What Will Happen to Marketing in the Age of AI? | Jessica Apotheker | TED

Thirty years ago, word processors and spreadsheets promised a massive productivity revolution, suggesting we'd all have more leisure time. The reality is we now produce more intricate documents and larger presentations. Generative AI is the next such revolution, and the key is to seize the productivity opportunity it offers, especially in marketing.

Marketing, traditionally a creative 'right-brained' function, has already evolved with digital tools. Generative AI is now transforming its core activities, improving 'right-brain' performance by 40%. This raises questions about what marketers will do with increased free time, with the speaker suggesting it will lead to more content and ideas.

More content can lead to highly personalized experiences for consumers, like tailored emails and product recommendations. However, it also risks content overload and a 'great equalization' of marketing, as AI trained on existing data may reduce creative divergence and make content sound similar.

To counter the risks, functions like marketing need to develop a 'left-AI brain' by strategically reskilling and reorganizing to embed people who can build, use, and diffuse predictive AI tools. This includes building teams of marketing data scientists and engineers to predict outcomes and unpack performance insights.

Companies often train AI models only on their current content, trapping them in their existing market. To reach new demographics or innovate, businesses must look outside their direct ecosystem for relevant data and content partners, forming federated models to train algorithms and strengthen their market reach.

Over-relying on generative AI can lead to a 40% drop in the collective divergence of ideas, stifling innovation and brand identity. It's crucial to identify and protect the true creatives and innovators within a function, upskilling them to use AI for inspiration and rapid prototyping, but teaching them to rely on human brains for original ideas and differentiation.

Marketers need to choose their path: cultivate creativity and innovation if that's their strength, or specialize in data, tech skills, and predictive AI competencies if they are rational and fact-based. Every marketer must decide how to leverage their strengths in the AI era.