Gen AI Has Entered the Chat: What Do Marketing Educators Need to Know About Generative AI?

In just a few short years, AI has completely revolutionized the ways most of us engage with the digital world. AI now shapes the ways we search and chat online, as well as the content we see.

For students, AI is transforming the learning experience. Recent studies from the Higher Education Policy Institute show that in 2024, use of generative AI tools, like ChatGPT, jumped 53%, with students reporting that they used AI to summarize ideas, explain content, and, yes, generate writing.

For marketing students, who are likely already using generative AI in their day-to-day lives, the widespread adoption of AI in the business world presents an interesting paradox. While universities often discourage the use of generative AI for completing assignments, their future employers are going to demand proficiency with AI for everything from generating copy to analyzing campaign performance.

Helping students understand generative AI as a marketing tool, rather than a “shortcut” for engaging with course content, is critical for marketing education in 2026. Here’s what educators and students need to know about the current gen AI landscape, along with discussion questions and class exercises to help introduce students to the AI skills they’ll need after graduation.

What is the difference between gen AI and analytical AI?

Analytical AI, or “classic” AI, has been used to measure, predict, and optimize outcomes for decades. One of the most famous examples, IBM’s Watson, “won” Jeopardy in 2011. Banks rely on analytical AI to generate credit scores and predict which customers are likely to default on loans, CPG brands use it to forecast demand for products, and companies like Spotify are able to predict which music might resonate with listeners based on previous engagement. But these models don’t “make” anything. They simply recognize patterns in large datasets.

Generative AI, on the other hand, is an emerging technology used to generate content. In other words, analytical AI predicts, gen AI offers users new content based on past content. However, while many use the word “create” to describe gen AI’s capabilities, what it actually does is mimic the styles of the data it has analyzed. For content creators gen AI unlocks a new world of potential–from copywriting to branding and even customer services. The marketing world is only just beginning to explore the possibilities for gen AI.

However, the process isn’t perfect. AI is subject to “hallucinations,” or errors in accuracy, brands also face potential for copywriting infringement, and issues around plagiarism abound.

How are brands already using Gen AI for marketing?

McKinsey’s latest State of Marketing report found that 76% of marketing departments are now using AI tools daily. And most marketers report that gen AI has both boosted productivity and enabled innovation.

One of the most visible ways companies are incorporating Gen AI into marketing strategy is copywriting. AI tools can quickly analyze the messaging that best resonates with different audience segments and generate the copy most likely to drive engagement. For instance, Financial advisory company Vanguard was able to boost conversion rates on LinkedIn by 15% using gen AI to create post headlines and CTAs that appealed to emotions while impelling specific action, along with the visual elements that were most likely to capture audience attention.

In 2023, Unilever adopted Gen AI to analyze common customer issues and the underlying sentiment of those messages in order to generate personalized responses, which reduced the amount of time agents spent on messaging by 90%.

What does the future look like for Gen AI?

Gen AI unequivocally transforming marketing as we know it. From audience targeting to messaging and content creation, gen AI will likely soon play a role in every stage of the digital marketing process. Marketing content will need to walk a fine line between appealing to customers and being discoverable in generative search, where queries are often much more complex than in traditional search engines.

The real future of gen AI lies in training marketers who are comfortable in “human-AI hybrid” roles, creating discoverable content that is still useful and engaging. Right now, many marketers rely on ineffective content, treating AI like a vending machine to generate “AI slop” with little value.

How do simulations help prepare students for marketing jobs?

Simulations play a crucial role in modern marketing education because they give students a safe, hands-on environment to practice using AI as a real strategic tool rather than a black box. Through simulations, students learn effective prompt engineering, experimenting with how clear, specific instructions lead to relevant, accurate insights. They also gain experience with AI-assisted market research analysis by using large language models to synthesize insights across multiple data sources at once, mirroring how marketers increasingly work in practice. Simulations also teach students to use effective judgement generating and refining content, as they test multiple creative directions, critically evaluate AI-generated ideas, and improve them over successive rounds in a no-stakes environment. Most importantly, simulations allow students to practice strategic AI integration, developing the ability to assess AI’s impact on marketing performance and to optimize how human judgment and AI capabilities work together—skills that are essential for effective marketing decision-making in an AI-enabled landscape.

Novela’s latest AI marketing simulation allows students to work with AI research assistants as they generate content and create ads. To make the simulation as realistic as possible, we’ve even included a few hallucinations. The idea isn’t to trick them, but to train them to always verify AI’s output.

For marketing educators, the simulation has been a hands-on way to train students for AI success. As Jim Lecinski, a Clinical Professor or Marketing at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management put it:

“The Novela AI Marketing simulation is a highly effective way for marketers (and aspiring marketers) to experience building an end-to-end fully AI-powered marketing campaign, in a very realistic ‘hands on the steering wheel’ manner.”

Ready to equip your students with gen AI marketing skills? Click here to check out our AI simulation.