For some marketers, the rapid rise of excitement and potential around AI has been accompanied by trepidation. Whether they’re worried about the masked nature of AI or fear being tricked into an investment that doesn’t pan out, many find themselves a little spooked by common misconceptions. In the spirit of Halloween, we’ve decided to address those specters head-on to help you see AI for what it can be: a sweet treat.
Myth 1: The Ghost of Human Marketers. Marketing employees should be “spooked” by AI as they will vanish and be replaced by AI agents. -- Brian McCann, Senior Analyst, Technology Strategy
You’re not going to be replaced by AI soon: currently, AI agents still need guidance and human oversight to provide business value. You may, however, be outclassed by coworkers and competitors who use AI regularly to augment their workload. If you haven’t at least tried using AI tools, now’s a good time to start researching your options.
As marketers, we should embrace these tools, as they allow us to remove ourselves from the drudgery. For example, over the past decade, most marketers have been overwhelmed with data and have lacked the time to synthesize and take action. Now, you can deploy AI agents to remove you from this drudgery and bring you actionable data closer to real time. In turn, you can put your big human brain to work with creative and strategic tasks, which is exactly what it was designed to do.
Myth 2: The Curse of Lagging. Everyone is using AI today, and your organization is behind. -- Carly Longo, Senior Director, Technology Strategy
Don’t let the hype scare you away. Deciding how best to hop on the AI bandwagon or accelerate into more advanced AI usage across your organization has an important foundational hack.
There are many tricks to the trade, but the first is figuring out what capabilities and needs you have. Gather up all your existing marketing processes, tools, and pains, and identify areas where AI could plug and play. Start small so you can test and learn – think predictive analytics, content, chatbots, and more. Build the power within your teams to get excited and generate some adoption steam. Evaluate tools, establish KPIs, and govern your way to ethical AI.
For more information on getting your organization ready for AI, read our posts about preparing your data for AI and AI use case ideation.
Myth 3: The Illusion of Success. Using AI guarantees revenue gains and successfully reaching new customers. -- Nico Veltri, Director, Data & Decisioning Platforms
In the eerie pre-Gen AI days, marketers roamed the digital landscape with spell books of third-party cookies and predictive attribution. Firms paid hefty sums to marketing research giants to conjure complex persona matrices and analytics insights, only to be told to summon more Facebook ads. This was the early age of person-based marketing, when the cauldron of behavioral retargeting had yet to bubble over.
But now, as the clock strikes midnight on third-party cookies, the fog of clean rooms rolls in. We now find our clients investing even more with cutting edge AI-generated options, navigating the labyrinth of data wrangling and predictive modeling with tools that execute their mystical predictions.
But without the right prework, marketers may find themselves haunted by empty promises made to the organization about immediate gains they might see from AI. In reality, AI investments may not show immediate monetary gains – and depending on your use cases, it may not translate directly to customer acquisition or revenue growth. That’s why a solid KPI framework and a clear vision of what AI needs to achieve for your organization, and on what timeline, are musts to prevent stakeholders and leaders from feeling tricked.
Myth 4: The Phantom of Machine Marketing. Using AI for content relevancy leads to cold, impersonal marketing & consumer connection. – Carolyn Barrs, Manager, Technology Strategy
When you think about AI-generated content, you may imagine it lurking in the shadows, composing content that's colder than ice, leaving audiences feeling like they're chatting with a robot in a tuxedo.
But here’s the twist—using AI for content relevancy doesn’t turn your marketing into an impersonal ghost story. Instead, it’s more like a matchmaking service for brands and customers. AI can dive into data, find out what your audience loves, and serve it up with precision, like a DJ spinning the perfect track at a party. Sure, it’s tech powered, but it’s all about making real connections by delivering what customers actually want. So, let’s unmask this phantom and see AI for what it truly is: a valuable tool for marketing, not a haunting specter!
Myth 5: The Disorientation of Reality. Was this blog written by AI? – Courtney Trudeau, SVP, Technology Strategy
You think AI was this creative? Well, you aren’t wrong in thinking it, because the reality is, with the right training and prompt, AI can create very custom content. But, this blog was in fact written by real humans. That said, we may have used some creative AI prompts to tailor the fun headings to Halloween…
It might be a scary time of year, but AI is not something to be afraid of. Like one of our favorite Halloween costumes, superwoman/man – all of us Clark Kents of the world can, with the right use cases, use AI to give us superpowers and tackle the next best things to come.
