What Rapid AI Expansion in Marketing Is Doing to Teams

The 2025 State of Marketing AI Report by the Marketing AI Institute paints a vivid picture of a profession accelerating AI adoption but also stumbling under its weight.

Marketers are rushing headlong into an AI-powered future, and many are doing so without a map, a mentor, or a moment to breathe.

The 2025 State of Marketing AI Report by the Marketing AI Institute paints a vivid picture of a profession accelerating AI adoption, but also stumbling under its weight. The data doesn’t just show advancement; it shows anxiety. It reveals a workforce caught between innovation and overwhelm, hope and exhaustion.

In other words, it reveals a rising tide of AI-induced technostress.

TL;DR

1. Adoption Is Up, but So Is Anxiety

60% of respondents say they’re piloting or scaling AI—an 18-point increase since 2023. Yet, 53% believe AI will eliminate more jobs than it creates, and many feel their roles are at risk. This is textbook techno-insecurity, one of the five major types of technostress.

2. Time-Saving Is the Goal, but Time to Learn Is Lacking

82% of marketers want AI to save them time. But ironically, 68% say their companies provide no training, leading to techno-overload and techno-complexity as employees scramble to keep up with tools they don’t fully understand.

3. Prompting Is a Critical Blind Spot

Only 38% are trained on prompt engineering, despite it being one of the fastest ways to improve AI outcomes. This skill gap contributes directly to techno-uncertainty, where marketers feel unsure how to get the best results and fear being outpaced by AI-native peers.

4. Executive Disconnect Is Fueling the Fire

Only 49% of CEOs recognize the lack of AI education as a barrier, compared to 62% overall. This leadership gap reinforces techno-invasion, where the burden of AI adaptation falls squarely on the shoulders of frontline employees, without systemic support.

5. Roadmaps Matter, and Most Don’t Have One

Seventy-five percent of marketing teams lack an AI roadmap. This absence of structure means constant improvisation and shifting expectations, worsening every category of technostress. Teams with roadmaps, by contrast, are twice as likely to have training, councils, and policies—buffers that reduce psychological strain.

“The gap between AI-curious marketers and AI-powered organizations is widening. Many are stuck in the 'exploration' phase with little clarity on where to go next.”
~ 2025 State of Marketing AI Report

Deep Dive…

The 2025 State of Marketing AI Report confirms what many of us already sense in our bones: AI adoption is accelerating, and so is the pressure to keep up.

With nearly 1,900 marketing and business leaders weighing in, this year’s report offers a sweeping look at how AI is reshaping marketing. But beneath the surface of progress lies something deeper and more troubling.

If you read between the lines, a clear message emerges: AI-induced technostress is taking a toll.

We’re Adopting AI, but We’re Not Ready for It

According to the report, 60% of respondents say they’re piloting or scaling AI across marketing functions. That’s an 18-point jump in just two years. Even more striking: 74% say AI is “critically” or “very” important to their marketing strategy over the next 12 months.

Marketers aren’t just dabbling anymore—they’re committing.

But here’s where the contradiction starts. Despite this surge in adoption, 68% of respondents say their companies provide no formal AI training. Not even prompt engineering—the most basic skill for working effectively with generative tools—is covered in 62% of companies.

In short, teams are told to run before being shown how to walk.

That gap between expectation and support is the breeding ground for technostress, the strain people experience when adapting to new technology without adequate resources, training, or guidance.

And according to the AI Technostress Framework, we’re seeing symptoms across all five categories:

1. Techno-Overload: Too Much, Too Fast

AI isn’t arriving gradually; it’s showing up everywhere, all at once. Tools like ChatGPT, Copilot, and Gemini are becoming workplace staples. Forty percent of marketers say they’re in the “Experimentation” phase, and 26% say they’ve already reached “Integration.”

Yet many respondents say their biggest struggle is simply finding the time to learn. There’s an urgency to adopt, but no margin to absorb. One marketer summed it up perfectly: “So much to learn, so little time.”

This is classic techno-overload: the psychological pressure of having too many new tools, too many expectations, and not enough hours in the day.

“The fear of falling behind is real—but so is the anxiety of moving too fast without understanding the risks.” ~ 2025 State of Marketing AI Report

2. Techno-Complexity: The Knowledge Gap

For the fifth year running, the most common barrier to AI adoption is a lack of education and training. Sixty-two percent of marketers cited it as the top challenge.

And yet, when you ask CEOs? Only 49% agree.

This disconnect between leadership and staff is dangerous. It not only reflects a lack of systemic support but also compounds stress by suggesting the burden of adaptation falls solely on individuals.

Without clear onboarding, frameworks, or guidance, employees are left to piece together workflows and best practices on their own, fueling a sense of techno-complexity, where the learning curve feels impossibly steep.

3. Techno-Uncertainty: The Shifting Ground Beneath Us

Marketers are under pressure to make AI work for their roles—fast. But with new tools emerging daily, and no centralized strategy in most organizations, the path forward is anything but clear.

Only 25% of marketing teams have an AI roadmap. Even fewer have AI ethics policies (41%) or a dedicated AI council (33%). That lack of structure means many teams improvise as they go, sometimes reinventing the wheel daily.

It’s no wonder that "keeping up with the pace of change" was cited as one of the most common struggles in open-ended responses.

This is techno-uncertainty in action: high expectations paired with shifting tools, vague policies, and unclear priorities.

4. Techno-Insecurity: Jobs on the Line

The most sobering stat in the report is that 53% of respondents believe AI will eliminate more marketing jobs than it creates, the highest number recorded since the survey began.

Even those not outwardly panicked still feel the weight of change. One in three say they’re “neutral” on AI’s impact on their job, acknowledging both opportunity and risk. One in five report feeling actively concerned.

This is techno-insecurity: the fear that one’s job may be obsolete, not because of poor performance, but because of rapid automation and the pressure to "prove AI can’t do it better."

It’s telling that Shopify’s CEO made headlines this year for mandating that all job requests prove AI can’t do the job first. That sentiment is spreading, and marketers know it.

5. Techno-Invasion: Work Without Boundaries

Without strong organizational guardrails like training, strategy, and governance, employees are asked to do more with less.

The 2025 report shows that individuals drive most AI adoption, not leadership. While CEOs are still the most likely to “own” marketing AI initiatives, 17% of companies say no one owns it at all.

This creates a subtle yet toxic pressure: If you’re not proactively using AI, experimenting with tools, and staying ahead of the curve… you’re falling behind. But it’s up to you to make that happen—on your own time, with your own resources.

That’s techno-invasion—when the lines between personal responsibility and organizational support blur to the point of burnout.

“Without structured education, marketers rely on ad hoc experimentation that often leads to confusion and burnout.” ~ 2025 State of Marketing AI Report

Technostress in the Wild: Signs from the Field

“So much to learn.”
“Not enough time to test tools.”
“It’s hard to keep up.”
“I’m afraid I’ll be left behind.”

These are not outliers—they’re representative quotes from thousands of respondents. This isn’t just a skills gap. It’s a well-being crisis unfolding quietly in marketing departments (and across the enterprise) everywhere.

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So What’s the Solution?

This isn’t a report about resistance to AI. It’s a report about the emotional and operational cost of poorly supported adoption.

Marketers want to thrive with AI. But they need structure to do it well.

The good news? The data also tells us what works. Companies that have an AI roadmap are:

• Twice as likely to offer training

• More likely to provide prompt engineering guidance

• More likely to have ethics policies and AI councils

• More likely to be in the Scaling phase of adoption

In other words, structure reduces stress. And clarity builds confidence.

Steps to Reduce AI Technostress

For organizations:

• Implement AI literacy programs across roles, not just leadership.

• Establish clear AI roadmaps to guide implementation and reduce uncertainty.

• Train staff in prompting to reduce frustration and build confidence.

• Create AI councils and ethics policies to foster trust and reduce techno-invasion.

For individuals:

• Develop a personal AI roadmap (tools like JobsGPT can help).

• Focus on one or two high-impact use cases to build confidence.

• Seek out AI-forward employers. Data shows they are the safest career bets.

Let’s Lead with Literacy and Humanity

At the AI Technostress Institute, we believe AI literacy is a competitive advantage. But AI wellness is a survival skill.

The pressure to adopt AI isn’t going away. But how we adopt it, how we support our people, manage the pace of change, and protect psychological safety, will determine whether AI is a source of empowerment or exhaustion.

If your team is scaling AI without a strategy, without support, and without psychological safeguards, you’re not building a competitive advantage; you’re building burnout.

This year’s report is a wake-up call. Not to slow adoption, but to pair it with intention, education, and empathy.

Now more than ever, AI literacy isn’t optional—it’s essential. But so is AI wellness. Let’s build a better AI future that works for the humans behind the dashboards.

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Want to dive deeper into this intersection of productivity and pressure? Read the full Marketing AI report here. (Registration required)

Is your team experiencing the upside of AI, or just the pressure to keep up?

If you're ready to implement AI without burning out your workforce, the AI Technostress Institute offers tools, training, and support to help teams thrive in an AI-driven workplace. Visit aitechnostressinstitute.com to learn more.

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