How to Level Up Your Marketing Career in the AI Era (The Right Way)

I can’t lie — I’ve been feeling a little AI-fatigued lately. But the reason everyone’s still talking about AI is because it’s not going away anytime soon.

The reality is it’s changing the way we work as marketers. Our State of AI report shows that more than half of marketers (60%) are using AI tools in their role.

If you’re looking to grow your career, chances are you’ll have to lean into the AI hype. That’s a good thing, though, because there are smart ways you can use AI to become a better marketer.

What’s trending in AI for marketers?

Whenever I’m thinking about career growth, it’s helpful for me to know what’s hot (and what’s not) in the marketing world.

I mentioned earlier that more and more marketers are incorporating AI into their workflows. Here are a few additional insights from our report:

• The most common AI tools for marketers include chatbots (e.g., ChatGPT), AI-enhanced CRM and marketing tools (e.g., HubSpot, of course), and AI-enhanced productivity tools (e.g., G-Suite AI suggestions).
• The top three use cases for AI are content creation, learning how to do things (e.g., Excel functions), and data analysis/reporting. The majority of marketers who use AI for these tasks find it very effective.
• 55% of marketers are using educational resources to improve their AI knowledge and skills. The top learning method is educational videos.

Let’s unpack how you can use these AI tools and strategies to your benefit.

5 Ways to Use AI for Career Development

1. Uplevel your AI skills.

I chatted with Martina Bretous, editor of our Next in AI blog, and she shared her thoughts on AI and career growth.

“People often think growing your career with AI means becoming an AI expert but that’s not the case,” says Bretous.

She continues, “If you‘re in a technical or data-driven role, like data science or software engineering, there’s so much demand for machine learning and deep learning skills. AI isn't going away any time soon, so finding ways to incorporate it into your toolbox will be incredibly valuable in the long term.”

I 100% agree with this take. While you don’t have to become an expert in all things AI, there are benefits to building your AI toolbox. An increasing number of companies are looking for marketers with AI knowledge and experience.

Educational videos (e.g., on YouTube/TikTok) and online courses are great places to start. My recommendation? Check out HubSpot Academy’s AI for Marketing course for the basics.

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2. Let AI help you polish your resume.

Your resume is arguably the most important part of your job search process.

While it’s possible to create an entire resume with AI, I wouldn’t suggest doing so. Instead, I’d recommend using it more strategically to:

• Clean up specific sections of your resume.
• Run grammatical checks before you submit.
• Fine-tune the tone based on your industry or the role.

Take this example. Here, I asked ChatGPT for help with my executive summary.

I used this prompt: “Write an executive summary for a resume that describes a marketer with 8 years of experience in content strategy, writing, and editing.”

This is the output I received:

This is pretty solid. I like how it includes specific areas of expertise, highlights related accomplishments, and notes relevant skills. However, I’m looking for something shorter and a little more personable.

So, I followed up with this prompt: “Please shorten the summary and make the tone more conversational.”

This is the output I received:

In terms of tone, this is definitely more in line with what I’m going for. But it did cut out many of the elements I liked about the first one — like accomplishments and skills.

Realistically, I’d probably use a combination of these outputs as inspiration and tailor the language to my own background. But this is a helpful guiding point.

3. Use AI to become better (and faster).

“One of the best ways to use AI for career development is by using it as an assistant to streamline your processes,” says Bretous.

“Have you identified tedious tasks that you could automate with AI? Whether it's data analysis, writing, research, or creating reports, doing so could save you hours that you can now use to work on exciting, high-impact projects.”

She’s right — our data says that the majority of marketers who use AI for tasks like content creation and data analysis find it very effective. And improved efficiencies are a big selling point to potential employers.

When you’re ready to optimize your marketing workflow with AI, HubSpot Academy has another great course for you.

4. Make AI prompts do the heavy lifting.

In the spirit of efficiency, my colleague Erica Santiago compiled over 200 ChatGPT prompts that you should be using as a marketer.

There are endless ways to use prompts like these in your role.

Need to come up with some blog post ideas quickly? Ask ChatGPT this: List [number] ideas for blog posts about [topic].

Or maybe you’d like to get to know your audience a little better. In that case, try this one: What are the biggest pain points of [audience] in [industry]?

Using AI for support can help free you up to focus on other areas of career growth. And you get the most out of AI when you use the right inputs.

5. Brainstorm new ideas with AI.

As a writer, there’s nothing worse than hitting a creative slump. And during our busiest seasons, it can be hard to carve out time strictly for brainstorming.

Bretous says, “One of the biggest roadblocks to growth is feeling like you don't have enough hours in the week to brainstorm, develop, and execute on ideas that will get leadership’s attention. AI comes in by giving you back valuable time so you can focus on them.”

I used a “blog post ideas” prompt as an example in tip #4. But you can use AI as inspiration for your email campaigns, social media strategies, and more.

Who knows, maybe your next big idea will be powered by AI. (And you’ll have a little more time to execute on it.)

Career Growth, Brought to You by AI

AI offers a lot of potential for your professional development. Remember, you don’t have to be an AI expert to grow your marketing career. You just have to be an expert in using it to your advantage.