Artificial intelligence might be fundamentally changing how marketing work is executed, but it has not yet fulfilled its promise of liberating marketers to focus on creativity and strategy.
So says a new study by Optimizely, which reveals that while 61% of marketers say AI helps them work faster, but only 36% believe it meaningfully frees up space for strategic thinking.
The report was developed in partnership with Heinz Marketing and highlights a growing, troubling disconnect between the work marketers are passionate about and the operational tasks that currently consume their days.
Surveying over 200 marketing professionals, the research identifies a “50/50” reality, where 41.8% of respondents say their role is creative on only a good day, while 37.9% report their time is predominantly focused on coordination, tool navigation, and operational, rather than creative, output.
Rather than creating more “white space” for high-value strategic work, AI is often used to accelerate output, leading to what Optimizely calls the “passion-pressure paradox”.
While efficiency gains are real, they are frequently absorbed by increased stakeholder demands. In fact, 28% of marketers reported that AI has increased output expectations, and 13% said it has made workflows more complicated.
The findings suggest that while commitment to the craft of marketing remains high, it is becoming conditional. Marketers are questioning the sustainability of current work structures. The study found many marketers feel stretched too thin, navigating fragmented tools and increasing, often reactive, demands.
Addressing this issue requires shifting focus from increased production to reduced operational friction. The study suggests that implementing unified, intelligent workflows is key to supporting, rather than just accelerating, marketing efforts.
Optimizely senior vice president of marketing Tara Corey said: “The issue isn’t that marketers have lost their passion; they’ve simply lost the space to act on it. It isn’t due to a lack of effort; it’s due to complexity.
“More tools, more channels and more stakeholders are fragmenting the work. By connecting workflows, cutting down coordination and giving marketers more space for strategy and creativity, AI has the potential to bring more structure to how work gets done. But, if teams are only using AI to increase their output, they’re just accelerating the chaos.”
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