Exploring Generative AI: How CMOs are Preparing for a Future of Job Redefinition and Cost Savings
Key Highlights :
As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to develop, nearly all chief marketing officers (CMOs) are exploring how to use generative AI to create advertising materials and reduce grunt work. However, many CMOs are asking the same question: How soon will it come for their jobs? It is unclear when AI will reach a level of performance that surpasses humans, but its ability to draw on vast pools of data to help create ads could soon be a reality. The pressure to use AI to increase productivity and cut costs is growing, and this could lead to layoffs in the near future. The biggest long-term impact of AI, though, may be in how it changes the nature of jobs in marketing.
A survey conducted by market research firm NewtonX for The Wall Street Journal found that the top goal for AI among marketers is to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of their campaigns. Additionally, 78% of marketers picked greater efficiency as a relevant objective, while 63% said they think AI will help them produce new kinds of content. Executives also think AI will help them cut costs by around 13% on average, with 6% calling this their No. 1 priority. Internal head count reductions will be the biggest source of those savings, according to 19% of survey participants.
When asked to name the biggest challenges that could arise from the use of generative AI, 48% of marketers in the NewtonX survey predicted that their own teams would shrink as these tools take on more responsibilities. Another 48% anticipated smaller marketing budgets over time. As AI takes on more responsibilities, CMOs want to determine how it can help with tasks such as replying to social-media posts and creating personalized messages for individual users.
Tech companies have been more straightforward about the impact of AI on jobs. Of the 80,000 people whom U.S. employers said they laid off last month, 3,900 lost their jobs because of AI, according to a report from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. All 3,900 of those people worked at tech companies, according to a Challenger, Gray spokeswoman.
AI-driven changes in recruiting strategies are inevitable, according to Orlando Baeza, chief revenue officer and head of marketing for logistics startup Flock Freight. Entry-level advertising creatives, for example, may soon trade junior copywriter jobs for new titles like “prompt copywriter"—and those who specialize in working from AI prompts will become especially valuable to marketers in the coming years.
AI isn’t a miracle cure for overworked marketing teams, and the amount of time required to train employees on these tools may even reduce productivity in the short term. However, CMOs have already begun to quantify efficiency gains. Creative teams can produce the same amount of work with 20% to 30% fewer people when using AI, according to Domenic Colasante, chief executive of business-to-business marketing services firm 2X.
The Knot Worldwide recently began testing AI-generated email subject lines, one of which achieved a 20% higher open rate and 18% higher success rate for the message than an earlier, AI-free version of the same email, according to Chief Marketing Officer Jenny Lewis. Moving forward, The Knot hopes to measure the degree to which its marketing team can use AI to complete routine requests more quickly, thereby freeing up time to work on more complex creative projects.
Despite these experiments, most of AI’s value remains firmly in the future, according to Laura Beaudin, a partner at consulting firm Bain & Co. CMOs are conscious of not replacing jobs, but are looking to do more with the same group. As AI continues to develop, CMOs must prepare for a future of job redefinition and cost savings.
