The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) is positioning workforce development as a central issue in marketing’s artificial intelligence transition, with its 2026 Global Day of Learning focused on how AI is changing the skills, roles and organizational structures marketers need.

Scheduled for September 17, the virtual event will run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern time under the theme “The Future of Marketing Work.” The program is being organized through the ANA Global CMO Growth Council and will combine master classes, workshops and discussions covering AI agents, synthetic audiences, cross-media measurement, creator marketing and organizational change.

The event comes as AI fluency increasingly moves from an emerging capability toward a baseline requirement for marketing teams. The American Marketing Association’s 2026 career research found that the share of marketing job postings mentioning AI doubled in 2025. Its research also identifies AI as the leading skill marketers expect to need over the next five years.

Why Marketing Skills Are Becoming a Technology Issue

The ANA’s “Push Pause and Power Up” concept reflects a broader shift in how enterprises are approaching generative and agentic AI. Rather than treating AI solely as another software layer, marketing organizations are increasingly assessing how workflows, decision-making and human responsibilities should change.

That distinction matters as automation expands into content production, campaign analysis, research and customer engagement. The resulting skills gap is not limited to knowing how to operate an AI tool. Marketers increasingly need to evaluate outputs, define business problems, manage data and maintain judgment over brand, customer and commercial decisions.

The ANA says more than 20,000 marketing professionals and students from more than 100 countries have participated in its Global Day of Learning during the past three years.

What the 2026 Program Signals

The speaker lineup spans major advertisers and technology-oriented marketing organizations. Sessions include cross-media measurement with General Motors’ Shenan Reed, AI and B2B brand growth with SAS CMO Jennifer Chase, creator marketing with eos Products President Soyoung Kang, and future-focused marketing strategy from former Mastercard executive Raja Rajamannar.

A particularly technology-oriented component will provide practical instruction on building custom GPTs and AI agents using platforms including ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot and Gemini. Other sessions address synthetic audiences and changing approaches to measurement as media consumption becomes increasingly fragmented.

The timing is notable. The ANA has also scheduled separate AI and technology, measurement and analytics conferences later in September, suggesting that AI adoption, measurement and workforce capability are becoming interconnected priorities rather than isolated MarTech disciplines.

Market Landscape

Marketing technology vendors are competing increasingly around automation, intelligence and workflow integration, but technology adoption alone does not guarantee organizational readiness. Enterprises must determine which processes should be automated, where human oversight remains essential and how AI-generated decisions can be evaluated.

The workforce dimension could therefore become a competitive differentiator. AMA research indicates that adaptability, critical thinking, collaboration and communication remain difficult for AI to replicate, while execution-oriented marketing roles face greater pressure from automation.

Strategic Outlook

The ANA initiative points toward a marketing operating model in which AI literacy becomes part of core professional development. For CMOs, the challenge will increasingly be less about adding AI tools and more about redesigning workflows, governance and talent around them.

As AI agents move from experimentation into operational marketing environments, organizations that combine technical fluency with human judgment may be better positioned to capture productivity gains without weakening brand, customer or measurement accountability.

Top Insights

• AI fluency is increasingly becoming a baseline marketing capability.
• Workforce development is emerging alongside technology investment as an AI priority.
• Measurement remains critical as media and audience environments fragment.
• AI agents and custom GPTs are moving into practical marketing training.
• Human judgment, critical thinking and collaboration remain important complements to automation.

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