How should marketers respond to AI?

Speaking to WFA at its annual Global Marketer Week recently, global marketers have suggested that brands should adopt one of two approaches to AI: dive in or take a more focused journey.

Asked what one message they would give on AI, answers split broadly into two groups, those advocating try now or ask questions now. Many contributors also added that what really mattered was to keep humans in the loop and to remember what makes their contribution unique and separate that from the role of AI.

In the more cautious group, there were those who advised marketers not to worry about being behind the curve. “Don't be stressed and overwhelmed that you are the last [...] marketer, and you're the last company who embraced AI,” said Dmitriy Pilipenko, Global Head of Marketing Excellence and Transformation at Carlsberg Group. “There are many companies now doing the same, and they're in the same trajectory,” he said.

Also backing a focused approach was Taide Guajardo, Chief Brand Officer at P&G Europe. “My recommendation would be to really focus on what are the two or three big impact areas that AI can really help bring to the next stage. I would invite you to think not only productivity, not only efficiency, but in particular effectiveness, because at the end of the day, we need to drive sales,” she said.

Among the dive-in group, some CMOs argued that now was the time to get into the weeds of AI. “I would strongly recommend you actually use the different tools,” said Tad Greenough, Global Chief Creative Officer at Pernod Ricard. “My view on AI is as I see it as an incredible way to test ideas, to not necessarily produce work, but as a tool for creative people. I think it's phenomenal. Will it ever replace human innovation and human thought? Not for me and not for my organisation.”

Lauren Walker, Vice President Digital Transformation at Mars, adds that experimentation should include understanding how AI impacts on both work and home life.  “What I found very useful around AI was leaning in myself with my teams of various generations, and understanding, how can I actually use AI at work? What are the folks that are using AI, whether it's Co-pilot or Gemini, what are they doing to make their tasks easier or faster? And then I really forced myself in a very deliberate way to use Gemini on my own as a consumer,” she said.

There was no substitute for just doing it, added Anouck Bizien-Mourgue, Global Head of L'Oréal University for Augmented Marketing & Communications: “My message will be not to contemplate too long. You know, it's really about test and learn to understand the value and then see where to invest, where to where to scale, but don't contemplate too long.”

That viewpoint was also echoed by Patrik Hansson, Executive Vice President & CMO at Arla Foods. “Get in there, start to experiment, start to learn, because ultimately you will have colleagues that know how to be more productive with the use of AI, and you need to be one of them, otherwise it's going to be hard to keep your job,” he said.

Jérôme Amouyal, Global Media and Marketing Effectiveness Director at AXA, went further saying that anyone starting now was already late. “I would say, start the journey. You will do mistakes. You will do good things, but you need to start because you're late,” he said.

Finally, many across both groups emphasized the role of humans in marketing and getting the balance between tech and people right.

“What is maybe missing in a lot of the discussion is the focus on our taste, our judgement, our understanding of context that allows us to really bring something that sits above the tools, the ability to know what a brand would do and wouldn't do in a situation that no one's encountered before. Without that judgement, the AI tools are just noise and increasingly converging what everyone's creating,” said Cecilia Weckstrom, Director, DCE Transformation Initiatives at the LEGO Group.

Rafael Narvaez, Global CMO at Mutti, agreed. “AI is just a powerful engine. It's amazing how it is automating content, scaling it, localising it, and in a very agile way. But only humans can create meaning for the brand. And at the end of the day, you need to win through distinctiveness.”

Finally, Jiunn Shih, CMO at Driscoll’s summed up the human-AI equation. “We need to think about how to incorporate the benefits that this tool can help us become better marketers, but never lose the humanity,” he said. “We are in the business of helping build meaning for our brands. We are in the business to help to shape perceptions. We are in the business of changing behaviours.”