The Marketer's Paradox: AI +/- Human Intuition
November 6, 2023
“We face an existential crisis. CMO roles are getting eliminated, with key responsibilities getting parsed out to next-generation titles. Chief growth officer, chief customer officer, chief revenue officer. If you take away growth, the customer and revenue, why else would marketing exist?”
~ Raja Rajamannar / Mastercard, Chief Marketing & Communications Officer and President, Healthcare Business
Business Insider, October 30, 2023
As Marketing Professionals today, we exist in a world of paradox. On the one hand, we work at our craft in a landscape of unbridled creativity and innovation. On the other hand, we have never been as stressed to produce in an environment of seemingly endless marketing channels, choices, and programs despite a lack of sufficient budget (1) and less time.
The proliferation of digital marketing options makes marketing planning and execution akin to drinking from a fire hose. In addition, database driven and personalization puts yet another responsibility on the plates of CMOs who valiantly manage the databases, tech stacks, and privacy concerns with the additional burden of integrating the technologies necessary to track, analyze, test, retest, and refine them.
Credit: Grandview Research
At the same time, CMOs have seen their responsibilities delineated to the point where it’s hard to know where the boundaries and responsibilities of a Marketing Organization begin or end. What once was a congenial club of a CEO, a CFO, and a CMO is now a veritable alphabet soup of CCOs, CGOs, CIOs, CROs, and C-LMNOPQRST-Os. And soon there may be CAIOs? As a recent WSJ article points out, “Nine out of 10 CEOs say that the role marketing plays is clearly defined at their companies, according to a new McKinsey survey that tracks relationships between CEOs and CMOs. But only 22% of marketing chiefs say their jobs are well-defined and understood by other C-suite executives.”(2)
Throw in the challenge of Upskilling our Marketing Teams in order to truly stay competitive and it’s enough to overwhelm even the most buttoned up and buttoned down CMO. And now AI has entered the mix!
Enter AI Technologies
A Marketing Professional’s Friend or Foe?
“Artificial intelligence is not a substitute for human intelligence; it is a tool to amplify human creativity and ingenuity.”
~ Fei-Fei Li /Co-Director of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence
Source: Bloomberg
On November 30, 2022 a Quake measuring 10.0 on Humanity’s Richter Scale rocked the world as we know it ~ albeit imperceptibly at first. With its epicenter located at a little-known private research and development facility in (appropriately enough) San Francisco, California, the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT (which stands for Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer) immediately began reshaping virtually every aspect of our lives.
Since that day (which we endearingly refer to as “AI Day”), the world has been coming to grips with exactly what we are dealing with. AI (and its newer to the scene sibling Generative AI or GenAI) has been heralded as everything from “The greatest change in the history of humanity since electricity” to “AI will make us more human, not less” to “With Artificial Intelligence, we are summoning a Demon.”
So where does the reality of AI lie for marketers and are its potential and pitfalls? Read the headlines and it’s hard not to feel a large amount of uncertainty. Many marketers are worried about what AI Tools and Technologies mean for the very existence of their jobs going forward – from the most junior copywriters all the way up to the CMO Suite.
Our view is that wherever AI ultimately falls into the ranks of importance in Human Development, and whatever AI may or may not bring about in the future, AI possesses the potential to allow us as Marketers to unleash our most Human of traits: Creativity, Intuition, Passion, and Innovation. In more pragmatic terms:
Artificial Intelligence (AI) + Human Intuition (HI) = NextGen Marketing Empowerment
In empowering us as Marketers, AI offers the potential for an advancement in the field of Marketing and in our careers as Marketing Professionals we can scarcely imagine today. Applied strategically and with commitment, AI has the potential to positively transform Marketing Organizations from a state of uncertainty to an unbelievable leadership role. In short, by upskilling the entire Marketing Team we will be able to evolve and optimize ADTech and MARTech programs, deepen the connections and relationships between our Brands and our Customers, and transform ecommerce and retails sales beyond our greatest expectations, but we need to embrace the technology and have an AI first vision to deploy it to new heights.
Query: As Marketing Professionals this sounds tantalizing but begs the question: How do we begin to prepare our organization and our Teams to adapt AI and compete in a NextGen Marketing World?
The Path From AI Uncertainty to Unbelievaible Success
A Case for Accelerated AI Adaptation in Marketing Organizations
“CMOs embracing AI technology NOW stand to develop a potentially insurmountable competitive advantage in their markets, companies, and their careers. There’s one problem: AI moves so fast—and there’s so much hype and misinformation in the market—that actually figuring out what AI is, how you can use it, and where to focus your efforts is a major challenge.”
Paul Roetzer / Founder, Marketing AI Institute
For marketers in general and CMOs in particular, the rapid ascent of AI and GenAI presents a moment filled with hope and fear in equal measure. As a result, CMOs are charged with an unenviable balancing act: facing enormous pressure from the market and leadership teams to understand the actual short-term and long-term implications and applications of AI for their business—and to do so fast.
With so many solutions on the market promising this and that, the pressure lies in CMOs quickly establishing an understanding, formulating an agile strategy, then selecting the right combination of tools to stay ahead, while simultaneously rolling out the technology responsibly and safely. The necessity is obvious, the rewards are tantalizing, but the elusive question is, How?
The question as to ‘How’ can be an overwhelming one – especially with AI developing at a breakneck pace challenging traditional study, learn, test, and deploy pilot methodologies. The key to AI Success is to make a Holistic Commitment to AI Adaptation TODAY and to undertake the AI Adaptation Journey as soon as possible. Despite the uncertainty created by the hype manufacturers, many organizations are still in the early stages of adaptation. Not to say you should take a ‘wait-and-see’ approach – merely that you’re not alone.
When the commitment IS made, CMOs should develop an Accelerated AI Adaptation Strategic Plan. Key areas to include are the following:
Staff Training and Upskilling
Conduct an AI literacy program for all staff, explaining AI and GenAI capabilities and potential.
Provide specialized training in AI-driven marketing tools to allow Team Members to begin working with AI Tools on a hands-on basis.
ADTech and MARTech AI Tool Strategic Planning for Deployment
Evaluate current marketing tech stack and identify AI enhancement opportunities.
Develop a phased integration plan starting with high-impact, low-effort AI tools for quick wins.
Customer Experience Programs
Implement AI to personalize customer interactions across touchpoints, using data-driven insights.
Launch pilot projects to refine AI applications in customer service, such as chatbots and recommendation engines.
E-commerce Programs
Leverage AI to optimize pricing, promotions, and inventory management in real-time.
Use predictive analytics for lead scoring and sales forecasting to prioritize efforts.
Data Privacy and Security Considerations
Update data governance policies to address AI-specific risks, ensuring compliance with data protection laws.
Invest in AI systems that prioritize data encryption and anomaly detection to safeguard customer information.
Implementation and Continuous Learning
Start small with a pilot program, assess performance, and scale AI initiatives based on results.
Establish a feedback loop for continuous learning and improvement, integrating new AI advancements regularly.
The time is now for CMOs to develop an agile and fast yet balanced and strategic approach in transformaig their organizations to leverage all the benefits that AI offers, then communicate their vision to the CEO and their marketing organization, prioritizing both immediate and long-term benefits.
Please reach out if you are interested in learning more how we can help you by Transforming Uncertainty to UnbelievAIble™.
