Integrating Artificial Intelligence in Marketing Education: Preparing Students for an AI-Driven Future

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming marketing practice, yet marketing education has struggled to keep pace with these technological changes. As AI tools become embedded in marketing analytics, content development, and strategic decision-making, business programs face increasing pressure to prepare graduates with the competencies required for AI-enabled marketing environments. This manuscript develops a systems-level framework for integrating AI into marketing education, building on prior applications of Marketing Systems Theory. The framework conceptualizes marketing education as an adaptive subsystem that responds to technological disruption and positions AI integration as a coordination problem across institutional, faculty, and student levels. Within this framework, AI is treated as a decision-support capability rather than a tool outcome, emphasizing auditing, ethical judgment, and accountability. AI competencies are positioned as a portfolio of capabilities, including prompt engineering, data literacy, ethical awareness, and critical evaluation of AI outputs, rather than isolated technical skills. The paper concludes with implications for curriculum design and a proposed research agenda addressing governance, credentialing, and workforce alignment in AI-driven marketing systems.