Ask any chief marketing officer what’s keeping them up at night, and they might tell you adapting to the pace of change brought about by AI is tricky.
As AI changes how consumers find and interact with brands, marketers have to devise new strategies to reach them. “In the past, if you were to pick a brand, you’d probably go and search for it on Instagram and so forth. But now, [customers] are using ChatGPT to find out more about that brand [...] so you may not be as heavily influenced by an ad as you were before. LLMs are becoming your true central source of information,” says Naomi Walkland, CMO of used car marketplace Motorway.
As AI has sped everything up, that’s also increased pressure to “get results overnight,” says Sarah Kiefer, head of marketing at AI-powered meeting platform Supernormal.
“There’s this adage at the moment that the only moat is speed. You’re literally trying to grow faster than anybody else and get traction faster, because there’s a sense that in the AI age, there will be winners and losers that will be defined very quickly,” she says.
Traditional methods for making brands discoverable to users online — like SEO, paid ads and email marketing — are also evolving. Marketers now have to make their content AI-friendly for search engines and use AI tools to optimise ads automatically. “Every department in marketing has changed,” says Walkland.
CMO gets technical
All of this has had a knock-on effect on the CMO role. Today’s CMOs are partly technical, responsible for embedding AI into their departments and suggesting what tools to use.
It’s even being outlined as a requirement in new CMO job descriptions, says Kiefer. “You have to know the tech environment inside out and know what the up-and-coming things are.”
One of Walkland’s big priorities is upskilling her team in using AI. She says creating a culture of learning and experimentation is paramount to doing that effectively.
Her 30 person team has three ‘AI champions’ who are responsible for sharing learning opportunities with the team and encouraging them to use AI. Some are independently doing courses to upskill, such as the Oxford Saïd Business School AI Programme and Google’s Generative AI Leader training course. The team also hosts regular hackathons where members try building things and experimenting with new tools, and share learnings with each other.
Role modelling from leaders is essential for getting employees to use AI. “You need to empower teams to explore, test and use AI confidently in their day-to-day,” says Walkland. “Sometimes when my team sends me something, I’ll go back to them and say: 'Have you leveraged AI to make this better?' So it gives them the license to use it.”
At Supernormal, there’s no “top down strategy” for AI, but everyone is encouraged to exchange tips and tricks, says Kiefer.
She recalls working with a freelance web designer on a new version of the company’s homepage who explained how to use AI animation tools to create gradient backgrounds that shift over time instead of staying static — something she’s now adopted into her AI repertoire. “Somebody used to have to work on that for two days. Now you can give a tool three colours and a vibe to create something usable,” she says.
Walkland has seen huge benefits in using AI tools to produce quality content at scale. Some platforms come with embedded image generation or design tools to produce brand assets.
Marketers can also create their own GPTs (custom AI assistants built on OpenAI’s language models) to draft content in their own voice or someone else’s. For example, an internal memo or a LinkedIn post can be written in the tone of voice of the CEO.
AI tools like Braze, a customer engagement platform, helps Motorway’s marketing team create “greater distinction and personalisation” in their campaigns, crucial in a world where platforms are saturated with content. “What’s going to make that person, that customer, read your email over the hundreds they’re getting a day?”, says Walkland.
Building trust
What AI can’t do is replace the power of human connection. Both Kiefer and Walkland have observed the growing importance of in-person events to engage with customers and build long-lasting relationships.
“The future CMO will have to balance what AI does best with what only humans can do. AI will make marketing faster, smarter and more efficient, but it cannot replace the sense of connection people look for from a brand,” says Walkland.
“That is where belonging comes in… making sure customers feel understood, included and valued. The emotional layer. When people feel that, they trust the brand. And in a world shaped by AI, trust will be the thing that really sets businesses apart.”
Building trust is one of the biggest challenges marketers will face in an AI world. Customers are increasingly aware that content, reviews and even images may be AI-generated and they expect brands to be transparent about how they use AI and safeguard customer data.
Kiefer says there is a “tension” for most brands in being authentic and “standing for something” to encourage consumers to engage with them long term — while also creating content to capture attention (even if only for two to three seconds) and stand out on various platforms. Marketers are increasingly having to think “how do you bridge that gap?,” she says.
For Kiefer, the CMO role will become more about “taste and vision,” things she doesn’t see AI becoming particularly good at any time soon. “The whole point of marketing — and particularly marketing for startups and new products — is you’ve got to be different from everyone else. AI is great at understanding and executing something that is very similar to what’s already out there today.”
