Litmus: AI Tops Email Marketing Hiring Priorities at 35%
Litmus State of Email 2026 data shows companies prioritize AI skills, followed by strategy, automation, data analysis, and personalization for email teams.
According to MarTech, 35% of companies now prioritize AI skills when hiring for email marketing teams, making it the leading skill cited in The State of Email 2026 report.
Hiring Priorities Beyond AI
Nearly a third (31%) of teams prioritize email campaign strategy and planning. Marketing automation and workflow development ranks next at 27%. Data analysis and reporting follows at 24%. Personalization and dynamic content creation stands at 20%.
AI Applied to Existing Capabilities
The report states that the most valuable email marketers apply AI across automation, personalization, analytics, testing, and customer journeys. AI tools draft campaign copy, suggest subject lines, generate content variations, and reveal patterns. Companies seek marketers who can make AI useful rather than simply operate the tools.
Automation and Data Skills in Demand
According to MarTech, 27% of teams seek marketing automation and workflow development skills to build customer journeys, map behavior, identify triggers, and plan sequences. 24% prioritize data analysis and reporting to determine what happened in campaigns, why it occurred, and what should happen next.
Strategy and Judgment Remain Central
The source notes that email campaign strategy and planning priorities indicate companies want staff who can make high-impact decisions. Prompt writing alone is insufficient; marketers must assess whether AI output is persuasive, commercially sound, brand-aligned, and contextually appropriate for segments and broader plans.
