An Invisible Revolution? The Future of Artificial Intelligence in Marketing

Artificial intelligence will undoubtedly reshape the global marketing landscape. In countries like Mexico, which are heavily reliant on labor, whether in manufacturing or professional services, the impact could be even greater.

After spending a week at the 2025 Cannes Festival, one thing is clear: agencies and creatives broadly agree that artificial intelligence, at least for now, cannot replace human creativity. The reasoning behind this argument—repeated often by marketing strategists—is that AI builds upon what already exists. It operates based on human prompts. AI doesn’t invent out of thin air; it reacts to a request. In other words, its creative capacity is inherently limited by its dependence on human input and previously acquired knowledge.

There's a lively debate online and in AI circles: Is artificial intelligence truly learning, or is it simply memorizing? I would argue that the more pressing question is whether AI will impact jobs and the future of marketing companies slowly or rapidly. In my view, this won’t be a tsunami that suddenly wipes out all jobs overnight. It will be a gradual shift. Like past technologies, AI will slowly integrate into all areas of work until one day, the landscape will be transformed.

Think of how the internet evolved. Initially, it had little impact on industries such as transportation. Ordering a taxi online meant filling out a form and hoping it would arrive on time. Nothing disruptive. The disruption came when the internet stopped being a static showcase and became a platform. Enter Uber. By leveraging mobile internet and apps, it redefined how people accessed transportation. This didn’t happen overnight. If 20 years ago someone had asked what would happen if we could request a car in real-time through an app, the knee-jerk reaction might have been: "All taxi drivers will lose their jobs immediately." But the truth was more nuanced. The change felt slow, but from a historical perspective, it happened fast.

AI is now experiencing its “Uber moment.” Since 2023, when it became a consumer-facing product, AI has undergone a significant leap forward. It's found in everyday items—from fridges to phones. Let’s not forget that the Huawei Mate 9, launched in 2016, already included AI engines that preloaded frequently used apps to improve performance. AI has also been present in social media algorithms and other less visible areas for a long time. Its use is not new—what's new is that users can now clearly see and interact with it.

Today, AI is more widespread than most people admit. What changed was the interface. Tools like chatbots and generative text assistants made it tangible. Still, we are early in the adoption curve. It’s being implemented broadly, but it hasn’t yet reached its acceleration phase. I doubt we’ll see a Terminator-style overnight shift. In marketing, I anticipate a relatively fast disruption—over the next 3 to 5 years—but one that feels gradual. We won’t see mass layoffs overnight, but we will see more mechanical roles fade away. The growth of marketing providers will increasingly rely on AI-driven operations.

I believe AI's most significant power is not in replacing jobs, but in boosting productivity. Companies that utilize AI to enhance efficiency are gaining market share without necessarily increasing headcount. Take Amazon: through AI and robotics, it may soon have more robots than human employees. If true, that would mark a significant turning point—not only for Amazon’s labor model but for the global economy. Ironically, Amazon still needs humans—but only as consumers, not as workers.

So, what would Karl Marx and Adam Smith make of this? Marx, the German philosopher and economist, is renowned for his critique of capitalism and his emphasis on class struggle as a driving force for social change. Smith, the Scottish economist and philosopher, is widely regarded as the father of free-market economics and author of The Wealth of Nations, where he argues that individual self-interest can lead to collective benefits. Both focused on the relationship between labor, production, and consumption. Yet this new paradigm—where companies seek customers but no longer need to create jobs—challenges the foundations of their thinking.

Perhaps this is what lies behind the push for Universal Basic Income (UBI): providing money to consumers so they can spend, without needing to work. That may be the real disruption on the horizon.

Jobs will find new forms, but they may be destroyed faster than they are created. That’s possible. And if the link between employment and purchasing power is broken, we might be facing the end of the consumerist era. Consumers may begin to question the value of spending money on products that offer no social benefit. Why buy from Amazon if the company doesn’t generate jobs or provide social value beyond marketplace efficiency?

This dilemma might even explain the protests surrounding Jeff Bezos’ wedding in Venice. Perhaps consumers—consciously or unconsciously—are pushing back against a world that prioritizes automation, productivity, and profits over humanity. The debate is just beginning, but it’s already exposing deeper tensions about AI, automation, and the role of machines in human life.

This brings us to the most uncomfortable question for our industry: What is the role of agencies, brands, and service providers in a world where we are expected to grow consumption and loyalty, yet the economic system increasingly sidelines workers? What happens when these principles are at odds?

That, I believe, is the true challenge we face in this new era of artificial intelligence.

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