How marketers can become AI leaders

By now you’ve probably used AI to do some of your marketing work more efficiently—writing, making creatives, etc.

However, while this was happening within marketing teams across the world, executives in the C-Suite were strategizing how to implement AI cross-organizationally to reinvent their value chains, with billions of dollars riding on the outcomes. 

And this is where marketers must embed themselves—in these big-picture conversations—to realize their full potential and become invaluable to their organizations during this revolution.

But how can we transition from a primarily reactive approach—using AI as a tactical solution to our marketing problems—to a more proactive leadership role in driving the broader AI transformation?  How can marketing leaders position themselves as the driver of organizational AI expertise and competitiveness in their companies?

We asked the 4 experts, the panel of our Marketing Panel & Mixer: Applied AI for Enterprise Marketing. 

Elena Yusunov

Founder & Executive Director, Human Feedback Foundation

For the first time in the history of technology, we now have tech products that communicate. In enterprises, that domain expertise and controls have traditionally landed in marketing and communications.

Nobody is better positioned to influence the policy around crisis communications, brand risks, and opportunities to train and align AI with existing comms scripts and playbooks. Yet, I found marketers aren’t yet at the table to drive these conversations.

This needs to change.

Fab Dolan

Fractional CMO; Former Global Marketing Director, Android

Adopting marketing AI is not just about acquiring technology; it’s about rethinking your entire marketing process. From where I sit, we’re currently at the “RSS feeds” stage of marketing AI. When transitioning from offline press releases to Web 1.0, our initial instinct was to lean into tools like RSS feeds. It wasn’t until Twitter reimagined communication from a web-native standpoint that marketing was truly changed.

Similarly, I believe every CMO today must entirely rethink their marketing process through the lens of AI’s potential. Merely adding AI to a collection of disconnected apps won’t suffice. Instead, marketing leaders should approach this primarily as a change management exercise, with defined business objectives, and envision how AI can uniquely address those objectives.

Leslie Hughes

Owner, PUNCH media

AI is a revolutionary force that is in the process of reshaping industries and transforming our everyday lives. From automating tasks to brainstorming ideas, analyzing data to providing personalizing experiences, we are on the cutting edge of transforming what’s possible in our digital world.

Marketing leaders who are proactive about balancing innovation with risk management will have a better chance of successfully integrating emerging technologies into their strategies, which will ultimately help them to stay competitive.

I think it’s important for marketing leaders to set the rules, boundaries, privacy, policies and procedures so their teams understand the ethical guidelines about privacy, transparency and fairness.

Once the framework has been set, we can empower our teams to innovate responsibly. By being agile and staying informed about trends we, as marketers, can continue to iterate and optimize the customer experience – and drive quantifiable results.

What AI cannot do (yet) is fully comprehend and replicate the depth of human emotions, creativity, and the nuanced understanding that comes from years of lived experiences and cultural context. 

Ultimately, to deliver value, dominate their niche, and maintain competitiveness, brands must persist in optimizing a human-centered, customer-focused experience.

Stephen Ghigliotty

Marketing & Adaptive Learning Executive; Creator of CMA’s Chartered Marketer Program

Depending on the size of the team or organization, I think a director’s job, whose main responsibility is to improve outcomes overall in terms of productivity, efficiency, and business integrity, is also a good strategy for enterprise overall. Looking for internal staff that is motivated would be another smart move.

If there is an enterprise-wide AI staff and governance in place already, the marketing team would of course need to be working through those protocols. And, if there are product development projects those would work through that organizational structure as well. Or should.

Also, test and learn. Test again and learn more. Read above your head. Watch and learn on a Discord server. Imagine use cases that are compelling. Talk to your colleagues at all levels about their experience and knowledge. Listen and learn more.That can lead to a better role in marketing.