Generative AI is here, and it’s set to shake things up in the world of marketing. But don’t panic! While AI can do a lot, it still needs us humans for the really big ideas. This talk explores how marketers can figure out their place in this new AI-driven landscape, whether they lean towards data or creativity.
Key Takeaways
- AI will significantly boost productivity in marketing, but without active guidance, this time might just lead to more content and ideas, not necessarily less work.
- To thrive, marketing functions need to develop a “left-AI brain” by integrating data science and engineering skills, while also protecting and nurturing their most creative talent.
- Brands must look beyond their existing data and partnerships to avoid getting stuck in a rut and to connect with new audiences.
- Over-reliance on AI can stifle innovation and lead to a homogenization of marketing messages.
The Productivity Promise (and Peril)
Think back 30 years. Word processors and spreadsheets were just hitting the scene, promising a huge productivity boost. We were told we’d spend less time writing, making slides, and crunching numbers. Fast forward to today, and well, we don’t exactly work less. We just write longer documents, create 50-slide presentations instead of six, and deal with an explosion of data that makes decision-making way more complex.
Now, generative AI is on its way, ready to become a core part of how we work. This is the next big productivity revolution. The big question is: how do we actually make sure we benefit from this? Marketing is often seen as one of the most affected areas, with some studies suggesting productivity gains as high as 50 percent. So, understanding how to seize this opportunity is super important for business leaders and consumers alike.
Marketing’s Evolution: From Right Brain to Left-AI Brain
Traditionally, marketing has been a very “right-brained” function. Marketers excelled by tapping into people’s emotions, creating the perfect product, and crafting messages that hit home at the right time. Over the last 15 years, digital marketing and analytics have added more specialized skills, like digital marketing and marketing tech. But generative AI is changing the game at a much deeper level.
Studies show that tools like ChatGPT can already improve the creative performance of marketers significantly. So, what will marketers do with all this extra time? Will companies let large parts of the marketing function disappear? Probably not. If we don’t actively steer this, marketers will likely use that time to do what they do best: create more content and more ideas.
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This can be good for us as consumers – imagine emails perfectly tailored to your interests, with products and even a human-like bot experience. But there’s a downside: content overload. We’re already bombarded online, and imagine that exploding, with everything starting to sound the same. This is a risk because AI is trained on existing data, which can lead to less variety in outcomes – a “great equalization” of marketing that isn’t necessarily a good thing.
Building Your Left-AI Brain
So, what’s the solution? Marketing, and indeed any function impacted by AI, needs to grow a “left-AI brain” – and fast. This means strategically reskilling and reorganizing to bring in people who can build, use, and spread predictive AI tools within the core of decision-making. For marketing, this could mean building teams of marketing data scientists and engineers who create solutions that help all marketers understand things like which creative works best with which audience, what products are selling and why, or how the marketing funnel is changing.
One company partnered to build these kinds of tools. They created systems that helped every marketer predict sales outcomes, understand consumer behavior across channels, and unpack why certain creative elements were working. This required a team of over 30 “left-AI brain” marketers to build and customize these tools, and then train the rest of the organization to use them.
Thinking Beyond Your Ecosystem
But building the right team isn’t the whole story. Many companies train their AI models only on their current content and data. This risks trapping a brand in its current market. For example, a brand strong with millennials might not have the data to succeed with Gen Z. And if you don’t connect with Gen Z, you’ll miss out on trends that could even make you stronger with millennials.
So, companies need to think outside their usual circles. Who else has relevant data? Maybe direct competitors don’t, but financial institutions or insurance companies might. By setting up partnerships, you can train AI models on this broader data, making you much stronger for reaching new customer groups. For instance, a construction company wanting to market to architects could partner with financial institutions that have architect data, rather than just looking at other construction firms.
Protecting Your Creative Spark
Even with the right data and skills, you’re not quite done. There’s a risk of handing over all your creative thinking to AI, which could lead to losing your unique brand identity and getting stuck in that “grand equalization” of marketing. Studies show that when people rely too much on generative AI, the variety of ideas can drop significantly. This means new ideas don’t surface, and true innovation gets stifled.
The solution? Identify the true artists, the differentiators, the innovators within your team. You know who they are – they’re often the ones who disagree with the status quo. These individuals need to be trained to use AI effectively, perhaps to get inspired by new trends or to quickly prototype ideas. But it’s vital to protect them from using AI to originate original ideas. That part still needs the human brain. Keeping those human juices flowing protects your brand’s identity and its unique place in the market.
Choose Your Brain
So, to any marketer out there, ask yourself: What are you good at? If you’re highly creative and an innovator, cultivate that – it’s your superpower. If you love data, are rational and fact-based, then specialize. Invest in tech skills and predictive AI competencies. Right now, every marketer needs to choose their brain.
