When it Comes to AI, Are You Leading or Lagging?
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Artificial intelligence is among the most popular conversation topics in marketing today, and retailers are feeling intense pressure for a well-considered point of view and strategy around the technology. In recent roundtable discussions with more than 50 marketing leaders at a global conference, we found a vast range of experiences, organizational commitment to AI, and lessons learned from its use.
Marketers’ experiences with AI ranged from “it’s in my 2025 plan” to others who have been successfully using the technology for more than a decade. Yet, regardless of experience, there's a broad distinction in AI-enabled marketing: those who are leading by successfully using AI in their marketing practice and those who are lagging.
Leaders see AI as a means of business growth, whereas laggards see it as anything from a short-term cost-saving tool to a passing phenomenon.
For decades, science fiction has created a perception that AI represents software and hardware that will replace the function of costly humans. This has created trepidation among marketers that AI success could ultimately cost them their jobs.
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However, leaders use AI today for everything from art and copy versioning to dynamic content optimization (DCO) and personalized customer experiences, and they're doing so faster than their competitors. But instead of simply taking these hours saved to the bottom line, leaders seize the opportunity to refocus and redeploy talented resources on innovative thinking to grow their businesses. They’re using AI to find patterns in customer behavior that ultimately empower them to deliver richer, more differentiated experiences. Those leading the way use AI to fuel product development based on everything from transactional data to site interaction, search history, and more. The most successful AI-powered marketers are also educating their organizations to think of AI in the hands of extraordinary humans instead of fueling the “people vs. robots” fears that have taken over much of the conversation in recent years.
Leaders also better understand the limitations of AI. They understand the relative weakness of AI in generating vs. iterating content and operate from the firm belief that there are many things that only a human can do. (Witness the recent industry dust-up over the Open AI-generated campaign for Toys “R” Us.) Leaders see AI as a way to get the most from their people instead of replacing them. Those succeeding with AI seek out peer and partner conversations regularly on the topic, engage in betas and pilots to stay on top of innovations in the space, and often have an AI learning and evolution agenda to de-stigmatize the technology and make it a part of their company culture.
Those lagging behind the industry regarding AI — whether gripped by fears of job elimination, lack of expert knowledge sharing, or mired in organizations that prefer to see AI as “tomorrow’s problem” — have engaged more tactically and tentatively. Many have implemented isolated programs, such as using AI to optimize email delivery, that reflect an outdated perspective on its possibilities. These laggards spend time assuaging employee fears instead of educating them on how AI can help further their careers and lead to more rewarding work than versioning and iteration.
Rather than engaging others across the industry to learn from their success and create an AI road map for their organizations, laggards regard AI the way many organizations did the internet and social media in years past. (Hey, the metaverse never turned out to be a thing, right?) Yet, not having a strategy for AI means ceding ground to competitors that have found ways to profit from it. And while the metaverse may never be known by that infamous name again, the vision of Web 3 that it represented — converging AI, augmented reality, virtual reality, and massive amounts of personal data — is coming to life before our eyes.
Whether your company is leading or lagging on AI, start by asking a few simple questions:
- What tasks are currently being performed by staff that AI can do at least as well?
- How can that staff be redeployed towards revenue-generating activity that a bot cannot replicate?
- Where is your organization today — top to bottom — regarding its understanding of AI?
- Where must your company be on this learning curve for AI to become a growth engine?
For those in the deep end of the AI pool and the shallow end, it helps to connect with both peers and role models on the subject, particularly in noncompetitive categories with whom you can share knowledge and learn along the way. Learn from others’ experiences and look for analogs to implement in your business. 2025 will be a year of significant advances in AI use across all marketing aspects. A vision and plan for the new year will ensure your brand is in the best possible position to capitalize.
Ian Baer is the founder and chief soothsayer of the strategic insights platform and marketing consultancy Sooth.
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Ian Baer is the founder and chief soothsayer of the strategic insights platform and marketing consultancy Sooth, has been solving marketing’s greatest challenges for over three decades. He has spent his career helping major brands achieve extraordinary success and challenger brands box above their weight class in leadership roles with Publicis Groupe, TBWA, Rapp, Deutsch, and others.