What Gartner’s Marketing Predictions Mean for Our Sector

As customer journeys evolve, clarity matters more

AI is expected to play an increasing role in supporting more personalised interactions at scale, prompting organisations to rethink how customer journeys are designed and managed.

This will feel familiar in our sector. Journeys involving authors are already complex, often extending over long periods of time and across many different touchpoints.

What is changing is the growing role of AI in supporting these journeys, for example through discovery tools, recommendation systems, and automated guidance. This makes it important to design journeys carefully, and to be clear about where automation helps and where human judgement remains essential.

As content volumes grow, credibility needs to be clear

Another theme from the webinar was the increasing emphasis on authenticity as content becomes easier to produce at scale.

In research communications, trust has always been fundamental. As AI tools play a greater role in summarising and recommending content, we need to ensure that credibility is maintained and that trust signals are visible, regardless of how or where content is encountered.

Using technology to support focus and quality

The webinar also explored more flexible approaches to marketing, where activities are assessed based on their contribution and impact. Automation can help reduce administrative effort in some areas, allowing more focus on work that benefits from experience, judgement, and sector knowledge.

This reflects a lot of the conversations we’re hearing about how best to use limited time and expertise. Used carefully, AI can help support focus and quality without adding unnecessary complexity.

Changing discovery practices

The discussion also touched on shifts in how people find and engage with information, with AI playing a growing role in surfacing answers and recommendations.

For our sector, this brings renewed attention to how research content travels and how it is understood in different settings.

Applying these ideas

The themes raised in the webinar offer a helpful opportunity to reflect on how broader marketing trends intersect with what we see in our own sector:

• Considering where AI can support engagement
• Where human oversight remains essential
• How trust is maintained as communication environments continue to evolve

As expectations and environments continue to change, these points will continue to shape our conversations at TBI.