Human-centered AI is empowering the future of marketing

AI-driven personalization is key to meeting this demand at scale. By leveraging AI, marketing teams can tailor messaging, content, product recommendations and offers based on individual preferences, behaviours and past interactions. This not only enhances the customer experience but also transforms every touchpoint into an opportunity to build loyalty and drive growth. According to our latest AI and Digital Trends report, 86% of marketing leaders believe Generative AI will rapidly boost content speed and volume. The shift is no longer about if AI will reshape marketing, but how we can leverage it responsibly to elevate creativity, forge deeper customer connections, and accelerate business growth.

Distinctive take on human-centred AI

It’s clear why AI is topping marketers’ agendas for 2025; however, this isn’t about technology replacing people. In fact, 69% of leaders plan to increase their investment in talent alongside AI adoption. When it comes to enhancing marketing, we believe in AI being a force multiplier and not a substitute for human creativity.

The approach lies in human-centred AI, as it ensures that marketing and creativity remain deeply personal, authentic, and impactful. When AI works alongside marketing teams, it unlocks new levels of relevance and resonance in customer experiences, ultimately driving stronger satisfaction and business impact. Now’s the time for marketing leaders to shift from experimentation to real enablement, empowering teams to leverage the technology where it matters the most.

For example, Adobe’s own marketing teams need to create assets rapidly and test high-performing content variants, boosting engagement while staying true to brand voice. At MAX, our global creativity conference, we leveraged AI to experiment with design treatments, resulting in a 57% lift in engagement for one specific variation.

The takeaway? It’s not about replacing creative teams—it’s about enabling them to move faster and with greater impact.

The hurdles to AI adoption in marketing

Today’s marketing teams are under pressure. Consumers expect hyper-personalized, seamless interactions across every channel, but traditional content creation methods are struggling to keep up. There are three biggest challenges that the marketing leaders are facing when it comes to AI adoption.

1. Prioritizing AI use cases: Companies often struggle to identify which use cases will yield the highest value. Some fear it may produce generic or even unhelpful experiences that dilute brand authenticity, but an intentional and focused implementation can actually enhance creativity and strategic impact.

2. Closing the gap between ideation and impact: AI use should not be limited to just content ideation. The real value comes from embedding AI across the full marketing lifecycle including data analysis, content creation, and orchestration eventually turning ideas into measurable outcomes.

3. Finding ethical, enterprise-grade AI:The AI technology that marketers use must be responsible, secure, and enterprise-ready. As marketers scale AI, they must prioritize security, fairness, and brand safety in every use case, wherein, trust and transparency should be non-negotiable.

What’s ahead: Welcome to the age of agentic AI

The next evolution in marketing lies in agentic AI—intelligent systems that don’t just assist, but act. These AI agents can autonomously manage complex, multichannel workflows, helping brands streamline execution and deliver personalized experiences at scale.

More than just tools, AI agents are intelligent operators. They interpret goals, create plans, take action, and work independently or alongside humans. With skills like planning, reasoning, and memory-based decision-making, these agents are transforming how marketing gets done.

Today, 65% of marketers are already using AI agents for tasks like asset tagging, task assignment, and content review. Modern marketers are putting AI to work to increase efficiency and deliver concierge-like experiences defined by speed and relevance.

This shift is also accelerating the transformation from Customer Experience Management to Customer Experience Orchestration. While customer experience remains central, AI and agents are making it more dynamic—and more complex. Orchestrating how these agents interact across systems, vendors and customer touchpoints is becoming essential. As experiences grow more fluid, so must the systems that deliver them. The future of marketing lies in seamlessly blending data, creativity and AI to orchestrate smarter, more scalable and deeply personalized customer journeys.

As AI continues to transform the marketing landscape, one truth stands firm—AI is not a substitute for human creativity, it’s a catalyst for it. When thoughtfully integrated, AI empowers marketers to work smarter, move faster, and think bigger.

By amplifying both creativity and productivity, human-centered AI ensures that marketing remains deeply personal and impactful. The future belongs to teams that embrace AI not as a shortcut, but as a creative partner—one that elevates what’s possible and keeps the human touch at the heart of every experience.

Duncan Egan is vice president of enterprise marketing, Asia Pacific and Japan, Adobe.