Marketing has always thrived on novelty, but today’s emerging technologies are pushing that impulse into surreal territory. Deepfake ads, AI chatbots, and a host of other weird marketing trends are converging to redefine how brands tell their stories.
As AI-generated images, voices, and text become indistinguishable from reality, the future of marketing appears both promising and unsettling.
This article examines how deepfakes, conversational bots, virtual influencers, and augmented reality are transforming the craft, what the data reveal about their effectiveness, and why marketers must tread carefully in this emerging landscape.
The Wild World of Deepfake Ads
Deepfakes use machine learning to superimpose or synthesise a person’s face or voice into video or audio. It started in entertainment and politics; now marketers can bring back a deceased celebrity, localize a commercial into multiple languages, or create a completely synthetic spokesperson.
Deepfakes now include face-swap, expression-swap, lip-sync, and full-body re-enactment techniques. These tools offer big business opportunities for content creation, allowing brands to produce campaigns without human models and multiple language versions of the same ad.
The numbers for deepfake ads are mind-blowing. MarketsandMarkets forecast the global deepfake video market to grow from $300m in 2020 to $1.5b by 2026. A 2024 HubSpot survey found that two-thirds of marketers testing deepfakes saw increased engagement. But the technology’s realism is a double-edged sword.
In a KPMG study cited by Amra & Elma, 41% of consumers couldn’t tell if a video was deepfaked, and only 12% of deepfakes disclosed that AI was used.
Gen Z are more comfortable with synthetic media; 38% of Gen Zers are open to deepfake ads, but older consumers feel uncomfortable and deceived.
Regulators are paying attention. The US Federal Election Commission voted in 2023 to consider rules around AI-generated political ads after the Ron DeSantis campaign released a deepfake ad showing former President Donald Trump embracing the COVID-19 vaccine.
Beyond politics, researchers warn that deepfakes can be used for fraud. Spider AF’s 2025 Ad Fraud report says generative AI now enables fake endorsements, and fraudsters are creating deepfake-style ads that mislead consumers.
Global ad-fraud losses are expected to hit $41.4 billion in 2025, up from $37.7 billion the previous year. These stats show deepfakes are not just fun experiments; they’re a high-stakes game that requires clear disclosure, consent, and anti-fraud safeguards.
Deepfakes have risks, but they have real benefits. Brands can localise fast, test creative, and extend the life of old content. The key to using deepfakes ethically is transparency, telling audiences when AI is used, getting consent from the people whose faces are used, and not misrepresenting edits.
New tools and regulations will come. Marketers who do it right will amaze audiences with realism and personalisation and keep trust.
AI Chatbots: From Customer Service to Brand Personality
While deepfakes change the face of advertising, AI chatbots are changing the sound and feel of customer interactions. Early chatbots were scripted and often frustrated users, but large language models now allow bots to understand nuance, remember context, and carry on near-human conversations.
Advanced chatbots and virtual assistants handle customer queries, recommend products, and complete transactions in real time. AI can also generate copy, mine consumer data, and create visuals, so marketers can personalise at scale.
The numbers are impressive. A 2025 Zendesk survey found 70% of customer experience leaders see chatbots as “skilled architects of personalised customer journeys” and 69% believe generative AI humanises digital interactions.
Consumer sentiment is shifting, too: 51% of consumers would rather interact with a bot for immediate service, and 82% would rather use a chatbot than wait for a live agent. Chatbot adoption is accelerating; 58% of CX leaders expect bots to improve significantly by 2024, but there are caveats.
The same Zendesk report found 68% of consumers think chatbots should match human agents’ expertise. CMSWire’s 2025 survey found 19% of CX leaders prioritised customer-facing chatbots as a key investment and 32% cited data privacy as a barrier.
Almost half of consumers want to be able to hand off to a human, and 20% want multilingual support.
As brands deploy AI chatbots across websites, messaging apps, and voice assistants, these bots become more than service tools; they are the brand.
A deepfake voice combined with a generative AI chatbot could have a historic founder “speak” to customers or a celebrity ambassador answer questions in multiple languages. But this blending of AI-generated personae raises ethical questions: what happens when a bot makes a mistake or gives biased advice?
Brands must train bots on inclusive data, respect privacy, and always offer the option to speak to a human. The future of marketing will be about balancing automation with empathy, using AI chatbots to handle the routine and human agents to provide the nuance.
Weird Marketing Trends: Virtual Influencers, Voice Clones and Augmented Reality
The weirdest marketing trends include synthetic influencers, voice clones, and immersive AR. Virtual influencers, CGI personalities, captured industry attention in 2024, but by mid-2025, only 60% of brands were still interested, down from 86% the year before. Young audiences are curious: 40% of U.S.
Gen Zers follow at least one virtual influencer, and about a third have bought a product they promoted, but trust issues mean 96% of reluctant brands cite consumer skepticism, and six in ten advertisers have no plans to use virtual avatars.
AI voice cloning is another weird but powerful tool. With 91% of businesses already using video marketing, AI can synthesize a spokesperson’s voice to localize ads, personalize messages, and maintain a brand tone.
Personalized videos driven by voice clones can increase engagement by up to 80% and reduce production costs. But ethical guidelines matter: brands must get consent and be transparent about AI use to protect voice data and avoid deception.
Augmented reality (AR) rounds out this trio of weird marketing trends. Forecasts show the AR market will hit about $87 billion in 2025, with retail accounting for more than half of all use cases.
AR ads can deliver huge results, advertising revenue will hit $6.72 billion by 2027, and adding AR to online shopping can increase conversion rates by about 94%. Consumers engage deeply with these experiences: three-quarters would pay more for transparent AR, dwell times average 75 seconds, brand awareness metrics improve for eight out of ten campaigns, and more than 85% of AR/VR users do social shopping.
These trends also apply to business-to-business marketing and community building. Smart Insights’ digital marketing forecast names AI agents as the top marketing trend for 2025 and warns against “AI slop” and to pair generative content with authentic storytelling.
Deloitte’s 2025 report says personalization delivers results, three-quarters of consumers prefer personalized content, and leaders in personalization are 48% more likely to hit revenue targets, and 70% of marketing leaders have budgeted for personalization, with 40% planning to use generative-AI tools.
As audiences fragment across social platforms, brands are investing in community-led collaborations; the Digital Marketing Institute says users spend 2 hours 19 minutes daily across nearly seven platforms, and 94% of consumers are more loyal to transparent brands.
Cousera’s 2025 survey says 92% of marketers are already feeling AI’s impact on their work; 42% are prioritizing AI for content, and 64% of organizations using generative AI see faster, higher volume output.
Ethics, Regulation and the Human Touch
As marketing evolves, ethics can’t be an afterthought. Deepfakes raise consent and authenticity issues; deepfake ads without disclosure will erode trust, and criminal misuse for fraud or misinformation will bring stricter regulations.
AI-generated customer interactions, whether through AI chatbots or virtual influencers, must respect privacy laws and not perpetuate bias. AI bots can simulate human behavior at scale, inflate campaign metrics, and fill CRM systems with fake leads.
Regulators are responding: the EU’s Digital Services Act demands transparency from platforms, and the U.S. FEC is debating rules for AI-generated political advertising. Marketers who use these technologies must have clear disclosure, consent protocols, and data protection measures.
Just as important is the human touch. Chatbots can handle the routine stuff, but they can’t replace empathy. CMSWire says nearly 50% of consumers want to hand off to a human when needed. Similarly, virtual influencers and voice clones can scale messaging, but audiences still crave authenticity.
As AI-generated content grows, there will be a backlash against generic outputs and a return to storytelling. Brands should use AI to augment, not replace, human creativity, think of AI as a co-pilot that amplifies ideas while people steer strategy and ethics.
What This Weird Future Means for Marketers
So, deepfakes, AI chatbots, and other weird marketing trends mean the lines between reality and simulation will blur.
Deepfakes will allow advertisers to conjure any face, voice, or scene imaginable; AI chatbots will be brand ambassadors who can speak any language; virtual influencers and AR experiences will create worlds customers can step into; and generative AI will change everything from search optimisation to brainstorming.
These three things will define the future of marketing:
- Personalisation at scale. With generative AI in enterprise software, Deloitte predicts a US$10 billion revenue uplift. Personalised content isn’t a nice-to-have; it’s an expectation that drives loyalty. Deepfake ads and voice clones will make localisation and customisation cheap, while AI chatbots will tailor conversations to individual preferences.
- Immersive experiences. AR, VR, and AI-generated environments will merge physical and digital worlds. Stats show AR can increase e-commerce conversion rates by up to 94% and 73% of consumers are willing to pay more for transparent AR experiences. These technologies will turn shopping into entertainment and education.
- Authenticity and ethics. As the marketing toolkit gets weirder, human values will be what differentiates brands. Trust will be based on transparency, ethical AI use, and community engagement. Building communities, promoting user-generated content, and showcasing real employees will counterbalance synthetic marketing. Marketers must champion responsible innovation – disclose deepfakes, ensure AI chatbots don’t bias, and protect customer data.
In this unique and fascinating landscape, creative experimentation must be balanced with rigorous ethics. Deepfake ads and AI chatbots offer huge possibilities, but without governance, they’ll alienate the very people they’re meant to delight.
The winners of the future of marketing will be those who use these tools transparently and thoughtfully, creating immersive, personalised experiences while upholding trust.
For startups and growth-stage companies, embracing weird marketing trends could yield massive returns, but only if the marketing feels human, even when it’s powered by machines.
Featured Image – Freepik
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