Modern marketers need skills like prompt engineering, community building, and cultural intelligence. These strengths complement AI tools while retaining authentic human connection and strategic creativity. Brands must revise recruitment & upskilling strategies to create effective, well-rounded teams in the AI era.
As recruiting experts in the marketing industry, we’ve learned that the strongest outcomes come from pairing human insight with AI fluency. Scaled large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT help marketers improve efficiency, productivity, and innovation.
However, while AI technology is advancing at a breakneck pace, organizational adoption lags behind. To maximize its potential and meet the demands of the AI era and beyond, building an AI-literate workforce is a must. Keep reading to learn the top skills marketing teams need, plus hiring and upskilling strategies to help you stay competitive.
Because of artificial intelligence, the ability to generate copy, ideas, and images has become table stakes for marketers. However, core marketing skills remain essential. Top talent still needs a deep understanding of consumer behavior, a strong brand voice, and compelling content that generates leads.
What’s changed is speed and scale. Whereas a marketer previously spent most time on execution, they now focus on orchestration: determining which AI tools to deploy, when to intervene, and how to maintain a human touch.
Learn more: How AI Is Changing Skills in Digital Marketing
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Here are the top five skills your team needs to meet the demands of the AI era.
Whether your team uses ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or other AI systems, knowing how to write prompts is an essential skill. Clear prompts equal better copy, images, or ideas.
Hiring marketing professionals with strong prompt engineering skills helps your team:
Prompt engineering is the skill of writing clear, precise instructions for AI tools to get the best possible results. In marketing, it’s how you guide AI to create copy, images, ideas, or even data insights that match your brand, tone, and goals.
Hiring Tip: Test your candidates’ prompt engineering skills during the interview process or in a separate skills assessment. Provide real-world scenarios relevant to your business. Evaluate both their process and the quality of the output.
AI technology excels at automating customer relationship management tasks, but 93.4% of consumers still prefer interacting with humans over AI. So, while your team can offload routine tasks (i.e., email segmentation, scheduling social media posts, or marketing automation), you still need people who can connect on a human level.
Look for talent with strong communication skills who can:
Hiring Tip: Hire curious, empathetic communicators. Bonus if they’re experienced in community management, social media management, or customer service! These marketers often bring sharper consumer insights, relationship management skills, and engagement strategies.
AI marketing tools now produce stunning, photorealistic visuals in seconds. While they can’t (and shouldn’t) replace human designers and artists, for many teams, they fundamentally change or add on to the required skillset.
Marketing Role/Department | Traditional Core Skill | AI-Leaning Skill |
Graphic Designers | Manual digital illustration | AI art direction & prompt refinement; hybrid workflows (AI + traditional tools) |
UI/UX Designers | Wireframe and prototype building; interaction design principles | Rapid AI-powered iteration & testing; AI-human interaction patterns |
Photographers/Videographers | Hands-on editing & production | AI-assisted synthesis & automation; AI-generated graphics |
Web Designers | HTML/CSS/JavaScript | AI-powered website generation & design automation |
Hiring Tip: Prioritize artistic and adaptable candidates. AI skills can be taught, but creativity and design intuition are harder to replace.
AI can be used in photography to:
The success of marketing strategies relies on your understanding of your target audiences. Knowing what resonates with different groups requires cultural intelligence and a keen eye for market trends.
Aside from must-have technical marketing skills for each role, we recommend hiring marketers who can:
Hiring Tip: Each social media or digital platform has unique audiences, tools, and trends. Look for talent who demonstrate platform-specific fluency, especially on key channels like Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, and YouTube.
Modern marketers need fluency across a range of marketing technologies (MarTech), not just ChatGPT. Every department or role relies on specific tools and software to execute campaigns. While these tools can be taught, the ability to quickly learn, integrate, and leverage them strategically is what sets top performers apart.
Marketing Role/Department | Marketing Tool |
Search Engine Optimization/Search Engine Marketing |
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Content Marketing |
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Email Marketing |
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Social Media Marketing |
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Web Design/Development |
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Branded Content (Photography, Videography, Graphic Design) |
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Experiential Marketing |
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Hiring Tip: Look for learners, not just knowers. While candidates with direct experience in your MarTech stack can offer shorter onboarding, you may miss out on hidden unicorns if you’re too focused on past experience.
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AI expertise can be nurtured through a mix of structured learning and practical application. Begin by assessing your team’s current skills and identifying gaps. Then, implement a combination of the following upskilling strategies:
Stay ahead of the AI era by focusing on skills marketing teams need: AI fluency, creativity, and data-driven strategy. As a specialized marketing recruitment agency, Ad Culture connects you with marketing talent with both fundamental marketing skills and AI expertise.
We assess candidates for the hybrid competencies that ensure your hires can leverage AI tools while maintaining authentic human connections. Ready to build a team that thrives with AI? Contact Ad Culture today.