Reshaping Creative Work : The Role of Generative AI in Digital Marketing, Copywriting and Advertising

Sammanfattning

Background: Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is rapidly transforming how work is performed across creative industries. Within digital marketing, advertising, and copywriting fields are traditionally grounded in human creativity and professional judgment. GenAI tools are becoming increasingly embedded in everyday workflows. Despite growing adoption, limited research has examined how marketing professionals experience this integration in their creative practice. Purpose: This study seeks to understand how marketing professionals perceive and work with GenAI in creative processes, and how its integration affects their professional roles and judgment within digital marketing, advertising, and copywriting. Method: A qualitative, exploratory research design was adopted. Primary data were collected through 10 semi-structured interviews with marketing professionals, conducted between April and May 2026. Data were analyzed using Braun and Clarke’s (2006) reflexive thematic analysis. Conclusion: The findings reveal three main conclusions. First, GenAI enhances efficiency and transforms ideation from collaborative to individualized and prompt-based interaction. This shifts brainstorming from social collaboration toward individualized, prompt-based interaction. Second, GenAI reshapes professional roles and introduces new risks of standardization and over-reliance. Third, while creative processes are increasingly distributed, accountability and final judgment remain exclusively human. Taken together, these conclusions suggest that GenAI functions not as a replacement for human creativity but as a transformative medium that reshapes the conditions, structure, and social dynamics of creative work in digital marketing.