One topic has been omnipresent in media headlines, boardroom talks, and even casual conversations: Artificial Intelligence (AI).
This is largely due to the rise of AI giants like OpenAI and Anthropic that have not only demonstrated impressive capabilities but also fueled public imagination with both promises of a brighter AI-driven future and anxieties about potential risks.
This increased visibility and perceived potential lead to the question: How much of this hype translates into real adoption within companies? And how exactly is this technology shaping marketing teams?
In this article, I will dive into the state of AI adoption in Denmark, comparing its progress with other countries and identifying the sectors leading the way. Then, I will take a closer look at how Danish marketing teams are using AI through data-driven insights, expert opinions and examples. Finally, I will examine what the future holds for AI in the marketing industry in Denmark.
1. Global landscape of AI adoption and readiness
AI readiness and adoption look different around the world, with various ways to measure how countries are progressing. One notable resource I came across during my research is Tortoise Media’s Global AI Index. This index is the first of its kind, ranking 83 countries based on their performance in AI implementation, innovation, and investment.
The findings make one thing clear: the United States and China are leading the charge in all three pillars, being the countries with the highest levels of investment, the greatest advancements in AI development, and the most widespread adoption. The next eight countries rank closer to each other but score significantly lower than the leading two.
The 73 remaining nations analyzed in Tortoise Media’s AI Index still have significant progress to make. Denmark scored 15.92 points in the Index, being the 22nd country from the top.
Overall, Denmark is a balanced performer in AI, with strengths in policy, talent, and research, but there’s space to accelerate AI development and adoption through stronger commercial efforts and infrastructure investments.
In summary, AI adoption is expanding globally, but progress varies by region.
In Asia, Singapore leads the charge in government AI readiness. In the Pacific region, Australia leads the AI readiness for government and business, while New Zealand is catching up quickly.
In the MENA region, the UAE is leading strong AI implementation, while progress is slower in Sub-Saharan Africa, where Mauritius is ahead.
Latin America and the Caribbean are seeing fast growth, with Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay taking the lead.
In Europe, large enterprises are widely adopting AI. The Nordic countries, especially Denmark, are excelling in readiness.
Despite these advancements, gaps remain across regions and industries.
2. Key European sectors leading the AI adoption
Delving deeper into European AI adoption reveals that certain sectors are embracing the technology faster than others. The information and communication sector, along with professional, scientific, and technical services, lead the way.
While no single AI technology dominates adoption across all enterprises within these sectors, enterprise size reveals a different pattern, especially among large European companies, according to Eurostat.
21.44% of large enterprises use AI technologies for written language analysis (text mining), making it the most widely adopted.
20.58% have implemented machine learning for data analysis.
20.40% are using AI to automate workflows or support decision-making.
These trends suggest that AI is having a particularly strong impact on marketing, communication, and data-driven functions within larger tech companies.
3. The use of AI by Danish marketing teams
As discussed in the previous chapter, Denmark’s leading position in EU AI adoption, particularly within large enterprises.
In this section, we delve into how Danish marketing teams are using AI, through the findings from the ‘AI in Marketing 2024‘ report, a collaboration between Brand Movers and EGN, alongside insights derived from interviews with professionals actively implementing AI-driven strategies.
3.1. Current use of AI in Danish marketing teams
The AI in Marketing 2024 report, based on 160 survey responses, highlights a clear trend: AI is becoming integral to Danish marketing, particularly in B2B.
A strong 76% of respondents work in B2B companies, underlining AI’s strategic role in this space, while 19% represent B2C, signalling rising interest in consumer-facing applications. The remaining 5% work with nonprofits.
As Alexander Højfeldt Lund, Partner and Head of Writing at Brand Movers, notes:
“All companies surveyed have a Danish presence, from local businesses to global enterprises headquartered in Denmark,” offering a broad view of AI’s role across the national marketing landscape.”
Remarkably, the adoption rate of Artificial Intelligence appears relatively uniform across organizations of varying sizes, with approximately 80% to 85% of teams reporting its utilization irrespective of their total headcount.
This consistent uptake suggests a significant democratization of AI tools, indicating broad accessibility and a lowering of barriers to entry for companies regardless of their scale.
3.2. Who’s using AI and how?
85% of marketing professionals surveyed are actively using AI. Among them, 60% are senior roles like marketing leads and managers, confirming that AI is not just an operational tool but part of the strategic toolkit.
Nathalie Bassanesi, Senior Content Manager at Signum Life Science, uses AI like a creative partner:
“I don’t use it to write the content, but for brainstorming and repurposing. If I’m stuck, I ask for 15 subject line options. Or I give it a newsletter and ask it to turn it into three social posts.
Nathalie also leverages AI for critical review:
“I’ll ask it to play devil’s advocate — critique a landing page or suggest a less salesy CTA. It’s great for unlocking creative blocks.”
Simone Engbo Hansen, Global Content Lead at Precis, confirmed similar patterns:
“AI is part of everything: brainstorming, briefing, writing, repurposing. It helps us move faster and frees time for the strategic and creative heavy lifting.”
3.3 Most popular tools and technologies
ChatGPT is the clear frontrunner, with 95% adoption. It dominates over tools like Gemini (9%), DALL-E (for image generation), and newer entrants like Microsoft Copilot and SEO.ai.
Source: AI in Marketing 2024 report
Simone’s team shows how deeply integrated ChatGPT is:
“We use it for everything from drafting newsletters and reframing copy to summarizing transcripts. We’ve also built Custom GPTs tailored to different tones and formats.”
Tools such as Riverside (for video cleanup), Claude, and Perplexity constitute more specialized toolkits. For instance, Simone utilizes Riverside to refine video recordings, while Nathalie employs Claude and Perplexity for her research needs.
3.4 The biggest potential reward of using AI marketing: Efficiency
The report indicates that 94% of marketers view efficiency as a primary benefit. Furthermore, 72% find AI valuable for idea generation, and 46% have experienced an increase in content quantity.
Nathalie Bassanesi finds AI enhances thoroughness:
“So it helps me be more thorough,” allowing her to consider diverse perspectives. To illustrate, she uses it to ask, “What am I missing? or “What would a PHD in pharmacology say about this?”
This helps her consider viewpoints beyond her marketing focus. She also notes AI’s productivity-boosting and companion-like qualities.
In contrast, Simone emphasizes AI’s impact on speed and scale for her team:
“It helps us move faster and frees up time for work that requires strategy or creative thinking.”
She adds its value for smaller teams and junior members, providing a “great starting point or reframing perspective.”
Source: AI in Marketing 2024 report
4. Barriers to AI adoption
Danish marketers are increasingly embracing AI, yet significant difficulties remain. This section explores why, despite its potential, AI adoption presents challenges: from expertise gaps and ethical concerns to budget realities and the perceived loss of human touch. We’ll explore how these factors are shaping the current landscape of AI adoption in Danish marketing teams.
4.1 The biggest challenges to using AI in marketing: data privacy & the lack of human touch
Despite AI’s efficiency and idea generation benefits, concerns remain about its ability to replace human skills.
Simone highlights maintaining quality and brand voice as a key challenge:
“It’s easy to spot AI-generated fluff. We all know what that looks like, and that’s something we actively avoid. There’s a big risk of everything sounding the same because AI outputs can be flat, repetitive, or off-brand unless you know exactly how to prompt and edit”.
The report confirms this, with 56% citing ‘lack of human touch’ as a major barrier, together with data privacy concerns, with the same percentage (56%). Additionally, 44% point to a ‘lack of talent and expertise’.
Nathalie Bassanesi notes that AI is often seen as just a productivity tool, leading to a lack of focus and time for employees to learn how to use it effectively. She states:
“It is a challenge to find the time to get educated on new tools. The first step is to carve out the time to learn a new skill.”
4.2 The beginner level of AI expertise in the Danish marketing teams
Despite AI’s growing presence in marketing, a significant expertise gap persists. 69% of marketing departments report beginner-level AI proficiency, indicating adoption hasn’t equated to expertise. Only 28% place their competency at an ‘intermediate level’. Only 3% of the respondents would categorise themselves as ‘experts.
The data indicates a clear link between training and self-assessed AI skill level. Specifically, those at an ‘intermediate’ level showed greater engagement in structured training (14% of intermediate vs. 6% of beginners), online training (33% of intermediate vs. 23% of beginners), and ad hoc training (58% of intermediate vs. 48% of beginners) compared to ‘beginners’, highlighting that training correlates with improved AI proficiency.
5. Predictions from Danish thought leaders on AI’s future role in marketing
Surprisingly, AI is creating new jobs: The ‘AI in Marketing 2024’ report shows that 17% of respondents expect their staff numbers to increase in the next 24 months due to AI.
However, despite this increase in the number of hired staff, 83% of the marketers predict that the marketing budgets will remain unchanged over the next 12-24 months.
Therefore, in this chapter, I’ll share insights from interviews with Danish thought leaders. We’ll explore the essential skills and competencies marketers need to thrive in the age of AI, and address the important question of whether AI will replace human roles.
5.1 What key skills do marketers need in the age of AI?
In the age of AI, the essential marketing skills blend technological proficiency with enduring human capabilities. Danish thought leaders offer valuable perspectives on this evolving landscape.
Nathalie from the pharmaceutical sector emphasizes that while AI is a consideration, the immediate need is “modernizing pharma marketing” to current standards. This suggests a foundational requirement for marketers to possess up-to-date strategic thinking and adaptability, irrespective of AI’s emergence.
Simone, from a digital marketing agency, emphasizes that even with AI’s capabilities, human skills remain crucial, constituting the final, critical 40%. These essential human skills include “prompting and editorial judgment” to guide AI, alongside the structural thinking required to work effectively with these tools.
Furthermore, Simone stresses the importance of curiosity, encouraging marketers to “learn to use these tools not just to execute tasks, but to think differently,” unlocking their full potential.
Building on this, Andreas Obel, VP Marketing of Neurons, an AI-powered consumer neuroscience company, identifies a fundamental marketing skill that transcends technological advancements: “the ability to see opportunities where others can’t yet”.
He believes that great marketing, at its core, is about making an offer “so timely, so valuable, and so easy to understand that it feels obvious to say yes.” Achieving this requires key human-centric abilities:
“Knowing how to talk to people like a human, not like a brand, understanding why people hesitate and removing that friction, and learning how to explain value without over explaining”.
Ultimately, Andreas concludes that “at the end of the day, it’s about being clear. That’s what makes people buy”, suggesting that the most vital skills are those that enable a marketer to achieve this clarity and resonance with their audience.
5.2 Is AI taking over marketing jobs?
The impact of AI on marketing roles continues to spark debate. According to the report AI in Marketing 2024, AI adoption could lead to an increase in staffing needs. But what does this mean for marketers, especially in Denmark? Insights from local experts paint a nuanced picture that balances AI’s transformative potential with the uncertainty of its implications.
Simone predicts a growing divide in how AI is used with larger corporations likely focusing on efficiency gains like streamlining creative workflows, while smaller brands might lean towards full campaign management via AI.
Her central point is that the real differentiator won’t be who uses AI—it’ll be how they use it stressing the need for creative and impactful AI applications.
Nathalie presents a more cautious view, especially for content creation roles, expressing less optimism about job security. She highlights AI’s unexpectedly swift impact on writers and developers:
“It’s not AI itself that will take your job. It’s someone who knows how to use AI.”
Reflecting on rapid AI advancements, she sees a “50-50 chance” for the long-term security of content marketing roles.
Andreas offers a more assertive prediction: “AI is going to wipe out average marketers who refuse to change their ways of working” particularly in a methodical and risk-averse market like Denmark.
He foresees a widening gap between AI adopters and non-adopters, leading to “slow and inefficient teams being replaced by teams who use AI to get better, faster, and cheaper, not the ones who try to compete against it.”
His concluding thought is clear:
“AI won’t replace marketers. But marketers who use AI will replace marketers who don’t.”
Conclusion
The analysis shows that AI is starting to be used by marketing teams in Denmark, but it’s still in the early stages. There’s a general understanding that AI can make things much more efficient.
However, several factors are slowing down how quickly it’s being adopted. These include worries about keeping data private, the concern that using AI will make marketing less personal, and the fact that many marketing teams don’t have a lot of AI expertise yet. It’s also important to note that marketing budgets haven’t really increased as AI is introduced, meaning companies are finding money for AI within their existing budgets.
Looking ahead, Danish thought leaders predict that the marketing profession will likely divide into two groups. On one side, there will be marketers who actively embrace AI and incorporate it into their work. On the other, there will be those who stick with more traditional marketing methods.
The prevailing view is that AI will primarily assist marketers, rather than replace them entirely. Marketers who are skilled at using AI tools to improve their work are expected to be more successful and may eventually replace those who don’t adapt.
Therefore, the key skills for marketing professionals in Denmark will evolve. They will need technical skills to use AI platforms effectively. They will also need to be adaptable and committed to continuous learning, as AI technology continues to develop. Crucially, they must be able to combine human creativity and judgment with the insights that AI provides.
In conclusion, AI’s integration into Danish marketing teams presents both opportunities and challenges. AI offers significant potential to make marketing more efficient and effective. However, to realize this potential, the industry needs to overcome obstacles to AI adoption and build greater AI expertise.
Ultimately, the future success of marketing in Denmark will depend on how willingly and effectively marketing professionals adopt AI and dedicate themselves to ongoing learning and adaptation.
