different art forms. Whether it’s music, cooking, fashion, painting, sculpting, architecture, or writing—the arts measure the rise and fall of civilizations by way of humanity, telling our story through sound, imagery, and word.

Art mirrors who we are—a permanent connection between the past, present, and future.

AI is the first technology of its kind with the capacity to ruminate over these human expressions, and to emulate them. We’re witnessing a technological innovation founded upon that burst of inspiration that elevates an idea: the human spirit.

AI’s impact isn’t limited to the arts. It is a transformative technology that will affect every industry—including digital marketing.

Below, we’ll take our understanding of how technology has shaped industries in the past and look closely at how AI is currently used in content marketing and its potential roles in the future.

Early Adoption of AI in Marketing

Companies that have actively pursued AI early provide a peek at how AI-assisted processes can give future-focused companies a competitive edge. In a 2017 Deloitte survey of 250 businesses that were aggressive early adopters of AI, 83% of respondents had already achieved moderate or substantial benefits from AI technology.

With early integrations of AI in marketing, companies relied on it for:

• Using fast, accurate information to improve products and services
• Optimizing internal operations
• Making marketing and sales more efficient and effective
• Freeing up their workforce for better productivity by using AI for automated, repeated tasks
• Identifying new marketing opportunities with better analytics

AI use has continued to increase as the technology spreads and improves: In 2017, only 20% of organizations used AI; in 2024, 78% of businesses were using AI in at least one business function. The use cases are growing as quickly as the technology.

How Is AI Helping with SEO and Search?

Our Head of SEO, Tyler Brown, weighed in on the impact of AI in SEO campaigns and search.

According to Tyler, AI doesn’t do the heavy lifting of SEO strategy. “At Big Leap, AI enhances our approach to SEO by handling complex, time-consuming data collection and analysis. This frees our experts for more strategic thinking and creativity.”

AI can organize, classify, and produce fast metrics for things like testing alternative titles and metadata. These innovations empower marketers to “make smarter, data-driven decisions that drive stronger results for clients.”

Our VP of Product, James Straatman, adds that AI works as a valuable “starting point on content ideas [and] topics (particularly when faced with writer’s block).” AI gives marketers a deep well to pull from—and then they can weigh which insights and information best serve their campaigns.

AI SEO and GEO

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) allows marketers to optimize content for AI-powered search platforms and large language models. This means that marketers can influence what shows up in chatbots like ChatGPT and Gemini.

AI systems interpret, rank, and showcase content according to these criteria:

• AI Accessibility (structuring content to be easily processed by AI)
• Natural Language Optimization (creating content that matches conversational query patterns)
• Authoritative Content (developing comprehensive, factual information AI systems trust)
• User Intent & Engagement (addressing the specific questions users ask AI)
• Brand Trust & Transparency (establishing credibility signals AI recognizes)
• AI Tracking & Analytics (measuring performance in AI-driven channels)

Combining AI-friendly content with technical AI accessibility—page speed, mobile responsiveness, and clean code structure—gives content new visibility online. Mastering these pillars gives markets a competitive edge in the changing SEO landscape.

On-Site SEO

Resources like ChatGPT can assist in generating data for schema markup, like FAQs, product pages, and offer pages.

Off-Site SEO

The following are just a few ways AI is a huge benefit for off-site SEO:

• Helping to find relevant blogs
• Sourcing influencers in a given niche
• Searching for interviewing opportunities
• Automating tasks by integrating with platforms like Zapier

AI is helpful for filtering and sorting source data, originating concepts from deep research, and as in all areas, speeding up menial, repetitive tasks.

This includes:

• Finding internal link placements
• Translating keyword research into multiple languages
• Generating hreflang tags
• Offering ideas for final headline variations
• Requesting link outreach opportunities

Things That Aren’t AI’s Greatest Strengths

AI like ChatGPT works by ingesting massive, global databases as source material. While many facets of popular AI chatbots have improved as the technology has evolved, AI still hasn’t met or surpassed human intelligence.

Chatbots are likely to deliver results that are inaccurate, biased, and out of date. They often do so with such confidence that some users find it difficult to decipher when the information is incorrect. Experts believe that refining accuracy will continue to be one of the largest areas of AI research and development in the coming years.

As a result, it’s imperative that humans remain the true fact-checking filter for everything AI serves up. These areas will improve over time, and with that, we’ll all adapt to our best roles.

AI’s Impact on Content Marketing

Since ChatGPT—and other options like Gemini and Claude—became publicly available, professionals and laypeople from a variety of industries have used these AI chatbots to draft impressive compositions. ChatGPT operates from the data you provide—a series of prompts that allow it to apply a sophisticated data request across millions of potential sources, quickly forming them in a logical written result.

But AI has evolved in the years since these tools first came to the forefront in marketing, and the way marketers use AI has evolved along with it. We asked our Creative Services Director, Jaime Theler, to weigh in on AI’s effects on content.

“The marketers who see the most impact using AI are those who have moved beyond considering it a novelty or a marketing silver bullet—they have tapped into the power of AI as a collaborator. Exploring and understanding the intersection of human creativity and AI efficiency is where real content value is being created.”

So far, AI can’t quite replicate the best human content creators have to offer. However, these tools can support the content process, aiding in everything from research and ideation to in-depth analysis of structure and voice. “AI is best used not to replace human content creation, but to augment and accelerate it,” says Jaime.

While the best efforts of AI still can’t compete with—or replace—human-created content, marketers have a wealth of ways to leverage AI as an innovative tool to further the human creative process.

Challenges and Risks of AI in Marketing

In a 2021 Gartner survey, 80% of executives reported that their business can apply AI to any business decision. But, under a magnifying glass, we can identify some genuine challenges that come from the push to do so.

For instance, only 3% of these executives cited data and privacy as a primary AI concern in 2021, but 41% of surveyed companies have experienced data breaches resulting from their AI processes.

As AI has evolved, more companies have grown concerned about cyberattacks. One survey in 2024 revealed that “93% of respondents believe they will face daily AI attacks within the next six months.” With optimization comes new risks.

Privacy

AI works by feeding it enormous volumes of specific data. When companies deal with customers and demographics, they face the responsibility of protecting personally identifiable information.

The double-sided sword of AI is the sheer amount of data shared rapidly across all departments in a company. AI is capable of repurposing data that links directly to individuals—even when that isn’t its intended use. AI is being used to an equal degree by those seeking to steal that data, making cybersecurity management that much more critical.

Plagiarism and Education

With AI advances like ChatGPT, educational institutions now face a new complexity—how to identify when students turn to AI as a means for plagiarism. Many initially used AI detectors but found that their results with human writing were inconsistent. Machines still don’t have a clear way to differentiate between machine-generated and human-generated text.

Beyond the classroom, the issue of plagiarism goes to the very nature of how intellectual property (IP) is used and attributed online. AI may be capable of rewording sources in a unique manner, but the way AI gathers its data may cross legal boundaries.

We’re at the very start of a lengthy philosophical debate over whether AI should have an entirely new set of standards for compliance—and very little legal precedent has been set to define the path.

Costs

New technology also requires new skill sets, calling for new hires who specialize in customizing and optimizing code and datasets, internal data security, and cybersecurity protection.

The cost of computing is expected to continue to rise as the technology proliferates as well, with generative AI largely contributing to hikes as high as 89% from 2023 to 2025.

Trust

AI has caused polarizing reactions across industries. In some cases, consumers trust AI results more than traditional marketing efforts, such as paid advertising. Others may have concerns about AI but tend to trust it more than they trust humans.

However, a significant number of Americans are more concerned than excited about the developments with AI, and a majority don’t trust brands that use it—especially if the brands aren’t transparent about their use. In the age of AI, authenticity and trust are more important commodities than ever for marketers.

AI in Marketing in the (Near) Future: Looking Ahead in 2025

Like every major technological innovation, digital marketing will benefit from AI in numerous ways, so it’s important for CMOs to understand how AI might impact audience research, operational efficiency, and data analysis for their team.

There are two primary ways that AI will assist content marketing in 2025 and in the long term: machine learning and automation.

AI Propels Automation

Programs may use AI to automate repetitive, necessary tasks or further improve accuracy, allowing for human resources to be applied to more consequential roles. As automation streamlines more processes, AI continues to learn.

In 2025, automation and machine learning will be used more for numerous aspects of AI in marketing, including:

• Campaign approvals
• Campaign metrics and analysis
• Augmentation of current roles for accuracy and insight
• Enhanced ad buy forecasts
• Intelligent use of online user cache data to serve dynamic online ads
• Automation and improvement of repetitive tasks
• Programmatic ad buys

AI’s Always on the Clock

Unlike people, AI doesn’t tire from long stretches. In fact, thanks to machine learning, it continues to increase in efficiency from 24/7 tasks—as long as it’s fed accurate data.

AI Assists with Company-Wide Data Sharing

AI is getting more use for data sharing for internal operations. Often, operations are siloed in unintended ways. AI helps optimize and facilitate data sharing across entire companies while doing so faster than was possible before.

How Will AI in Marketing Affect Search Engines and Search Behavior?

We turned to our very own Founder and CEO, Bryan Phelps, for his insight on AI’s impact on search engines and behavior.

AI Will Continue to Determine Search Results

Like so many content marketing trends that will define the years to come, AI technology has been driving search results for several years, and in 2025 that continues to increase. For instance, Google’s answer boxes and EEAT formula integrate AI machine learning based on deep metrics about how Google assesses source accuracy and authority. Google has been optimizing this AI since 2015, when they first implemented RankBrain for active use.

Now, marketers can create content that shows up in AI-specific search types as well. Google’s AI Overview (AIO) sections and generative engine results offer opportunities for greater SEO optimization that can drive consumer consumption.

Voice Searches Will Increase (and Assistants Will Improve)

Like Bryan says, “Voice search assistants…are great (but not perfect) at addressing matter-of-fact answers.” Of course, without further research, how do you separate the accurate answers from the garbage?

As more people use assisted voice search devices like Siri and Alexa, search engines will strive toward more accurate interfacing and interpretation of searches in the form of questions, improving their understanding of more complex queries.

Meanwhile, device developers will fight over their market share, largely based on which one is better at delivering accurate information to search engines.

The more these search assistants are used, the more website owners will want to evaluate how well their organic content addresses the words people use for question-based searches. Websites that only provide very basic information will fall behind in results without optimizing for more conversational queries.

Voice-Assisted Tech Is Only Halfway There

While it’s true Google, Amazon, and Apple have succeeded in bringing their voice assistant hardware to the forefront of daily culture, they aren’t bringing the profits the tech giants had hoped for. Google is replacing Google Assistant with Gemini, and Apple has delayed plans to give Siri AI-powered skills.

People are using voice assistants for a simplified version of question-based searches. While they aren’t performing as well as expected in the market, the real challenge we face with the underlying AI is important to understand.

These hardware devices have provided Google (not to mention Amazon and Apple) with priceless years of data about how we think and formulate our questions.

The goal in voice-activated search, from Google’s perspective, is to seamlessly integrate into our daily conversations. As explained by the controversial Google-employed futurist Ray Kurzweil in his lecture on “How to Create a Mind,” by analyzing and identifying when we are seeking information, Google’s AI will more readily insert itself into the discussion.

This brings us back to the contemplation about privacy and ethics: When would we prefer that Google simply mind its own business? Before we set out to create the mind, do we need to answer the question of whether it’s even a good idea?

Digital marketing goes to the very heart of how we define search, how we give our best selves to the content we create, and how we want AI to benefit us all.

These concerns mark how early we are in our journey alongside AI technology.

Many would warn that there’s an urgent need to define a framework of boundaries for what we want AI to learn about us, and how that should be used. Do we simply want better technology? Or, do we want giants of industry reverse-engineering us by way of our thoughts, words, and creativity?

Image and Video Integration

While search has long been focused on text and voice input, AI advancements are opening new possibilities for querying. Platforms are making it easier for users to prompt their search engines with images and videos.

In March 2025, Google launched AI Mode Search, combining the AI power of Gemini with its Google Lens image recognition technology. Users upload an image and receive results—including traditional search-like links—about the image’s contents.

As image search capabilities increase, marketers have the chance to claim new types of domain authority and visibility.

Zero-Click Searches

In the past, there have been concerns about the impact of Google and zero-click searches. Findings published in 2020 sent SEO specialists into a tailspin by claiming that a full 64.82% of Google searches terminated on the search results page without the user clicking on any of the results.

This pattern softened over the next few years. Semrush data from 2022 showed that 25.6% of desktop searches and 17.3% of mobile searches resulted in zero-click answers. Advancing chatbots and search results like Google’s AIO now result in more zero-click searches. In 2024, 58.5% of Google searches resulted in zero clicks.

As AI tools and search engines continue to evolve, the pendulum of zero-click searches is likely to keep swinging. Marketers will have to evolve with the technology to find opportunities to position themselves advantageously. Today, that might look like generative engine optimization (GEO)—while next year is likely to bring new updates and new challenges.

The Impact of AI on Advertisers

For insights about how AI will affect advertisers, we turned to our Director of Paid Advertising, Scott Smoot, who discussed how prevalent AI has become in the world of online advertising. It’s integrated into nearly all advertising platforms and used in all steps of the process, from creation and ideation to actual placements and media buying.

“As great as these improvements through AI are, however, we are not to the point where we can just let an AI bot run and manage everything. We still need human oversight to ensure that there are no errors, and there is an overarching strategy.” Scott says. “The best marketers will find the best balance between leveraging AI and human-led strategy.”

AI can bring efficiency to testing when it comes to core messaging with different personas, tailoring ad copy before launching full-budget campaigns. Better data allows content writers to work from a much more specific and accurate perspective. In this scenario, AI can offer time—the ability to compress how fast someone can potentially test their ad variations before fine-tuning them for an expensive paid campaign.

AI is forcing advertisers to sharpen their craft. Those who create superior, highly targeted campaigns will only shine brighter the more prevalent AI becomes.

AI Is Big Money for Big Tech

In 2022, Google’s revenue from its advertising products and services was projected to rise from $62 billion in 2021 to $81 billion by 2024. At the end of Q2, Google’s ad revenue had hit $64.616 billion, or 76.3% of Google’s revenue for the quarter. This reflects the market value placed on AI-driven ad placement based on AI-enhanced demographics and intelligent tracking of online user activity.

The resounding message is clear: Tech companies are going to seek opportunities to grab a piece of the AI pie, and that’s bound to influence the direction of AI in marketing in 2025 and beyond.

Revolutionary Innovation: Reflecting on AI in Marketing for 2025 and Beyond

AI-generated work is impressive, but it’s not flawless—nor is it immune to the severe implications of copyright infringement linked to the technology itself. AI can be a great tool for collaboration and efficiency, particularly when guided by human thinkers toward a strategic end.

Nobody can say for sure the exact direction industries will go due to AI’s impact. But the past strongly suggests several factors that are guaranteed to play a role.

Innovation Takes Time

There will continue to be bumps in the road with AI development. With every breakthrough, there will be new discoveries about why it is so difficult to mimic the intricacies of the human mind.

Changes in Technology Are Exponential

AI developments are hastening because it is an exponential technology. The easiest way to understand this is a concept called Moore’s Law, which essentially formulates how cost, resources, and supplies ultimately increase the rate of progress.

A great example is semiconductors: As they get cheaper to produce, it’s easier to use more computer processing power to assist in designing smaller, faster, more efficient microchips. AI is on a trajectory to scale its capabilities exponentially due to this phenomenon.

There Will Be Consequences

There’s no question that AI will continue to play a larger role in virtually every industry. AI will be viewed as a radically disruptive technology.

There Will Be Denial

The companies that will suffer the most from advancements in AI are those who bury their heads in the proverbial sand, pretending that AI will never replace those very processes where breakthroughs are already taking form.

Companies that ignore change will likely close their doors, leaving greater market share to content marketers who embrace change and match it to the strengths of their team. Those that implement AI in smart, human-driven ways can take advantage of the tech without losing trust from consumers who want to remain in control of their decision-making.

The Best Will Be in Greater Demand

For the innovative thinkers in marketing, AI will be their best (inanimate) friend, precisely targeting demographics, isolating strategic word use, aligning to Google’s standards for better ranking, and focusing on the human expertise it takes for brands to dominate in their niche.

Importantly, AI amplifies the need for that elusive human spirit that simultaneously transcends and defines the epoch of our time. Marketers who are capable of unique thought leadership works, carefully engrained keyword intent, and recognizably human traits (we are humans, after all) will rise above the mundane, which also means rising above fear.

Many are fearful that AI is here to replace us. The truth is, it is trying its very best to mimic us, and in its current iteration, AI is drawing from a database of humanity. It will improve and will do so much faster in the future.

It should be no surprise when we realize that inspired human effort and achievement merge well with technology; indeed, it’s those who recognize a revolution brewing and harness the zeitgeist of our time who become the next leaders of the industry.

Take a Big Leap Forward in Your Marketing in 2025

Like that Linn drum machine more than forty years ago, the best marketing and writing talents will be in high demand as new approaches to marketing splinter off of the innovations from this uncharted technological era.

At Big Leap, we’ve been helping companies upgrade their SEO and digital marketing game since 2008. We’re committed to transparent practices and innovation in the age of AI to deliver targeted results. Interested in learning more about how Big Leap’s talented team can help you reach your content marketing goals in 2025? We’d love to hear from you today!

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