Generative artificial intelligence in marketing: Applications, opportunities, challenges, and research agenda

While all functional areas in organizations are benefiting from the recent development in generative artificial intelligence (GAI), marketing has been particularly affected positively by this breakthrough innovation. However, scholars have not paid attention to the transformative impacts GAI has on marketing activities. This editorial article aims to fill this void. It outlines the current state of generative artificial intelligence in marketing. The article discusses the facilitators and barriers for the use of generative artificial intelligence in marketing. It highlights the effectiveness of insights generated by GAI in personalizing content and offerings and argues that marketing content generated by GAI is likely to be more personally relevant than that produced by earlier generations of digital technologies. The article explains how higher efficiency and productivity of marketing activities can be achieved by using GAI to create marketing content. It also describes the roles of insights and marketing content generated by GAI to improve the sales lead generation process. Implications for research, practice and policy are also discussed.