What Will Happen to Marketing in the Age of AI?

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16 Jan 2024

How marketers can steer the coming generative AI wave to create value, not just more content overload.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the first word processors and spreadsheets hit the market. The whole economic world braced for a massive productivity revolution. The promise was that we’d all spend much less time writing, creating slides, and computing numbers.
Thirty years later, that promise has come true, right? We’re all lounging by the poolside with so much newfound leisure time thanks to these magical productivity tools. Well, not quite.
The reality is that we don’t actually work less today. We just create much longer Word docs and 50-slide PowerPoint decks instead of 6-sliders. As a consultant, I’ve witnessed this explode firsthand.
We also engage in more complex decision-making now because the amount of data we process has exploded. Understanding this history is crucial because generative AI is coming next to revolutionize productivity.
We strongly recommend that you check out our guide on how to take advantage of AI in today’s passive income economy.

How will generative AI transform the nature of work?

Tools like ChatGPT will soon be embedded into the core of organizations and work. This will completely disrupt how we operate and make decisions.
The big question is: How do we actually seize this opportunity? Avoid the pitfalls? And create lasting value?
As a career marketer, this is top of mind for me. Marketing is poised to be one of the most disrupted functions by AI. Some estimates show productivity gains upwards of 50% in marketing from generative AI.
That’s insane. And it leads to another question: What will marketers do with all this free time? More yoga? Finally log off at 5 pm?
Unfortunately, that utopian future is unlikely. Without guidance, marketers will invest their newfound time into what we do best: Creating more content and ideas.
That could be productive to a point. For example, AI can generate hyper-personalized marketing content tailored to each individual. The email you get reflects your age, interests, and personality.
But more content can also quickly become content overload. We all probably feel hounded by repetitive online ads already. Now imagine that amplified exponentially, with content also sounding homogenized from AI’s training.

Steering the AI productivity wave through skills and strategy

This future will happen unless marketing and every function proactively steers the AI wave. Here’s what needs to occur:

Rapidly build an AI-savvy left brain with technical skills.
Identify and protect creative right-brain talent.

First, marketing teams need to reorganize and reskill to embed people who can build, implement, and diffuse predictive AI tools.
For example, by hiring marketing data scientists and engineers to create solutions that all marketers can use. Like unpacking performance insights and predicting outcomes.
Imagine understanding which audiences and creatives are really resonating. Or how the marketing funnel is evolving. I recently helped a consumer goods company do this by creating tools for every marketer to predict sales outcomes and consumer behavior changes from each initiative.
This formed a virtuous cycle, powered by their new 30-person left-brained marketing team. But skills are only part of the puzzle. I see too many brands train algorithms solely on their current, limited data.
That risks trapping you in your existing territory. For instance, say you excel at reaching millennials right now. Your data won’t necessarily help you connect with Gen Z.
To avoid this, think beyond your immediate ecosystem about who could provide valuable training data. If you’re a construction firm looking to market to architects for the first time, you likely have zero architect data.
But potential partners like banks and insurance companies do. You could establish win-win data sharing arrangements with them. This expands your reach and prevents blind spots.

Preserving creativity and human judgment

But wait. You now have the skills and diverse data. Are you done future proofing marketing?
Unfortunately, no. Relying solely on generative AI risks losing your special sauce. Research shows overusing it reduces collective divergence of ideas by 40%. Innovation and true creativity get stifled.
That’s why it’s crucial to identify your true artists, innovators and differentiators. The people who always disagree with you. The ones thinking five steps ahead.
Reskill them to use AI as a tool, not a crutch. Have them lead creative direction and originate ideas. But protect them from overusing AI to generate concepts. Their human creativity is sacred.
This balances AI’s amplification power with human ingenuity. It preserves the brand identity and differentiation you’ve worked so hard to build.

Choose your brain wisely

Here’s my advice to all marketers on thriving through the AI age:
First, know yourself. Are you highly creative? The innovator in the room? If so, double down on that. It’ll be your super power going forward.
Do you prefer data and analytics? Then specialize there. Build technical skills. Become an expert in predictive AI. Choose your brain.
But make no mistake. Every marketer must now choose a brain. There are no bystanders in the AI revolution. It’s coming faster than you think. And it promises amazing possibilities if we guide it wisely.
What future do you want to build? One where AI amplifies our creativity and frees us to do meaningful work? Or one flooded with repetitive content that numbs our senses?
The power is in our hands. Let’s choose wisely. Our future depends on it.
We strongly recommend that you check out our guide on how to take advantage of AI in today’s passive income economy.

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Marketing
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Make Money Online
Artificial Intelligence
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