AI won't replace marketers but you must have these 3 skills

To answer the question:

Many fear AI will replace marketing jobs, but others see it as an enabler. Based on your work, how do you see AI redefining marketing roles—not replacing them, but shifting how marketers add value?

Let’s start with a fundamental definition of marketing by Philip Kotler:

Marketing is the science and art of exploring, creating, and delivering value to satisfy the needs of a target market at a profit.

Breaking this down into three key components:

  • Exploring: Discovering the needs of the customer.
  • Creating: Designing solutions that meet those needs.
  • Delivering: Distributing those solutions to the customer.

With AI’s rapid integration into marketing, we can examine its impact at two levels:

1st Order Impact: Breakthrough Productivity

To achieve breakthrough productivity, you need to adopt an AI-first approach. It means before starting any task, marketers will turn to AI first. Instead of beginning with a Google search of discovering the needs of the customer, marketers will start their work using AI.

This shift will drive productivity levels like you’ve never seen before. For example, I recently helped a client develop a content idea matrix. What used to take her team hours to generate 20 content ideas now takes just 30 seconds with AI.

2nd Order Impact: AI-Driven Business Model Disruptions

Beyond AI-augmented workflows, AI’s second-order impact is far more profound and, dare I say, unpredictable.

Think about this:

  • If, in 2007, you had told me that when I travel, I’d be staying at a stranger’s house, I would have laughed.
  • If you’d told me that when I can’t pick up my kids, I would call a stranger to drive them home, I’d say you were crazy.

Yet, today, we have Airbnb and Grab (or Uber). These disruptive business models fundamentally reshaped industries.

AI will create a similar level of disruption in marketing and beyond. And, just like back then, some AI-disrupted business ideas would appear to be laughable or even impossible.

I believe, the real question we should be asking is:

What skills will marketers need to thrive in this new AI-driven world?

I would argue that marketers, and professionals across all industries, must master the 3S Framework:

  • Strengths: Marketers must identify and amplify their strengths using AI. AI is not here to replace human creativity but to enhance what we do best.

  • Strategy: In an environment where the rate of change is increasing at an increasing rate, being strategic allows marketers to leverage AI for maximum impact, making the best use of available resources.

  • Systems: Understanding how things work is crucial. The moment you can break down any system into its parts, AI can augment, optimize, or automate it, handling the heavy lifting while you focus on satisfying the needs of your target market at supernormal profit.

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