AI revolution in marketing?! Thirty years ago, the first word processors and spreadsheets hit the market, promising the next big revolution in productivity. They promised us that because of them we would spend less time writing, drawing transparencies and calculating numbers on a calculator. Today, thirty years later, the promise has become a reality. We all have so much free time that I personally only work two days a week. Of course I'm joking. The reality is that we are not working less, we are creating longer documents and our presentations have expanded from six slides to fifty. Why is this important today? Generative AI is coming and will be embedded in the core of our organizations and the way we work. This will be the next great productivity revolution. The question is: How can we prepare ourselves to actually take advantage of this productivity opportunity?
Artificial intelligence has already predicted the extinction of many professions, including those we used to call artistic or creative professions. If our accountant will soon be out of work, and the financial analyst will just click a few buttons, then the changes in the field of marketing will be even greater. It is important to realize that we are only at the beginning of what can be called the "Age of AI". Generative artificial intelligence is coming and will be embedded in the core of our organizations and the way we work. This will be the next great productivity revolution. The question is: How can we prepare to actually take advantage of this productivity opportunity while protecting our careers?
The Evolution of Marketing: From Creativity to Data
Marketing has traditionally been considered a very right-brain, creative function. The skill of marketers was in identifying the emotional needs of consumers, creating the perfect product to satisfy those needs, and crafting messages that persuade consumers in the right place at the right time. However, over the past fifteen years, marketing has been transformed by digitization and analytics. Marketing has become more specialized as new skills such as digital marketing and marketing technology have developed.
Generative AI: A New Tool in the Marketing Box
Generative artificial intelligence, however, is now transforming the core of marketing activities. A recent study conducted by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in collaboration with Harvard found that ChatGPT, in its current form, improves marketers' right-brain skills by 40 percent. Imagine what that means in a year or two. Marketers will have an extra day and a half of free time per week. What will they do with this time? More yoga? More time with family? Probably not. If we don't actively channel this revolution, marketers will invest that time in creating more content and more ideas.
Custom Content: Advantages and Pitfalls
More content also means more personalized content for consumers. Imagine an email from your favorite brand containing only images of people of your age and gender, products relevant to you, and even an experience powered by a bot that looks like a human. This is a productive result. The negative consequence is content overload. How many times do you feel like you're being bombarded with the same content over and over again? Generative AI trained on existing data reduces the divergence of results, which can lead to homogenization of content.
The need for left-brain AI ability
What does it mean to "grow left-brain AI ability"? This means that we need to strategically retrain and reorganize the function to bring the people who can build, use and scale predictive AI tools into the center of decision-making. For example, building teams of marketers data scientists and engineers who develop solutions to analyze and predict the results of each marketing initiative. This way, the company can better understand which products work with which consumers and why.
Thinking outside the box
Too many companies rely on training their algorithms and models only on current content and data. This can trap the company in current territory. For example, if you're a brand that's very successful with millennials, your existing data and content won't help you succeed with Gen Z. If you're not successful with Gen Z, you'll miss out on important innovations and trends that would strengthen you with Millennials as well. That's why I advise every business to think outside the box and outside of their ecosystem about who might be super relevant data and content partners.
Maintaining right-brain skills
If you rely too much on generative AI, you risk losing the divergence of ideas and true innovation. A Harvard study found that when generative AI is used excessively, the collective divergence of ideas decreases by 40 percent. That's why it's imperative to recognize and protect the true artists and innovators on our team and teach them how to properly use AI for inspiration and rapid prototyping, not for generating original ideas.
Finally: what are you good at?!
Are you extremely creative or innovative? Nurture it. This will be your superpower. Do you enjoy data and are highly rational? Then specialize in tech skills and predictive AI. Every marketer now has to pick their brain.
Source: Internet and many findings from marketing gurus. Ted's talk
