How Artificial Intelligence is Changing Advertising Strategies

Written by: Branko Kranjčević, Sirius marketing

Artificial intelligence is today transforming the marketing industry on an unprecedented scale, shifting from a tactical tool to a strategic advantage. Marketing professionals have long been inundated with discussions about its ability to generate creative content, optimize digital ads, and improve customer interaction.

However, the most significant impact it will have on marketing goes beyond creative and advertising automation – AI is revolutionizing diagnosis, strategy, and execution, shaping a new era of marketing efficiency.

As is often the case in marketing, the focus has been and remains on short-term effects, and the discourse surrounding artificial intelligence in marketing has often been narrow, primarily centered on content creation and media optimization. While AI’s ability to generate text, images, and videos is remarkable, it is merely the tip of the iceberg.

The true power of artificial intelligence lies in its ability to enhance diagnosis, strategy, and execution – the three fundamental pillars of marketing. The first two pillars are often overlooked by marketers, either due to insufficient knowledge and education about them or due to ‘top-down pressure’ (often used merely as an excuse to focus on the execution part of marketing) in the corporate world, aimed at achieving quick results, which leads to immediate acceptance of implementations. This was also the case with the entry of AI into the marketing domain.

From Tactics to Strategy

Brands today, by utilizing synthetic data from large language models (LLM) and AI-driven market research, can create more effective, financially stable marketing plans in a matter of days instead of months.

Traditionally, marketing plans require extensive research, careful segmentation, and rigorous execution. AI should drastically simplify and accelerate these processes with its capabilities. By using AI-driven diagnosis, we should today gain much faster insights into market dynamics. AI-supported strategy should enable us to achieve precise targeting, optimized positioning, and goal setting, and finally, hyper-efficient campaign execution and performance measurement.

Imitating the Customer

One of the most revolutionary applications of artificial intelligence in marketing is undoubtedly synthetic data – AI-generated research that mimics real consumer insights. Conventional market research relies on surveys, focus groups, and ethnography – the analysis of consumer behavior – all of which are time-consuming and, frankly, expensive.

Those who have tried at least once to convince decision-makers of the justification for investing in research know how high and wide a wall they encounter. In some cases, expensive research ends up at the bottom of a drawer because those who should use it simply do not know how or, paradoxically but truthfully, out of fear – do not want to.

Synthetic personas, customer profiles created by artificial intelligence, allow marketers to test hypotheses, analyze consumer behavior, and optimize strategies on a large scale. These personas exhibit purchasing behavior in the real world, brand perception, and market trends, providing insights comparable to traditional research but at a fraction of the cost and time.

For example, Amazon Web Services (AWS) could create thousands of synthetic B2B customer personas – IT directors, financial directors, and managers – to analyze their motivations for purchasing, entry points into the category, and brand connections. Instead of spending months on research, AWS could obtain these insights in a matter of days. Does it sound impossible or overly simplistic? Individual tests among decision-makers in large companies have already been conducted comparing research conducted through traditional methods and those using synthetic data. The correlation was nearly 95 percent.

Precision at Scale

Market segmentation is one of the most challenging yet essential aspects of marketing strategy. AI should facilitate this process by quickly analyzing large datasets, identifying different consumer segments, and determining which groups offer the greatest commercial value. Unlike traditional segmentation methods, which can take weeks, AI-driven segmentation can be conducted in hours, allowing brands to dynamically adjust their targeting based on real-time insights.

Artificial intelligence should also assist us in better positioning – creating mental availability – ensuring that the brand is top of mind when consumers enter the market. It refines this process by analyzing category entry points (CEP). It analyzes distinctive brand assets (DBA), or elements such as logos, colors, slogans, and symbols by which the brand is recognized. In short, these are the situations that trigger the consumer’s need for a product or service.

By mapping these factors, artificial intelligence helps brands optimize their positioning strategies, ensuring alignment with consumer decision-making.

For instance, Coca-Cola’s AI-driven analysis could reveal that its brand is most associated with ‘refreshment during social gatherings.’ This insight can shape marketing efforts by reinforcing those associations with targeted messaging and ad placement. While the role of artificial intelligence in research and strategy expands, its impact on creative execution remains strong.

For Creativity – Just a Tool

We now know that AI-generated content tools can develop customized ad copy tailored to specific audience segments, create visual elements and videos based on brand guidelines, and optimize message delivery through A/B testing and real-time performance analysis.

However, creativity remains a human domain. AI can create drafts, but the finishing touches – emotional depth, storytelling, and cultural nuances – still require human oversight. The best results come from AI-assisted creativity, where people in marketing use artificial intelligence as a tool, not as a replacement.

Smarter Analysis and Optimization

Measuring marketing effectiveness is a critical yet complex task. Artificial intelligence simplifies this by analyzing campaign performance in real-time and dynamically optimizing strategies. Key capabilities include attribution modeling, such as identifying touchpoints that contribute most to conversions, understanding how consumers perceive the brand, and predictive analytics, which forecasts market trends and consumer behavior. By integrating artificial intelligence into marketing analytics, brands should be able to make data-driven decisions with greater confidence, thereby ensuring continuous improvement in campaign effectiveness.

Not a Replacement, but a Driver

While artificial intelligence is a powerful tool, it should complement, not replace, human strategic thinking and creativity. The consequence of blindly following AI will be a reduction in critical thinking. Artificial intelligence is not just a tool – it is a force multiplier for marketing as it enables brands to work smarter, faster, and more efficiently. By shifting from a narrow focus on automation to a broader application in diagnosis, strategy, and execution, it has the potential to redefine how brands grow and compete.

However, success in an AI-driven marketing landscape requires a balance between technological capabilities and human expertise. It can facilitate insights, segment audiences, optimize campaigns, and even create compelling content – but making strategic decisions, brand perception and value, and ethical considerations remain deeply human responsibilities.

As things stand now, the future belongs to marketing professionals who do not view artificial intelligence as a replacement but as a driver – those who understand that the most powerful marketing strategies will be the result of human intelligence enhanced by artificial intelligence.