Generative AI has arrived, bringing a tidal wave of new technologies that can produce human-like text, images, audio and code on demand.
For marketing teams, generative AI represents a seismic shift with both incredible opportunities and potential disruptions to current workflows and strategies. As a leader, it’s critical to be proactive in planning how you will guide yourself, your team, and your company through this challenging technological transformation. Just look at this recent LinkedIn post by @ReidHoffman testing out an AI-generated version of himself. Created with the Hour One platform, it provides a glimpse into how top voices are experimenting with these powerful and exciting new tools.
Planning Your Generative AI Strategy
Start by identifying your organization’s priorities and goals for adopting generative AI capabilities. How can these tools create efficiencies, reduce costs, improve productivity, and unlock new creative frontiers? Develop a cohesive strategy that aligns the technology with your business objectives.
You’ll also need to make important decisions around governance – what guardrails and ethical principles will you put in place to ensure responsible and trustworthy deployment of AI models? Think through data privacy, security, and risk mitigation practices.
Most importantly, rally your marketing team around this transformational vision. As Dale Carnegie reminds us, success will go to those who “embrace the new while continuing to deliver timeless value.” Communicate openly, address concerns, and get their buy-in as you chart the course for navigating the generative AI revolution together.
Cultivating the Right Mindset
The first step is fostering an innovation mindset within your marketing organization. Generative AI will fundamentally change many aspects of marketing, from content creation to advertising to analytics and insights. Marketers who embrace this technological shift with curiosity, creativity and adaptability will be best positioned to excel.
Encourage your team members to experiment hands-on with generative AI tools and techniques. Ask them to identify potential use cases for streamlining processes or unlocking new capabilities. An openness to testing, learning and even failing will be critical as you navigate the generative AI landscape together.
Upskilling on Generative AI
Of course, your marketers will also need to develop robust technical skills around using and understanding generative AI models. Look into training programs and certifications from AI vendors as well as universities and online courses.
Key areas of focus should include:
- Prompt engineering to refine instructions and inputs for generative models
- Evaluating the quality, safety and potential biases of AI outputs
- Ethical AI principles and responsible deployment guardrails
- Integrating generative AI into marketing tech stacks and data pipelines
Beyond just technical expertise, creative disciplines like copywriting, design and multimedia content creation should now incorporate generative AI as a core tool for ideation and accelerated production.
Building a Learning Culture
Don’t go it alone – connect your marketing team with the rapidly growing generative AI community. Attend conferences, join online forums, and follow thought leaders who are on the cutting edge of applying these technologies for marketing use cases.
Within your organization, create opportunities for knowledge sharing through working groups, lunch and learns, or “open office hours” where early adopters can teach their colleagues. A culture of continuous learning will be vital as generative AI capabilities exponentially progress. As Dale Carnegie believes, “Organizations that want to see a strong bottom-line impact by integrating new forms of generative AI into their workplace need to make employees a central part of their strategy.”
Looking Ahead
Generative AI represents a pivotal moment for the marketing profession. The teams and brands that get ahead of this technological transformation will be able to blaze new creative frontiers and more
efficiently meet customer needs. While change can be daunting, equipping your marketers with the right skills and mindsets around generative AI will future proof their careers and your organization for years to come. By leaning into generative AI through workforce investment and development, your marketing team can stay ahead rather than being disrupted. This will unlock greater efficiency, creativity and job satisfaction as Forbes noted.
