title: "AI in Marketing: Applications and EU AI Act 2026 | Hayas" description: "How AI is applied in digital marketing: content, SEO, advertising, CRM and automation — plus the transparency duties already in force under the EU AI Act in 2026." canonical: "https://www.hayasmarketing.com/en/blog/artificial-intelligence-marketing-applications" published_at: "2024-12-15"


Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Its Applications in Marketing

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Hayas Marketing

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An Introduction to Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (AI) refers to the ability of machines to simulate human functions such as perception, reasoning, learning and problem solving. This technology allows systems not only to follow predefined instructions, but to learn autonomously, adapting and improving over time. At Hayas Marketing we treat AI as a pillar of innovation in digital marketing, because it enables data-driven decisions and the intelligent automation companies need to scale their strategies efficiently.

One of the pioneers in the field, John McCarthy, together with Marvin Minsky, founders of the MIT AI Laboratory, described AI as a revolutionary advance that would let machines solve complex problems once exclusive to humans. Today that vision is a tangible reality we apply at Hayas Marketing to drive business growth and optimise every customer interaction.

In short, AI covers the technologies that allow machines to learn autonomously, transforming not only the technology landscape but also the way companies relate to their customers and make strategic decisions.

Everyday Applications of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence is already part of our daily lives, and its impact on business keeps growing. In our day to day we find AI applications in many areas, for example:

🗺️ Maps and navigation

Google Maps and Apple Maps use AI to calculate efficient routes in real time, optimising mobility.

Virtual assistants

Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant and Cortana use AI to understand voice commands and perform tasks.

📱 Social media

TikTok, Instagram, X and Facebook personalise content based on digital behaviour.

Recommendations

Netflix, Spotify and Amazon analyse habits to suggest personalised content.

What Generative AI Can Do

Generative artificial intelligence has evolved remarkably, not only replicating but often surpassing capabilities we traditionally considered exclusively human. With generative AI, machines can now create new content, adapt to changing situations and solve complex problems autonomously.

🔍 Perception and Recognition

Human beings are exceptionally good at perceiving the world around us. Yet our capacity is limited by cognitive fatigue. AI can process large volumes of sensory data in real time, overcoming those human limits.

Examples: Apple Face ID, Siri voice recognition, airport security systems.

Learning and Memory

Humans learn from experience and store memories, but our memory capacity is finite. AI has no such limits and can recall and apply information without cognitive wear.

📊 Interesting fact:

A Cambridge and Microsoft study (2015) found that with just 70 Facebook "likes", an algorithm can know your personality better than a close friend.

⚖️ Reasoning and Decision Making

While humans use logic, intuition and experience (influenced by emotional biases), AI makes decisions based exclusively on data, unconstrained by emotion or fatigue.

Application: the financial sector, for risk analysis and credit decisions.

The Big Players in Generative AI

Artificial intelligence in content generation

AI has completely reshaped how content is processed, organised and published, bringing machine capability closer to human creativity. Today, AI systems can generate content quickly and effectively, adapted to different formats and audiences, improving relevance and personalisation.

An emblematic example of this shift was the launch of ChatGPT by OpenAI, a milestone in content generation. This language model, released in November 2022, has become an essential tool for companies and creators, generating text, analysing data, drafting emails and even writing code. In March 2023, with GPT-4, it consolidated as a versatile resource across industries.

The big tech battle in generative AI: ChatGPT, Google Gemini and Microsoft Copilot

With the AI boom, the leading technology companies are competing fiercely to lead generative AI. Through tools such as OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google Gemini and Microsoft Copilot, they are popularising this technology to help us improve productivity and efficiency.

The ChatGPT phenomenon and its impact

When ChatGPT launched on 30 November 2022, OpenAI not only surprised the industry, it broke technology adoption records. In just two months the tool reached 100 million users, becoming the fastest-growing platform in tech history. That underlines the demand and interest in using AI for content generation.

As of October 2024, almost two years after launch, ChatGPT had around 200 million weekly active users, with over 1.5 million subscribed to ChatGPT Plus, the paid version of OpenAI's platform.

Google Gemini: a leap in multimodal intelligence

Gemini, launched in December 2023, is a natively multimodal model able to process and understand text, images, audio and video simultaneously. That makes it an advanced solution for companies needing flexibility in complex tasks such as content generation and advanced data analysis.

Gemini is fully integrated into Google Workspace apps such as Docs, Sheets and Gmail, boosting productivity. Beyond content creation, it excels at analysing large data volumes and generating advanced code, making it ideal for tech companies that want to automate tasks and improve process efficiency.

Microsoft Copilot: solid and deeply integrated

Microsoft Copilot has kept evolving since its initial launch on 16 March 2023 as a tool integrated into the Microsoft 365 suite, improving continuously with GPT-4 Turbo and new features such as AI image generation with DALL·E 3.

Microsoft's strength lies in its deep integration within the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, which eases AI adoption for companies already relying on Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Copilot is designed to improve business task automation, document management and real-time data analysis.

Both giants keep innovating fast, promising to take business productivity to new heights in the coming years.

Other generative AI tools in digital marketing

Many other companies apply generative AI to digital marketing to simplify and optimise content creation. These solutions help businesses save time, produce quality copy and improve their digital presence. Some of the best known:

QuillBot

Grammarly

Hemingway

Tweet Hunter

Articoolo

Concured

Phrasee

Lumen5

Doofinder

Copy.ai

Writesonic

Rytr

Copysmith

Wordsmith

Writecream

The Impact of AI on Digital Marketing

The capabilities of artificial intelligence have deeply transformed digital marketing, improving efficiency and effectiveness across key areas such as marketing, sales and customer service.

Marketing

Predictive analytics

Precise audience segmentation for personalised campaigns.

Real-time personalisation

Content adapted to each user's behaviour.

UX optimisation

Dynamic improvement of web design and usability.

💰 Sales

Automation

Automatic campaign management and lead scoring.

Sentiment analysis

Real-time social listening to adjust strategy.

Conversion

Identifying the prospects most likely to convert.

Customer service

Intelligent chatbots

Automated 24/7 assistance with accurate answers.

Personalisation

Communication tailored to each customer.

Efficiency

Fast resolution of common queries.

AI Applied to SEO

Artificial intelligence is reshaping SEO, from keyword research to content optimisation and user experience.

🔍 Keyword research

AI automates keyword analysis and identifies ranking opportunities.

Semrush

Ahrefs

SurferSEO

Frase.io

📝 Content optimisation

Tools that analyse and improve content for better rankings.

Jasper AI

MarketMuse

Clearscope

ContentKing

Voice search

Adapting content for conversational queries.

ChatGPT

Yext

Frase.io

AI in Digital Advertising

Artificial intelligence is driving a significant transformation in digital advertising, enabling more efficient, personalised and optimised campaigns.

⚙️ Campaign automation

Advanced targeting

Creative production

📊 Predictive analytics

The Impact of AI on Today's CRMs

AI is transforming how companies manage customer relationships. The main trends include:

🤖 Intelligent automation

Today's CRMs use AI to automate tedious tasks, from ticketing to lead segmentation and qualification, cutting costs and improving customer service.

📊 Real-time data and insights

AI-powered analytics offer a better understanding of customer behaviour, leading to more effective marketing and sales strategies.

🎯 Personalisation and self-service

AI-supported omnichannel experiences give users personalised answers and recommendations in real time through chatbots, virtual assistants or messaging apps.

🌐 Omnichannel and connected devices

Modern CRMs integrate web, social, mobile and other channels to deliver a unified experience regardless of the device or touchpoint.

🔗 Integration of new technologies

Voice-based tools, conversational AI and social platforms are integrated into CRMs to personalise the experience and adapt to specific needs.

🔮 Predictive analytics

AI anticipates behaviours and needs, enabling proactive action and improving customer satisfaction.

Notable examples in the market

Breeze (HubSpot)

Introduced at INBOUND 2024, HubSpot Breeze replaces Insights and combines several apps: Copilot, Agents and Breeze Intelligence. The suite automatically enriches contact records from a base of over 200 million profiles, identifies which companies visit your site and shortens forms using AI.

Einstein Copilot (Salesforce)

Available since April 2024, Einstein Copilot is a generative assistant embedded across all Salesforce applications. It answers questions based on company data, drafts personalised emails, builds reports and suggests next actions for sales and service.

C3 AI CRM

Launched in 2020 by C3.ai, Microsoft and Adobe, it is presented as the first AI-native enterprise CRM. It integrates structured and unstructured data across the supply chain to predict revenue, demand and churn risk, and to suggest the "next best offer".

AI in Go High Level: the AI Employee

Go High Level has bet on an all-in-one approach with its AI Employee, a set of six AI components automating everything from call handling to sales funnel creation.

The Future of AI

Advanced automation

AI is moving towards automating not only repetitive tasks but creative ones too, generating personalised content in real time.

Multimodal generative AI

Models such as GPT-4 and DALL·E lead the automatic creation of text, images and — increasingly — interactive video.

Extreme personalisation

AI will enable even more precise personalisation, using large data volumes to deliver specific recommendations.

AI Ethics and Regulation: What Is Already in Force in 2026

The evolution of AI pushes us to reflect and collaborate so we can preserve our ethical principles and build laws that regulate a connected society without damaging democracy. But be careful: regulation is no longer a future debate. Since 2 August 2026 the EU AI Act is in force and in its effective application phase. If your company uses AI to generate content, you already have concrete obligations.

🇪🇺 The AI Act: the world's first comprehensive AI law, already applying

Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, known as the AI Act, classifies AI systems by risk level. It applies in stages, and the dates are worth getting right because they changed in July 2026 with the amendment known as the Digital Omnibus (much of the content published before that date is now outdated):

Fines for breaching transparency obligations reach EUR 15 million or 3% of annual worldwide turnover; prohibited practices reach EUR 35 million or 7%.

🌎 Who is covered? Not only European companies

The AI Act applies wherever the output of the AI system is used in the European Union, regardless of where the provider or deployer is established. In practice:

📋 What it means for your marketing (Art. 50)

Three obligations directly affect anyone using generative AI in marketing:

🏷️ The official EU icons for AI content

In June 2026 the European Commission published a set of official icons to label AI-generated or AI-modified content, with three variants: the basic "AI" mark, "AI Generated" (fully generated) and "AI Modified" (partially modified). Their use is voluntary — the labelling obligation is not — and they work best alongside a text label. They are free to use. The Code of Practice on marking AI-generated content details the technical marking practices.

🇪🇸 Spain: AESIA and the national law on its way

The Spanish Agency for the Supervision of Artificial Intelligence (AESIA), based in A Coruña, is the authority supervising the AI Act in Spain, in coordination with the data protection authority. The European regulation applies directly — no transposition needed — and the Spanish AI bill, in parliamentary process since May 2026, will define the national penalty regime.

✅ Minimum checklist for companies using AI in content

At Hayas Marketing we have built these requirements into our content production workflow and we help our clients meet them across all of their markets.

AI with purpose: it is not about doing more, but doing it better

Artificial intelligence is already here. What matters now is not chasing every new tool, but using AI with intent, strategy and ethics.

At Hayas we do not use AI to generate more noise, but to create more meaning. We design strategies that connect, automate and transform without losing the humanity or the essence of each business.

Technology evolves. What remains is the impact we choose to create with it.

Want to apply AI to your strategy in a real, tailored way?

At Hayas we design AI solutions that do not just sound good — they actually work. From sales automation to predictive dashboards, we are already helping brands work better, sell more and connect more humanly.

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