Welcome to our AI overlords, and so long social media: Marketing trends in 2023

Our marketing team have looked into their crystal balls and gazed into their tea leaves. What they see is similar to our design team’s predictions: this year marketing trends will also centre on automation, and everything from blogs to tone of voice will soon be in the hands of our AI copywriting overlords. Voice search will make fingers unnecessary, social commerce will finally make it to the mainstream and social media will head further into an existential crisis. These are our marketing predictions for 2023.

Voice search will become louder

Alexandra Juravlea, account lead:

I predict that Voice Search will continue to grow in 2023. Not only will more brands be optimizing for voice search as part of their marketing strategy but we’ll see more people talking to their smartphones or speakers. 

Voice technology will improve, which will mean we’ll be able to complete more complex tasks and transactions. According to Capgemini, around 70% of consumers are already using voice to shop instead of going to a real-life store. 

Shopping with one voice command is very much like shopping in one click and it will become the new, convenient, super-quick way to buy things.  

AR advertising and AI chatbots

Fabio Ojeda Martin, senior performance marketing:

A trend in marketing that we will see more of in the near future is the use of Augmented Reality.

With AR you can use the data collected by Google Lens or smart glasses (such as Ray-Ban Stories or XRAI Glass), to create hyper-personalised tailored ads. Some businesses have already started creating campaigns on Google Lens and the number of users using this channel (mostly Gen Zers) is expected to grow in the run-up to 2025.

Meanwhile, ChatGTP, the AI chatbot that everyone is talking about, will continue its ascendence. In its own words, GhatGTP ‘uses natural language processing and machine learning to generate human-like responses to user input. It can be used in customer service, social media, email marketing, website copywriting, and other applications.  

Welcome to the writing machine

Marcel Baur, performance specialist:

Similar to Fabio’s prediction for the rise of the AI text generator ChatGTP, I predict that AI will be used more widely to speed up the task of writing content and blog posts, social media posts and product descriptions, and even to describe your tone of voice.

Commercial solutions currently include Jasper.ai and Copymatic and I think their ranks will grow and the technology will develop rapidly in the coming year. As Jasper.ai tells us, in a “witty, friendly” tone of voice,

‘With the ever-evolving landscape of content marketing, it looks like artificial intelligence (AI) technology, specifically neural network language models, will be the next big game changer.  From personalized content to customized customer outreach strategies, AI is set to become a must-have tool for every marketer. Marketers can take advantage of these models to better understand their customers’ preferences, use targeted content for greater brand visibility and reach out with content that resonates with consumers on an individual basis.’

UGC’s time will come

Laura Contreras, strategy & performance specialist:

I predict that 2023 will be the year that UGC (user-generated content) reaches its full potential. 

There is already plenty of evidence to suggest that user-generated content such as online reviews and social media posts promotes engagement and conversion.

The majority of consumers (82%) claim that user-generated reviews are extremely valuable. Roughly 70% of all consumers base their purchasing decision on the reviews and ratings from other users. And online ads get four times more users to click on them when they display UGC. 

So it makes sense that in the coming year more brands will follow the example of Coca-Coca, Adobe and Red Bull – the masters of UGC marketing – and go all out to make the most of UGC. 

Social commerce will go mainstream

Irene Iturbide, email marketing specialist:

Social commerce has been on the trend watcher’s radar for some time but failed to be the big deal it was expected to become. This year, however, I predict it will finally hit the mainstream. 

The reason for this is that savvy brands will begin to bridge the ‘trust gap’. Consumers have so far been reticent in shopping on social media because they worry about the quality of the products they buy and whether they’ll be protected or refunded. 

Brands who address these trust issues by offering easy refunds, communicating with the customer etc., stand to reap the rewards. According to Insider Intelligence, annual spend will increase by $419 per buyer over the next three years, reaching $937 in 2025.

The dying days of social media

Lucas Onofre, managing partner:

It might seem unthinkable now, but one possible trend in the next year and beyond is that social media will see a slow decline.

Could the problems that have recently beset the likes of Facebook and Twitter be early symptoms of this decline? Will people start to downscale their social media use?

Perhaps people will begin to enjoy a more balanced and healthier use of the platforms. Social media businesses themselves, in an attempt to stem the tide of criticism, might even begin to enforce limits on use. The majority of users and brands prefer to be in safer and more stable environments.

Illustration: Midjourney AI