The world of marketing and advertising has gone beyond conversations to wholly embrace ‘the age of artificial intelligence’. Although AI and machine learning (ML) have been around for decades, the arrival of generative AI has disrupted not only creatives and copy, but also decision making, operational efficiencies, speed to market as well as people, processes, pricing and innovation.
Campaign Middle East had a conversation with Accenture‘s Global CMO Jill Kramer on the need for brands and agencies to become ‘reinvention ready’; to focus on people as much as tech; the evolving role of CMOs in an AI-centric landscape, and much more.
Sharing her take on the need for brands — and the agencies serving them — to leverage AI to stay operationally agile, Kramer said, “It’s incredibly important for brands and agencies to become reinvention ready, especially in the world of generative AI, a tooI that helps us change how we work, how we help our company grow and how we save money or invest in new things.”
When questioned further about how AI has had a measurable impact on speed to market and cost savings, Kramer explained, “We created a complete AI platform called AI Refinery, which we are now using in our own marketing department. We’re deploying this agentic AI at scale to 2,000 marketers globally. Based on our work so far, we have planned big improvements in campaign planning and competitive intelligence. These improvements will reduce manual steps by 25 per cent to 35 per cent and will result in a 25 per cent to 55 per cent increase in speed to market while saving about 6 per cent in our costs.”
Reinventing marketing with AI in a ‘people-focused way’
The discussion delved into the need for marketers to focus on people as much as technology, as well as how viewing AI in isolation — as a KPI that needs to be met — cannot make a brand or an agency ‘reinvention ready’.
“Technology doesn’t work alone,” Kramer said. “You 100 per cent have to focus on the people as much as you focus on the tech. You can’t have one without the other.”
Campaign Middle East also asked the Accenture Global CMO about whether CMOs in an AI-augmented marketplace need to double down on succession planning, upskilling their marketing teams and creating an army of cross-functional, ‘full-scope’ marketers who are able to see and contribute to the bigger picture rather than just their specific KPIs.
Kramer explained. “Accenture is using AI to help our marketers improve our work and use every available source and resource to make each project work as hard as it can. But the real potential lies in rethinking the very way work gets done: every role, every process and every person. This requires a very human approach to reinventing the function. That reinvention includes empowering marketers to see the full picture, seeing beyond their immediate KPIs and more so the greater impact they make on the business.”
“Using data and technology makes marketers smarter, faster and more creative. It helps them be more proactive, resilient, and helps us adapt to fast changes and take advantage of new opportunities. For example, Accenture has used data and technology to change our marketing strategy,” she added. “The main goal is to help marketers see and contribute to the bigger picture. This will help everyone grow their careers and the company. Upskilling is a big part of that — both for our global marketing function as well as for Accenture across the board. Last year, our people had 44 million training hours last year — we believe greatly in learning, in training and in empowering our people to be the best in their jobs.”
Amidst this growing focus on data, upskilling, and improving people and processes within the organisation, the role of the CMO has also drastically evolved over the past 12 months — and is likely to continue evolving.
“I believe there is more potential than ever before in the role of the CMO. We are the keeper of the heart and soul of the company. We are the connection to the client and customer. And now, we have more data and more tools. We have more options to create those connections and to meet those needs — for the customer and the business.”
Kramer discussed three opportunities for continual evolution of the role, including:
- Data: To use data to see truths, to drive curiosity and to challenge the status quo.
- People and change: To bring marketers deeper into continual change as technologies like generative AI continue to disrupt our work. As when marketers embrace change, the business will change.
- Skill: To invest in building the core skills of all generations of marketers, from all backgrounds, to keep on innovating. Putting skilling at the centre will be critical to the success of marketing’s future.
Kramer said, “If we do not pay attention, leaders might choose to not train the next generation because AI could replace juniors, or the current generations, if they only look at costs,”
“Brands and the agencies supporting them need to embrace the reinvention of the whole marketing function and value chain with data and gen AI, in a responsible, people focused way. They also need and prove how their companies’ investment in marketing creates the ROI and the growth companies want,” she concluded.
