Will AI replace Market Research Analysts and Marketing Specialists?
On paper, AI could touch ~50% of the work in Market Research Analysts and Marketing Specialists — and unlike most jobs, it's already showing up in the real workday, not just the theory.
O*NET-SOC 13-1161
How your 38 core tasks split
Top = what GPT-4 judged AI could speed up. Bottom = how much AI was actually used for these tasks (Anthropic's March 2026 report, usage from Aug & Nov 2025). The gap is the real story.
Back in 2023, GPT-4 judged AI could, in theory, assist with a moderate share of this job's tasks (~50%). By late 2025, real-world AI use had caught up to about 65% of its task activity (already common). The gap between that 2023 forecast and today is the real story.
Where this job sits among 738 jobs
Each dot is one of 738 U.S. jobs. Right = AI can do more of it. Up = AI is actually used more.
Read this as a range, not a verdict
The signals here partly disagree — AI's theoretical reach (~50%) and its real-world use (~65%) tell different stories. AI-risk scores also shift a lot by which model does the rating (2.7%–51.5% in one 2026 study), so this is a direction of travel, not a fixed answer.
See all 38 tasks, ratedBased on real task-level AI scores — click to collapse
- Coordinate with developers to optimize Web site architecture, server configuration, or page construction for search engine consumption and optimal visibility.
- Create content strategies for digital media.
- Prepare reports of findings, illustrating data graphically and translating complex findings into written text.
- Collect and analyze data on customer demographics, preferences, needs, and buying habits to identify potential markets and factors affecting product demand.
- Conduct research on consumer opinions and marketing strategies, collaborating with marketing professionals, statisticians, pollsters, and other professionals.
- Measure and assess customer and employee satisfaction.
- Devise and evaluate methods and procedures for collecting data, such as surveys, opinion polls, or questionnaires, or arrange to obtain existing data.
- Measure the effectiveness of marketing, advertising, and communications programs and strategies.
- Seek and provide information to help companies determine their position in the marketplace.
- Forecast and track marketing and sales trends, analyzing collected data.
- Gather data on competitors and analyze their prices, sales, and method of marketing and distribution.
- Monitor industry statistics and follow trends in trade literature.
- Attend staff conferences to provide management with information and proposals concerning the promotion, distribution, design, and pricing of company products or services.
- Direct trained survey interviewers.
- Develop and implement procedures for identifying advertising needs.
- Manage tracking and reporting of search-related activities and provide analyses to marketing executives.
- Optimize digital assets, such as text, graphics, or multimedia assets, for search engine optimization (SEO) or for display and usability on internet-connected devices.
- Collect and analyze Web metrics, such as visits, time on site, page views per visit, transaction volume and revenue, traffic mix, click-through rates, conversion rates, cost per acquisition, or cost per click.
- Participate in the development or implementation of online marketing strategy.
- Optimize Web site exposure by analyzing search engine patterns to direct online placement of keywords or other content.
- Assist in setting up or optimizing analytics tools for tracking visitors' behaviors.
- Identify appropriate Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and report key metrics from digital campaigns.
- Combine secondary data sources with keyword research to more accurately profile and satisfy user intent.
- Collaborate with other marketing staff to integrate and complement marketing strategies across multiple sales channels.
- Optimize shopping cart experience or Web site conversion rates against Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
- Improve search-related activities through ongoing analysis, experimentation, or optimization tests, using A/B or multivariate methods.
- Conduct online marketing initiatives, such as paid ad placement, affiliate programs, sponsorship programs, email promotions, or viral marketing campaigns on social media Web sites.
- Conduct market research analysis to identify search query trends, real-time search and news media activity, popular social media topics, electronic commerce trends, market opportunities, or competitor performance.
- Propose online or multiple-sales-channel campaigns to marketing executives.
- Evaluate new emerging media or technologies and make recommendations for their application within Internet marketing or search marketing campaigns.
- Communicate and collaborate with merchants, Webmasters, bloggers, or online editors to strategically place hyperlinks.
- Identify, evaluate, or procure hardware or software for implementing online marketing campaigns.
- Collaborate with Web, multimedia, or art design staffs to create multimedia Web sites or other internet content that conforms to brand and company visual format.
- Keep abreast of government regulations and emerging Web technology to ensure regulatory compliance by reviewing current literature, talking with colleagues, participating in educational programs, attending meetings or workshops, or participating in professional organizations or conferences.
- Purchase or negotiate placement of listings in local search engines, directories, or digital mapping technologies.
- Coordinate sales or other promotional strategies with merchandising, operations, or inventory control staff to ensure product catalogs are current, accurate, and organized for best findability against user intent.
- Execute or manage social media campaigns to inform search marketing tactics.
- Conduct financial modeling for online marketing programs or Web site revenue forecasting.
- ⚠️ None — every core task is at least partly within AI's reach. The job won't vanish, but almost all of it changes.
How we measured this — and how fresh it is
AI's theoretical reach data: 2023
From GPTs-are-GPTs (Eloundou et al.), where GPT-4 rated how much of each task an AI tool could meaningfully speed up. This is the most recent open, commercially-usable occupation-level potential dataset — it dates to 2023. Newer multi-model re-runs exist but swing wildly (one 2026 study saw "high-risk" jobs range 2.7%–51.5% by model) and aren't openly licensed, so we show the stable 2023 baseline and pair it with newer real-world data.
Real-world AI use 2026 report
From the Anthropic Economic Index, which observes how real Claude conversations map onto each occupation's tasks. Published in Anthropic's March 2026 labor-market report, based on usage measured in Aug & Nov 2025 (Sonnet 4 / 4.5).
Task list & ratings O*NET 30.3
Tasks come from O*NET 30.3. Each task's "AI can do / speeds up / still on you" tier uses the real task-level exposure scores from GPTs-are-GPTs (E1 / E2 / E0) — not a guess from keywords.
Sources: O*NET 30.3 (CC BY 4.0) · GPTs-are-GPTs (MIT, 2023) · Anthropic Economic Index (CC BY, Aug & Nov 2025). Page compiled June 2026. "O*NET" is a trademark of the U.S. Department of Labor.
This page is for general informational purposes only and is not career, financial, or employment advice. AI exposure reflects research estimates of task overlap, not predictions about any individual's job, employer, or future employment.