Pozuelo de Alarcón (Madrid), Spain
 

(report by Faridoddin Rezaei)

The European Marketing Academy (EMAC), established in 1975, is a professional association for scholars engaged in marketing theory and research. With more than 1,000 members from over 50 countries, EMAC provides a key platform for international academic exchange.

The 54th Annual EMAC Conference was held from May 27–30, 2025, in Pozuelo de Alarcón, Madrid, hosted by ESIC University. This year’s theme was "Human and Smart Marketing: Understanding and Enhancing Our Future."

I presented our research in the “AI-Driven Methods for Marketing Analytics” track. The study, co-authored with my supervisors Maik Eisenbeiss and Kristina Klein, used large language models (LLMs) to analyze over 300,000 academic papers, identifying and examining more than 10,000 relevant studies on AI in marketing. The work shows how LLMs can support large-scale literature reviews by uncovering patterns in methods, AI domains, and marketing concepts.

The track highlighted innovative applications of AI and machine learning in marketing research. During my presentation and throughout the event, I received constructive questions, encouraging feedback, and practical suggestions—some of which I plan to apply in the next phases of my research.

The conference was also a valuable opportunity to connect with researchers from across Europe and beyond. I explored current research on AI in marketing and found it encouraging that the gap between our work and that of leading institutions is smaller than often assumed. While funding differences remain, they can often be managed through careful planning—thanks in part to shared access to advanced AI tools, strong guidance from my supervisors, and a supportive research environment within the Diginomics group.

The conference contributed to both the visibility of our findings and the kind of meaningful exchange that supports the Diginomics group’s mission to explore the economic and societal impacts of digital transformation.