Upskilling and How AI Will Change How We Work

(This is part three of a three-part series examining the importance of Artificial Intelligence and data to marketers. You can read part one here, part two here.)

Artificial Intelligence can help marketers speed through more mundane office tasks. To ignore it is to lose a competitive edge.

Those working in Advertising and Marketing might not be displaced by AI, but they will be displaced by someone who is working closely with AI.

The AI tool may have been trained on biased information. Platforms are prone to make up facts based on false information, so human verification is necessary. Agencies must also be cautious about inputting confidential client information, since it can become public domain.

Using AI and newer ways of working means a skills shift. At Plus Company, we see roles evolving with AI and shifting to higher value work. For instance, designers can shift to become systems designers, from strategists to UX professionals, and from junior communications specialists to trend analysts.

Human-Powered Creative and Strategic Thought are Key

Artificial intelligence may be faster, but human-powered creative and strategic thought is as much in demand as a quality data set.

Process-heavy analytical tasks will become automated by AI, allowing employees to focus on higher-value thinking at the strategic level.

We must stimulate people and organizations to come up with innovative ways to transform businesses with AI. Without this, its real potential will not be reached - and others will reach it and pass marketers by.

There is a wonderful opportunity that AI will replace or disintermediate humans and other technologies and processes, which has a much bigger and competitively critical impact.

As humans build structure around prediction to solve specific problems, it is human judgment that builds that capital iteratively (test, learn and encode).

Once this is there for the machines, or to be eliminated completely because an AI enables process re-engineering to do, humans are free to move on to solve the next problem that requires their judgment.

A Willingness to Experiment

The organizations that will be the most successful with AI are those that have a growth mindset and the curiosity to embrace new technology, and see how it can benefit their roles and their responsibilities.

There must be a willingness to experiment, iterate and evaluate risks.

There is a need for employees to add governance in how AI is used. Policies can guide teams on when and how to use AI, particularly with sensitive client data.

Plus Company has established an AI Community of Practice, which would allow employees in agencies across our global network to share best practices and learnings, establish a governance model, create thought leadership and more.

Privacy, Ethics, and the ability of Human judgment to engineer AI solutions will ameliorate bias. This is an important opportunity for marketers moving into the AI space.

Recommendations

• Embrace AI in your Marketing Plans. Adopt a curious mindset and dive in. Test and learn with the AI.

•  Create a Marketing AI Strategy. Be an AI champion in your business and build a plan with your team. Prioritize AI use cases within marketing and socialize your plan.

• Prepare Your Data. Using a data-centric AI approach, analyze your data maturity, identify gaps and create and execute the roadmap.

• Activate Your Data. Focus on your priority use cases. Start small, test, iterate and scale

• Create a Community of Practice. Establish a community so teams adopt the technology in new and different ways, encourage experimentation across the organization and share best practices for use, security and ethical approaches.

• Provide Guardrails. Establish policies and AI governance to offer guidance to employees to measure risks within the organization.

Conclusion

AI will enable businesses to be more productive, work more efficiently and at lower cost. AI will shift the way organizations work, and will be enabled to make a greater business impact, more quickly.

CMO’s and marketing organizations that adopt AI strategies faster will have a significant competitive advantage. To ignore AI is to miss a major business opportunity.

Companies are looking for people who can guide their artificial intelligence journey - and this is an opportunity for the marketing organization to lead the way with innovation by rapidly adopting AI and showing the value it can provide to the bottom line.

Now is the moment to lead the charge.

CMOs who dive in, curate expertise, and adopt AI will create a significant competitive advantage.