Headlines warn that AI is set to automate millions of jobs, potentially displacing entire segments of the workforce. They’re right.

According to a report by Goldman Sachs, AI could affect 300 million jobs globally, with up to 25% of tasks in the U.S. and Europe being automated.

Yet history tells us a more nuanced story — while technology displaces jobs, it also creates new roles, industries, and opportunities. For example, the internet era not only phased out certain jobs (e.g. encyclopedia salespeople, video rental store employees) but also gave rise to entirely new professions like social media management, cloud software development, and ecommerce.

Similarly, generative AI will displace roles but also unlock the potential for innovation and creativity. New professions will emerge, some of which we can’t yet fully imagine. Many of these positions will be higher-paying and more fulfilling than their predecessors, requiring humans to collaborate with AI in exciting ways.

Here is a not-at-all exhaustive list of new roles I predict will flourish in the not-so-distant generative AI email marketing era.

Five New Roles That Will Be Born in the Generative AI Email Era

As AI continues to transform the way businesses communicate with their audiences, email marketing teams will need to adapt. With more automation, smarter segmentation, and hyper-personalization, new roles will emerge to manage, optimize, and innovate within this space. These positions will blend traditional marketing skills with cutting-edge AI capabilities, creating opportunities for marketers to level up their skills (and their bank accounts).

1. AI Content & Model Manager

In a world where AI models are creating most of the content, it begs the question — who is managing the models? That’s where the AI Content & Model Manager comes in.

This person will be tech-savvy but won’t require complex training in data science. Their primary responsibility will be to curate and update content to feed into the model for training purposes, and to monitor the output and make adjustments.

The AI Content & Model Manager will watch for things like brand consistency, model bias, hallucinations, and ethical considerations. They will collaborate with other strategists and technology personnel on goals, updates, and limitations in order to ensure the core lifecycle models are producing content as they should.

Think of it sort of like a television producer whose job is to make sure the content that reaches the audience looks great and tells the best possible story.

Role Overview: Focused on selecting, editing, and assembling AI-generated email content to ensure it aligns with brand standards and resonates with target audiences. This role is responsible for reviewing AI-suggested content, combining pieces where necessary, and making judgment calls on what fits the campaign goals.

Responsibilities:

• Vet AI-generated content for relevance, accuracy, and appeal.
• Maintain brand tone and consistency across all content.
• Customize AI-generated text with a human touch for specific audiences.

2. Machine Learning Marketing Analyst

The Machine Learning Marketing Analyst is a role that will require some technical chops. Their job is to be the hub that sits between an AI-enabled marketing team and the technical teams who manage things like data science, model building, LLM APIs, etc.

This person will need an equally solid understanding of relevant machine learning principles, email marketing, and business strategy & goals.

This role will be comparable to a product manager in that they need to understand technology and the needs of the business to help tweak internal and external AI tools to the needs of the email marketing team.

Role Overview: Bridges the gap between AI technical teams and marketing, ensuring that machine learning algorithms used in email campaigns are optimized for performance and relevance. This role involves understanding AI mechanics and applying them to marketing strategy, personalization, and audience segmentation.

Responsibilities:

• Work with data scientists to refine machine learning models for email.
• Analyze AI-driven audience insights to improve segmentation and targeting.
• Translate marketing goals into machine learning requirements.

3. Lifecycle Prompt Engineer

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve heard of prompt engineering. But just in case… Prompt engineering is the art and science of crafting precise, creative, and effective instructions (or prompts) to guide AI systems in generating desired outputs. This is a critical skill for leveraging AI of any sort, and it will play a major role on email marketing teams of the future.

Prompt engineering is important not only in getting models to generate great content, but also in getting different tools (AI and otherwise) to communicate with one another.

For that reason, Lifecycle Prompt Engineers will need to blend classic marketing skills with marketing operations skills. They need to understand the full tech stack and create, monitor, and manage many different prompts.

Lifecycle teams who get prompting right will be able to deliver unbelievably coordinated campaigns across channels that are uniquely personalized to the audience.

Role Overview: Develops, tests, and refines the prompts used to generate email content from AI and non-AI tools. This role is vital as prompts become the primary tool for instructing AI, requiring creativity and strategic thinking to optimize outputs.

Responsibilities:

• Design prompts that guide AI tools to generate relevant email content.
• Experiment with prompt variations to achieve the best responses.
• Collaborate with content and marketing teams to align AI outputs with campaign objectives.

4. AI Experience Designer

Ok, ok, so I probably could have just called this “Designer”. But come on, we’re having some fun.

I think we are a ways from AI being able to produce unique, creative, and on-brand images with little human intervention. However, even today’s technology can help 10x a designer’s productivity.

One thing that will almost certainly be true as AI becomes more and more ubiquitous in email marketing is that we’ll see many more variations of emails. And while the copy piece is quite easily solved with generative technology, there will be greater pressure on designers to produce creative assets.

The great ones will get good at image prompt engineering (see above section) and learn how to fully take advantage of AI features within top design tools.

One other thing — it will be important for AI Experience Designers to understand AI compatibility within email, SMS, and push. For example, what are the opportunities and limitations within certain email templates? They will need to collaborate with Machine Learning Marketing Analysts, Lifecycle Prompt Engineers, Model Managers, etc., to make sure designs and design technology are compatible with the new stack.

Role Overview: Combines creative expertise with technical skills to harness generative design tools for crafting email content and templates. This role focuses on leveraging AI-driven solutions to create compelling email designs, edit templates, and optimize layouts for engagement and performance.

Responsibilities:

• Use generative design tools to create engaging and visually appealing email content and layouts.
• Develop and edit AI-generated email templates to align with brand standards and campaign objectives.
• Implement coding adjustments to ensure email templates are functional and responsive across devices.

5. Generative Campaign Strategist

Lastly, we have the Generative Campaign Strategist. This is a creative marketing role responsible for campaign ideation, customer journeys, and storytelling.

Where this varies from existing campaign roles is that AI-enabled email teams will create tens, hundreds, maybe thousands more campaign variations than today’s standard email team. Pieces of these campaigns will be created manually, and other elements will be carried out using AI tools.

The Campaign Strategist will need to have a keen eye toward personalization, customer journeys, and the path to purchase.

Then they will need to construct campaigns that are AI-compatible, flexible (able to be tailored to different audiences), and on brand.

I envision many creative email marketers navigating towards roles like this where there is a heavy emphasis on human creativity and innovation.

Role Overview: Focuses on designing and implementing email marketing campaigns that fully leverage generative AI capabilities. This strategist uses AI insights to identify new opportunities for audience engagement and ensures that campaigns are efficiently optimized for performance.

Responsibilities:

• Ideate, plan and execute AI compatible email campaigns.
• Identify target segments for personalized messaging.
• Manage marketing and technical stakeholders to ensure on-time campaign delivery and success.

Conclusion

AI is transforming the job landscape, particularly in email marketing, by automating repetitive tasks and opening doors to creative, high-impact roles. While the fear of job displacement is real, these emerging positions show that humans and AI can collaborate to produce incredible results. As the industry evolves, marketers who adapt to these changes will not only remain relevant but thrive in exciting new ways. The future of work isn’t about replacing people — it’s about empowering them to achieve more.

Photo by Johannes Plenio on Unsplash