Marketing and AI: how much has project management changed?

Year 2025: we are experiencing a major turning point for web marketing, due to the now widespread use of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

SEO, as we knew it, no longer exists, and traditional web marketing campaigns must evolve to respond to new digital dynamics, focusing on more integrated and personalised strategies to remain competitive.

Marketing agencies must actively and strategically address the changes brought about by AI, transforming both their operating models and the services they offer to customers.

In this article, we will examine the areas of greatest change, the choices to be made for development, what to abandon at this particular moment in history, and the best tools to do so.

The impact of AI on marketing agencies

For those working in marketing, AI can definitely be an advantage for performing numerous tasks and analyses. Therefore, the correct approach is not to passively endure change, but to embrace itas a competitive advantage.

Let’s take a look at the main areas of AI integration in marketing operations and, more generally, in business processes that enable streamlining of work processes and strategic and creative exploitation of change.

1. Process automation

All companies, each in their own way, are adopting AI to automate repetitive and time-consuming tasks. In the case of marketing agencies, the tasks that can be partially delegated to an AI system are:

• Content creation (copywriting, emails, product descriptions)
• Data analysis and reporting
• Social media management (post scheduling, automated responses)

These activities are carried out using tools such as ChatGPT, Jasper, Copy.ai, various image generators and AI tools provided by social networks.

2. Data-driven marketing and predictive analytics

AI also offers tools that support a better understanding of customer behaviour, including:

• Automated audience segmentation and targeting
• Predictive analytics to anticipate needs or abandonment
• Optimisation of advertising campaigns with machine learning algorithms

To meet these needs, Google Ads and Meta Ads, for example, are integrating AI to suggest creative ideas, targets and budgets in an intelligent way.

3. AI-driven creativity

In this case, we are not talking about processes that are directly and indiscriminately delegated to AI, but rather areas where human creativity can be enhanced.

Human intelligence is not replaced by artificial intelligence, but rather the two work together. This paradigm shift is particularly evident in marketing agencies when carrying out the following activities:

• The generation of creative drafts
• Experimentation with multiple versions of advertisements
• Inspiration for finding new ideas (e.g. assisted brainstorming)

All these operations are carried out when creatives learn to “communicate” with the various AI tools in order to generate creative and original results, reducing time and optimising results.

4. New skills and roles

In the field of professional roles related to web marketing, AI is also changing the skills required. As a result, new professional roles are emerging, or existing ones are changing to cover different tasks, with new skills and specialisations. Roles are consequently becoming more varied.

For example, there is growing demand for professionals such as:

• prompt designer
• specialists in data & analytics
• AI strategists
• “workflow designers” who define how AI and people can collaborate.

5. Changes in business models

Finally, given that things change for everyone, not just marketing agencies, this shift in the sector may be an opportunity to rethink and adapt commercial offerings in order to:

• Integrate consulting on AI and automation for other companies that want to deepen their knowledge of the sector
• Offer personalised content at reduced costs, with a view to transparent competition
• Sell scalable services: thanks to the efficiency brought by AI, it is possible to manage multiple projects in parallel and complex multi-channel campaigns, thus allowing you to reach a wider range of potential customers

As we have seen, the change brought about by the arrival of AI in the marketing sector is profound, and does not only apply to project activities. It also extends to organisational structures, workflows, roles, timelines and the way in which project success is measured.

General strategies to implement (and what NOT to do)

Although the sector is still in its infancy and everything is still being defined and tested, we now have enough data to suggest some strategies to follow in this new course of AI marketing, intended as best practices. We will also look at the risks to consider and how to try to avoid them.

Let’s start with best practices:

• Rethinking your organisational structure and responsibilities: it is important to have professionals who act as a bridge between the strategy departments, creatives, technology managers and data analysts.
  
  One of the consequences of using AI is, in fact, greater integration between functions: departments no longer work in silos as they once did, but all contribute to optimising the workflow and generating collaborative results.
  
  Every member of the team must be aligned on the progress of projects, timelines and the economic situation.

• Optimising workflows: as we have seen, it is a good idea to optimise everything that AI can do better and faster. But we can go one step further and also use artificial intelligence tools to carry out predictive planning.
  
  The use of historical data combined with AI can help predict risks and delays and estimate the necessary resources and costs. This helps to make more realistic estimates and anticipate problems. When these arise, you need to be ready to recalibrate campaigns, resources and priorities, even during the course of the project.

• Adopt project management tools enhanced with AI: until recently, simple tools for assigning tasks and scheduling timelines were sufficient for managing marketing agency projects, but today they are no longer enough.
  
  Marketing departments that want to remain competitive must equip themselves with tools that use intelligent algorithms for work assignments, optimise workload estimates, flag critical issues, and so on.

Given the greater need for integration between professional roles, it is useful to have shared dashboards, real-time reports on key metrics, and automatic alerts when objectives are not met or there is a gap in relation to the project plan.

Potential risks

This article aims to encourage you to do better and achieve more with the help of AI in web marketing. But of course, not everything is rosy: there are difficulties that companies are encountering, and the success of the team depends on how they deal with them.

1. Resistance to internal change: those who are accustomed to certain workflows and their routine management may resist a change in tools and strategies. Instead, it is necessary not to remain attached to the “manual”, but to experiment with new approaches and new means.

2. Uncritical use of AI: if quality is completely sacrificed for speed, the long-term result will be disastrous. Good use of artificial intelligence requires an integrated approach: only human supervision will ultimately ensure that tone and originality are maintained and branding is respected.

3. Legal and compliance risks: one principle we recommend maintaining is transparency towards the customer. Be careful when using copyright and generated content: when necessary, the use of certain tools should be reported without fear of judgement.

4. Managing expectations: customers may expect miracles from AI, but transformation often requires time, adaptation and investment. That is why we recommend approaching change with courage and choosing the right organisational strategies with care. In the next section, we will look at some of these strategies in concrete terms and the best tools for implementing them.

Changes in marketing project management processes with AI

With the introduction of AI and the evolution of operating models in marketing and communications agencies, some traditional business procedures are undergoing radical change.

Here are the specific processes implemented by marketing agencies that are best suited to this paradigm shift, and how you can start putting them into practice yourself.

1. Reporting hours

Changes to content production systems, automated analytics and campaign management that needed to be completely rethought have brought hourly reporting back into focus.

In fact, accurate tracking of hours worked on tasks helps to verify post-automation efficiency and understand which areas require greater effort and work capacity. Furthermore, greater awareness and transparency of working times helps project managers to calibrate future estimates and justify margins and costs to customers.

Now more than ever, marketing agencies need to equip themselves with smart time-tracking tools that track activities not only by duration but also by type of activity performed, help integrate working hours into overall reporting, and allow this data to be easily shared with the relevant departments in order to optimise future assignments and deadlines.

2. Project management and internal flow management

The approach to marketing agency projects is shifting from the classic model that contrasted the ‘waterfall’ versus ‘agile’ methodology towards a more hybrid approach. Allowing each project to be managed with a customised system is necessary in a changing scenario that requires real-time adaptations.

To support PMs in choosing a customised path for each project, it is essential that the management software provides assistance tools such as the in-app assistant, i.e. a chatbot or guide integrated directly into the software to help the user configure settings.

A project management system that helps map out each project with shared timelines, assignments, and milestones, as well as reports visible to clients and teams, can be the key to adapting to the changes introduced by AI in the world of marketing.

3. Project planning and cost estimation

In this new scenario, agencies are learning to adjust prices based on increased efficiency: this requires more dynamic cost models and tools that can manage them.

In fact, cost estimates can no longer be based solely on past experience, but must also incorporate simulations that help to predict timescales, costs, bottlenecks and risks more accurately.

We need tools that help identify areas where costs can be optimised, keeping ordinary and incidental expenses under control and indicating how much of the work is “automated” and how much is “custom”, i.e. still done manually.

4. Workload Management

Using software that distinguishes between different types of activities and distributes the workload using differentiated logic represents a quantum leap in organisational quality, especially for marketing agencies, where the mix of creative, operational, relational and unexpected activities is particularly diverse.

This distinction is useful (and necessary): let’s briefly examine why.

Not all activities carry the same weight: even if two tasks take the same number of hours, the cognitive or decision-making load can vary enormously.

A system that applies the same allocation algorithm to everything (e.g., “5 tasks = 5 hours = balanced workload”) creates a false impression of balance and, in the long run, leads to stress or inefficiency.

Instead, the management of actual versus theoretical time varies depending on the type of activity, specifically:

• Routine activities tend to ‘eat up’ time like wildfire, especially if they are not planned.
• Spot activities need flexible space, otherwise project deadlines will be missed.
• Core project activities must be protected from interruptions in order to maintain quality.

A good workload allocation and balancing system must calculate the “actual” load, not just the theoretical one.

It is therefore strongly recommended to use a system that distinguishes between types of activity and uses differentiated load algorithms.

For a marketing agency, this leads to greater efficiency, improved reliability in terms of timelines, margins and estimates, and more motivated and focused teams.

Final considerations (and a concrete example of the new approach to marketing project management)

In a nutshell, the presence of AI changes management processes, making them more visible and shareable, more flexible yet precise, and ultimately more interconnected. The key transformations we have seen are:

Area	Before (traditional model)	Now (with AI)
Hourly reporting	For customers only or for basic control	Central to assessing efficiency and margins
Workflows	Linear, sequential	Modular, adaptive, cross-functional
Cost estimate	Based on hours + past experience	Based on historical data + predictions
Workload	Manual/occasional monitoring	Constant monitoring + intelligent calculation algorithm

Looking at this table, we can see that Twproject is the project management software that truly meets these new needs of marketing agencies.

Here is a brief overview of how this project management software supports each of these aspects, while also leaving ample room for customisation thanks to its remarkable flexibility.

1. Hourly reporting (time tracking / worklog / timesheets)

Caratteristiche chiave di Twproject:

• Flexible worklog entry: with Twproject, you can enter hours manually, use a timer (‘stopwatch’), or record them when closing ToDo’s/activities.
• Timesheets / worklog approval: ability to manage timesheet approval processes, check whether the hours entered are correct, and validate them.
• Detailed reports: you can extract reports in various ways (by resource, project, activity type, time period). This helps both the client and internally to evaluate efficiency, estimates vs. actuals, etc.
• Viewing hours vs estimates: Twproject allows you to see in real time if the hours already worked are exceeding the estimated hours. This helps you to make adjustments during the project.

A concrete example:
In a campaign involving various activities, ‘Marco’ records the time spent on each ToDo. At the end of the week, the PM sees that some creative activities took twice as long as estimated; thanks to the report, he understands that it is necessary to either prepare better estimates in the future or redistribute part of the work. The client can also receive clear reports of the hours worked for each type of activity.

2. Flow management (workflow, internal operational flows, deadlines, monitoring)

Twproject features that meet these needs:

• Planner / Gantt / Interactive timeline: planning of activities/projects with deadlines, dependencies, milestones; possibility to view how the project evolves over time, including through snapshots (to compare current status vs original plan, see how dates, costs, hours, etc. have changed)
• Continuous monitoring/alerts: notifications and warnings when limits are exceeded (in terms of hours, costs, workload). This allows you to intervene before the project gets out of control.
• Integration between activities, costs, and reporting: the various modules (ToDo, assignments, costs, reports, workload) are integrated into a unified platform, so the information flow does not require multiple logins.
• Customisation: each project can be managed in the traditional ‘waterfall’ mode, but also in an agile manner thanks to Kanban boards or with a mixed approach that combines centralised management for macro projects and agility for task assignments and more specific tasks.
• Integrated support: the chatbot provides concrete help in structuring projects according to specific individual needs.

A concrete example:
Twproject assists a marketing agency in planning long-term campaigns with waterfall phases (e.g. client approvals) while managing daily agile tasks for the creation of AI-driven content, maintaining visibility and control over timelines, resources, and results in a single platform.

3. Project planning and cost estimation

How Twproject supports this:

• Budgeted vs actual costs: Twproject allows you to enter a budget for a project (or its phases) and then compare it with the actual costs incurred.
• Labour costs: hours worked (worklog) are incorporated into the cost calculation, so that the cost of labour (human resources) is automatically taken into account.
• Other costs: Twproject allows you to enter additional costs (hardware, licences, travel expenses, etc.) that affect the project’s profitability.
• Revenue management: allows you to enter revenue forecasts and actual revenues, differentiating between them. Useful for understanding margins, cash flow and returns compared to estimates.
• Alerts on overruns: Twproject alerts you when costs or worklogs exceed forecasts.

A concrete example:
A marketing agency creates a ‘Q4 Social Campaign’ project. It estimates a budget of € 2,500, including team hours + graphic licence costs. With Twproject, it can monitor actual costs – for example, hours already worked + additional costs – compare them with the budget as the project progresses, and see whether the margin percentage is holding or whether action needs to be taken (e.g. reducing revisions, automating parts, changing resources).

4. Workload management

How Twproject answers:

• Distinction between types of activities (“project”, “routine”, “spot”): Twproject allows you to classify each assignment with one of these types. This has a strong impact on how resource load is calculated:
  • Project: activities with an estimated duration that accumulate load over time.
  • Routine: recurring activities, which do not “accumulate” unless performed; the distribution of the workload is uniform or cross-functional.
  • Spot: ad hoc activities, unforeseen or unplannable until the last minute, with estimates that often start from zero but must be considered for the workload on that specific day.
• Load distribution algorithm based on these types: the system calculates the load differently depending on whether the activity is project/routine/spot. This allows you to model work realistically, protect project days from “noisy” activities (routine and spot) and see when someone is overloaded.
• Visual planning / Gantt / Planner / workload view: Twproject offers interactive views that allow you to visually see resource workloads, highlight overloads, and redistribute assignments.
• Consideration of actual availability and capacity: the workload is calculated taking into account the daily capacity of resources, holidays/absences, working hours, etc.

A concrete example:
Imagine that the marketing manager assigns ‘Alice’ both the strategy for project A and a series of weekly routines (emails, customer updates) in addition to possible ad hoc requests. Twproject will show Alice’s future workload taking all this into account; if the workload exceeds her availability, the PM can reassign some routine tasks or schedule them on ‘dead’ days, or move ad hoc activities. All in an extremely clear and automated manner.

As we have seen, Twproject is a concrete aid in meeting all the main project management needs of marketing agencies in the new AI-dominated landscape.

If you want to face change with courage and positivity, trust the right ally and try Twproject now.

Flexible worklogs and workloads, conscious cost management and improved workflows are key to keeping pace with this major evolution driven by artificial intelligence!

Discover Twproject and start your first project right away (our support team is available to assist you with all initial configuration operations).