As artificial intelligence continues to advance at a rapid rate, its influence on developer marketing is expected to become more and more integral, driving new innovations and transforming the ways that marketers engage with a developer audience.

From its ability to automate routine tasks to delivering personalized content, AI-driven strategies are becoming the norm in the world of marketing to developers. 

As part of our State of Developer Marketing 2023/2024 report, we surveyed industry experts to find out how AI is impacting their jobs, what tools they use, and the opportunities and challenges that AI currently presents in developer marketing. 

This article delves into our findings.

How generative AI is changing expectations of developer marketers

To understand just how much AI is impacting the industry, we asked our respondents, “Do you believe generative AI is changing expectations of how developer marketers should be performing?”

72% of developer marketers believe that yes, generative AI is impacting expectations and roles.

There are several reasons why developer marketers are of this opinion:

  • Generative AI has made it easier for marketers to communicate ideas.
  • AI allows for the automation of routine tasks, freeing up time for marketers to focus on the more creative parts of the job and generally be more productive.
  • AI can be used to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of marketing to developers by generating personalized content and analyzing data, allowing marketers to reach a wider audience, build relationships with developers, and drive product adoption.

Despite the fact that AI is changing the way developer marketers do their jobs, 28% of marketers have reservations about how much it’s impacting expectations and roles, their reasons being:

  • Authenticity and human connection are vital parts of the developer experience, which AI struggles to replicate. Empathy, understanding, and genuine interactions are needed to build trust and relationships between marketers and developers.
  • While generative AI can produce content at scale, the accuracy, relevance, and quality can vary, meaning that marketers still need to make significant edits and revisions to meet the expectations of a technically savvy audience.
  • AI isn’t quite advanced enough to have a high impact on the expectations of marketers.
  • AI has changed what professionals market, but not how they market.

How do developer marketers use AI?

According to our report findings, approximately 68% of developer marketers use AI in their jobs.

But how exactly do they use it?

Content and messaging

Just over 41% of developer marketers leverage AI to create content at scale, including blog posts, social media posts, email campaigns, and other marketing collateral. 

Generative AI can also be used to enhance existing content, as it provides suggestions for improvements and identifies areas where copy and messaging can be optimized to better resonate with the developer audience.

Write a first draft

Approximately 23.5% of marketers use AI to produce the first draft of articles, reports, and other marketing materials. 

AI streamlines the content creation process as developer marketers can quickly refine and edit the content rather than having to start from scratch. As a result, they can produce high-quality content at a much faster rate.

Conduct research

17.6% of developer marketers use AI to conduct research into the latest technology trends, competitor activities, and market insights. 

AI has the power to process and analyze vast amounts of data to identify patterns in user behavior. Plus, machine learning algorithms can forecast behaviors and predict future trends, which can help guide marketing strategies and product development in the right direction. 

This vital research helps marketers create more targeted and informed content that truly addresses the interests and needs of a developer community.

Generate code samples

The same percentage of developer marketers who use AI to conduct research also use it to generate code samples. 

AI-powered tools help marketers write code faster and generate snippets and examples they can include in documentation and tutorials. This saves marketers precious time and allows them to make their content more valuable and engaging, enhancing their credibility and increasing trust with developers. 

Brainstorming

Developer marketing pros use AI to generate new ideas or solve their problems and challenges as part of the brainstorming process. 

Marketers can enter queries into generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and Bard. These tools can then gather lots of information from online sources, and use it to generate ideas and potential solutions.

Using AI to brainstorm can ensure your strategies remain innovative and aligned with developer interests.

Quality checks

AI-powered tools can perform quality checks on content to ensure that it meets certain standards of readability and technical accuracy. This saves time for developer marketers and reduces the likelihood of errors, resulting in high-quality content that developers trust.

Image/video generation

Developer marketers are also utilizing generative AI to produce engaging visuals, including images, graphics, and video content. 

Tools such as Midjourney and DALL.E2 generate hyper-realistic images that marketers can use to showcase product features, create eye-catching social media posts, and illustrate complex technical concepts. These tools can create quality visuals at scale, amplifying the effectiveness of marketing campaigns.

Top generative AI tools used by developer marketers

As part of our research, we also wanted to know which particular generative AI tools professionals use as part of their developer marketing strategy. 

Here are their go-to's:

ChatGPT

The most popular choice by far, a whopping 58.9% of developers use ChatGPT in their jobs.

ChatGPT is ideal for creating content in the form of blog posts, emails, social media posts, and tutorials. With its natural language processing (NLP) capabilities, ChatGPT can create personalized content based on developer preferences, behaviors, and demographics, allowing marketers to create targeted content that better resonates with them.

Additionally, ChatGPT can analyze user data, including search queries, online interactions, and purchase history to determine trends in behavior. This can help marketers identify their target audience’s needs, preferences, and pain points, and can inform messaging, content, and product development.

Bard  

The second most popular choice among developer marketers was Bard, with 23.5% of the vote. 

Bard is an AI chatbot owned by Google and functions very similarly to ChatGPT. When you submit prompts, it can help you:

  • Develop and execute content marketing campaigns
  • Track and measure the results of marketing campaigns
  • Analyze data to identify developers’ needs and preferences
  • Focus on more strategic exercises by automating marketing tasks

Copy.ai

17.6% of developers use Copy.ai in their day-to-day jobs. Copy.ai is great for:

  • Crafting search-engine-optimized content using the Blog Post Wizard or SEO Website Copy tool.
  • Generating high-quality marketing copy with over 90 templates and tools.
  • Brainstorming ideas to keep your marketing efforts fresh and relevant.

Writesonic

11.8% of respondents use Writesonic, an AI writing platform that uses NLP to generate accurate and relevant content.

Writesonic has several features, including:

  • The ability to automatically generate content from templates and structured data.
  • A library of templates, making it simple and easy to create content for a variety of topics.
  • A copywriting assistance feature to help developer marketers create more accurate, relevant content.
  • Content analytics to track the performance of content.
  • A rewriting feature for revamping and optimizing existing content.

Perplexity AI

Perplexity AI is another popular tool used by developer marketers. Perplexity AI is a chatbot and intelligent search engine that scours the internet to provide real-time information.

Marketers can use this innovative tool to:

  • Generate fresh, insightful content
  • Ask questions and get accurate answers
  • Research a wide range of topics
  • Get accurate citations and sources

Jasper AI

Just under 6% of participants use Jasper AI as their writing tool of choice. Jasper AI can:

  • Infuse your brand voice into AI-generated content using its Brand Voice features.
  • Generate descriptions to highlight a product’s key features and benefits.
  • Create all kinds of marketing copy and adjust its writing style accordingly, using pre-made templates.

Will AI replace marketing jobs?

While AI presents exciting new opportunities and benefits for marketing teams, there are also a few concerns surrounding it, such as privacy issues, misinformation, and regulatory challenges.

However, one of the biggest fears that people have about AI is: Will AI replace marketing jobs?

With this in mind, we asked our respondents, “Do you believe there’s a chance AI will replace your role or parts of your role in the future?” They were asked to rate the likeliness on a scale of 0-10, where 0 is ‘not likely at all,’ and 10 is ‘extremely likely.’

The average score was 3.5, which indicates that developer marketers don’t believe they’ll be replaced by AI any time soon. They’re likely to have this opinion for several reasons:

  • Successful marketing tactics rely on creativity, originality, and an understanding of human behavior, things that AI can’t replicate.
  • Despite being able to gather and analyze information, AI lacks critical thinking and decision-making abilities. It can come up with ideas and potential solutions, but it can’t process outside factors that may influence a decision.
  • AI is unable to write content with the same genuine emotion that human marketers can, meaning that it can’t connect and build relationships with developers.
  • AI can’t come up with completely original ideas as it relies on information and findings provided by others. Therefore, it can assist marketers with content creation, but it can’t do the whole job for them.
  • As AI begins to take over more routine tasks, the demand for marketers with technical skills in managing AI and machine learning technologies will undoubtedly increase.
  • There’s also the potential for AI to create new roles and opportunities for marketers, who will need to upskill and embrace new technologies in order to adapt.

In summary

It’s clear from our report findings that AI is becoming more and more integrated into the daily lives of developer marketers. A significant majority are already leveraging the technology to improve efficiency, free up more time for creativity, and engage with developers in more personalized and impactful ways. 

But just because AI tools are becoming indispensable doesn’t mean they’re taking over marketers’ jobs. As we look to the future, it’s evident that AI is set to evolve the role of marketers, rather than replace it.

State of Developer Marketing 2023/24 Report

Do you want even more insights about the current developer marketing landscape? Then download your free copy of the State of Developer Marketing 2023/24 Report.

Discover all the latest trends, tips, and tricks in the industry, and a whole load of expert strategies to help you elevate your career.