Marketing
sales and advertising directors
Marketing, sales and advertising directors plan, organise and direct advertising campaigns and market research and formulate and implement an organisation’s marketing, sales and social media policies.
- Employees (UK)
- 216k
- Median annual pay
- £90,000
- Exposure score ?
- 0.3/10 Minimal 9.2/10 Very high strict reading, with tools is 9.2/10 with-tools reading, strict is 0.3/10
- Wage exposure
- £583m £17.88bn
Higher exposure than 16% of the 379 UK occupations we scored.
What this score means.
Most of this role's work is still hard for AI: physical presence, practised skill, judgement in context and direct care, the things that do not turn into text.
If you are in this role
Nothing here is under pressure today, but the frontier moves. Learn enough to direct AI at the paperwork around the job. People in hands-on roles who can do that become unusually useful inside their organisations.
Almost every routine task in this role is within reach of today's models. Roles like this are being rebuilt, usually not by disappearing but by one person using AI to produce what several did.
If you are in this role
Be the person doing the rebuilding. People who learn to run this kind of work with AI become very valuable, and the ones who wait tend to have the change made for them.
Where the work usually starts.
This role's strict reading is low because its top tasks are judgement, not drafting. The three highest-stakes tasks below are still usually where the work starts. Switch to With tools to see what AI plus the right context can take on.
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Identify, develop, or evaluate marketing strategy, based on knowledge of establishment objectives, market characteristics, and cost and markup factors.
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Formulate, direct, or coordinate marketing activities or policies to promote products or services, working with advertising or promotion managers.
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Evaluate the financial aspects of product development, such as budgets, expenditures, research and development appropriations, or return-on-investment and profit-loss projections.
These are the most important tasks AI can already handle when paired with the right tools and context. The first wins usually come from building workflows around them. That is the difference between a model that could do the job and one that actually does it inside your business.
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Identify, develop, or evaluate marketing strategy, based on knowledge of establishment objectives, market characteristics, and cost and markup factors.
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Formulate, direct, or coordinate marketing activities or policies to promote products or services, working with advertising or promotion managers.
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Evaluate the financial aspects of product development, such as budgets, expenditures, research and development appropriations, or return-on-investment and profit-loss projections.
Every role has three or four places like these. Finding them takes an hour. Turning them into a workflow your team actually uses takes a few days.
Every task in the role.
Every O*NET task for this occupation, split by what AI can do unaided and what still needs a person. Importance is O*NET's 1 to 5 rating of how central each task is.
Tasks via O*NET "Marketing Managers" (11-2021.00).
What AI can already do
1 of 20 tasks, unaided
Compile lists describing product or service offerings.
What still needs a person
19 of 20 tasks
Identify, develop, or evaluate marketing strategy, based on knowledge of establishment objectives, market characteristics, and cost and markup factors.
Formulate, direct, or coordinate marketing activities or policies to promote products or services, working with advertising or promotion managers.
Evaluate the financial aspects of product development, such as budgets, expenditures, research and development appropriations, or return-on-investment and profit-loss projections.
Develop pricing strategies, balancing firm objectives and customer satisfaction.
Direct the hiring, training, or performance evaluations of marketing or sales staff and oversee their daily activities.
Consult with product development personnel on product specifications, such as design, color, or packaging.
Use sales forecasting or strategic planning to ensure the sale and profitability of products, lines, or services, analyzing business developments and monitoring market trends.
Negotiate contracts with vendors or distributors to manage product distribution, establishing distribution networks or developing distribution strategies.
Coordinate or participate in promotional activities or trade shows, working with developers, advertisers, or production managers, to market products or services.
Consult with buying personnel to gain advice regarding the types of products or services expected to be in demand.
Consult with buying personnel to gain advice regarding environmentally sound or sustainable products.
Initiate market research studies, or analyze their findings.
Conduct economic or commercial surveys to identify potential markets for products or services.
Confer with legal staff to resolve problems, such as copyright infringement or royalty sharing with outside producers or distributors.
Recommend modifications to products, packaging, production processes, or other characteristics to improve the environmental soundness or sustainability of products.
Advise business or other groups on local, national, or international factors affecting the buying or selling of products or services.
Select products or accessories to be displayed at trade or special production shows.
Develop business cases for environmental marketing strategies.
Integrate environmental information into product or company marketing strategies, policies, or activities.
Tasks via O*NET "Marketing Managers" (11-2021.00).
What AI can already do
19 of 20 tasks, with tools
Identify, develop, or evaluate marketing strategy, based on knowledge of establishment objectives, market characteristics, and cost and markup factors.
Formulate, direct, or coordinate marketing activities or policies to promote products or services, working with advertising or promotion managers.
Evaluate the financial aspects of product development, such as budgets, expenditures, research and development appropriations, or return-on-investment and profit-loss projections.
Develop pricing strategies, balancing firm objectives and customer satisfaction.
Compile lists describing product or service offerings.
Consult with product development personnel on product specifications, such as design, color, or packaging.
Use sales forecasting or strategic planning to ensure the sale and profitability of products, lines, or services, analyzing business developments and monitoring market trends.
Negotiate contracts with vendors or distributors to manage product distribution, establishing distribution networks or developing distribution strategies.
Coordinate or participate in promotional activities or trade shows, working with developers, advertisers, or production managers, to market products or services.
Consult with buying personnel to gain advice regarding the types of products or services expected to be in demand.
Consult with buying personnel to gain advice regarding environmentally sound or sustainable products.
Initiate market research studies, or analyze their findings.
Conduct economic or commercial surveys to identify potential markets for products or services.
Confer with legal staff to resolve problems, such as copyright infringement or royalty sharing with outside producers or distributors.
Recommend modifications to products, packaging, production processes, or other characteristics to improve the environmental soundness or sustainability of products.
Advise business or other groups on local, national, or international factors affecting the buying or selling of products or services.
Select products or accessories to be displayed at trade or special production shows.
Develop business cases for environmental marketing strategies.
Integrate environmental information into product or company marketing strategies, policies, or activities.
What still needs a person
1 of 20 tasks
Direct the hiring, training, or performance evaluations of marketing or sales staff and oversee their daily activities.
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Related occupations.
Other roles in Managers, directors and senior officials, and roles close by exposure.
What it means for your sector.
This role's score comes from Eloundou et al's 2023 task labels, weighted by O*NET importance within each O*NET-SOC code, then bridged to UK SOC 2020 through ISCO-08 (the ONS coding index) and US SOC 2010 (the BLS crosswalk). Employment and median pay come from ONS ASHE Table 14.7a, 2025 provisional, which covers employees only.
Back to the mapMethodologySources (PDF)Built 29 April 2026
Pictures
- "Census pantograph and 1930s keypunches" by U.S. Census Bureau employees, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- "Shepard Barclay, St. Louis lawyer, in his office" by Missouri Historical Society via DPLA, no known copyright restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons
- "Accountant's Office LCCN2016824374" by National Photo Company Collection, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- "Employment service in Oulu in the spring 1931" by Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto), CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons