So, let me start by bringing you back in time. We are thirty (30) years ago, and the first word processers and spread sheets are about to hit the market. And the whole economic world is bracing for the next big Productivity revolution. Their promise at the time was we'd all spend so much less time Writing, drawing Slides, Computing numbers on calculator. 

And here we are, thirty (30) years later, and the promise has come true, we have so much Leisure time on our hands, the reality of what has happened thirty (30) years later is we don't work less, we just work much longer word documents and our PowerPoints decks have gone from six (6) slides to fifty (50) slides. Also, we engage in much more complex decision making, because the amount of data that we have to process has just exploded. 

And why is that important today?

Well, Generative Al is coming and it's coming to be embedded in the core of our organization, and the way we work. And that will be the next big productivity revolution, so the question becomes:

How do we set ourselves up to actually seize this productivity opportunity?

I'm marketer I spend all my time career in marketing and also advertising professionals. Now, some say marketing is the first impacted, the number one impacted function out there, some say the productivity impact in marketing is as high as fifty percent (50%). So, the question of now: Can I seize that productivity opportunity? is super high on my mind right now, and I want to make the case, it Should be super important to you, all as well as business leaders but also as consumers.

So, what will happen to marketing?

Well, Marketing has traditionally been a super right-brained, creative type of function, that means what? Means we have excelled as marketers by tapping into the emotional needs of our consumers, coming up with that perfect product, that perfect innovation to meet that need, and also then cracking that great message that we'll convert the consumers at the right place in the right time.

Already in the past fifteen (15) years, with digital marketing and analytics, marketing has evolved from being only right-brain type of general skills to a few more specialized skills, for example digital marketing or marketing technology. But now the difference with generative Al is transforming the core of marketing activities. Now, in recent study that the Boston Consulting group conducted with Harvard university, we found that Chat GPT, in its current form now, already improves the right brain performance of marketers by forty percent (40%), imagine what that number will be in a year or two from now.

So, what do you think marketers would do with day and half of day at week? more yoga!! more family times!! do you think companies would allow that? or do you think companies will just let large chunks of the marketing function go?

Well, I believe none of this is going to happen. I think if we don't steer that productivity revolution very actively, marketers will invest this time in what they do best: more content and more ideas. Now if you think of more content, there is super productive outcome for all of us as consumers. More content actually means much more personalized content. Now think of that email, that getting from your favorite brand every week, Imaging if that e-mail was  one hundred percent (  %) tailored to you, means only images of people like you, your age، your gender, even people wearing T-shirts of your favorite rock band, every product relevant for you, and even human-like experience powered by bot, that is  certainly a productive outcome, but there is also a very negative outcome for us as consumers here, and that is content overload.

How many of you already feel chased by the Same content over and over again online? Now imagine if that content chasing you, if that amount of content chasing you just explodes. And imagine if that content chasing you also sounds the same.

Now why is that a risk??

Generative AI has been trained on existing content and data because of that, it reduces divergence of outcome. And that great equalization of marketing is Certainly not a productive outcome. So, what is the solve here?  Well, I believe marketing but also every function out there, that is impacted by this productivity revolution needs to grow left AI brained, grow on fast, and also identify and protect its top right-brained talent. You are going ask me, what do You mean by grow a left AI brained?

Well, I mean the function needs to strategically reskill and reorganize to embed people can build, use and diffuse predictive AI tools in the heart of decision-making. I mean, for marketing, building teams of marketing data scientists, marketing data engineers that build solutions that can be distributed to all marketers to, for example, unpack performance and predict outcomes. Imagine in marketing being able to understand what audience creative Couples are really hitting it off in the market, or what product is working with which consumers and why or how is the marketing funnel evolving.

I recently partnered with consumer goods company that did exactly that, they decided to grow a left-Al brain advantage. we helped them build tools that were defused in the entire organization that helped every marketer predict for every marketing initiative, what was going to be the Sales outcome? how a consumer behavior is going be impacted on every channel and every touchpoint? and go deep unpacking execution insights to understand what creative? was working? and why?

That created a super virtuous feedback loop in the entire organization it also took building a team of thirty (30). plus, Left Al brain marketers, that build these tools, customize them, but also in turn upskill the entire organization. to use them, but the team's only a part of the puzzle, I see too many companies out here embarking on this journey, just training their algorithms and models only on their current Content and data, now if you do that, the risk for a brand is to be trapped in your Current territory.

Concretely, imagine you are a brand that is a super strong with millennials there is nothing in data and Content existing on millennials that will help you to be successful with Gen Z. And in turn, if you're never successful with Gen Z, you will miss out on important innovations and trends that will make you stronger with millennials, so I advise every company out there: think outside of the box, outside your direct Ecosystem on who could be super relevant data and content partners for you ... Imagine you're a constructive company, and you decide to market to architects for the first time. You have zero data on architects.

What do you do? Who has data on architects?

Other construction companies but they're direct Competitors. So, what do you go? Well, you go outside your ecosystem potentially, for example with financial institutions, insurances. You can set up a federated model with them, train algos on that, that will turn make you much strong on to market a new consumer segment. And so, are you done? if you have doing that, if you have that data, if you have these skills, are you done? Have you that left AI brain advantage?

Well, no actually you are not, If you do that, there is a risk you give all of you right brain to generative AI and in turn run  a real risk of losing that divergence, losing that super strong  brand identity being trapped in that grand equalization of marketing, I was talking about a minute ago, in  the Harvard study, that Boston Consulting group conducted with Harvard, we found that the people over-rely on generative AI the collective divergence of ideas drops by forty  percent (40%). Concretely that means that new ideas don't come to the surface. It means that true innovation is being Stifled.

So, what is a solve here? Well, you need to identify the true artists, the true differentiators, the true innovators of your function. Now, if you've ever work in marketing, you know who these people are? they are the one that always disagree with you. Now you take these people and you need to strategically reskill them to use AI well, for example, to be inspired by new ideas, to be inspired by new trends, to also crack fast prototypes, to multiply there impact once they have crack a great idea that you need to protect them and teach them from using the AI to generate and originate original ideas for that they have to use their human brain to keep those human Juices flowing, and that in turn will protects the identity of your brand, and your differentiation in the market.

So, I want to close with an advice for any marketer out there, what are you good at? are you super creative? Are you the true innovation in the room? Well, if you are cultivating that, that will your super power. Do you like data? Are you super rational, are you super fact based? Then you should specialize, you should grow tech skills, you should be investing in predictive AI competencies, but right now every marketer out here needs to choose their brain.