Artificial intelligence (AI) is already transforming marketing operations – reshaping the creative process, decision-making, and business expectations.
Enterprise marketers looking to adopt new AI tools and technologies are overwhelmed with choice (and hype). But the rewards for getting it right are clear: enhanced operational efficiency, personalisation, and customer engagement – and scalable innovation.
Here are three steps enterprise marketers can take to identify, integrate, and maximise value from AI technologies.
1. Start with the problem, not the technology.
AI adoption often stumbles when organisations leap to solutions without understanding the challenges they aim to address. But the problems that marketers are trying to solve with AI are the same problems they’ve always had: improving customer lifetime value, fostering brand affinity, and enhancing marketing effectiveness. AI isn’t a magic wand; it’s a tool you can use to solve specific pains more efficiently.
Define the marketing problems you face by asking objective-focussed questions, like:
- Are you struggling to create personalised content at scale?
- Are you able to get rich insights from large amounts of customer data?
- Is creative guesswork having a negative impact on campaign effectiveness?
Once your problems are better understood, you can begin to evaluate how AI can help. For example, generative AI models can create individualised messaging tailored to customer preferences. Machine learning models can detect patterns in customer behavior, enabling data-driven decisions about what resonates with your audience.
TL;DR: Approach AI as a partner in solving unique business challenges, not as a one-size-fits-all solution.
2. Scale creativity without sacrificing brand integrity.
AI gives marketers the ability to create things like personalised email and social media content at unprecedented scale. But overreliance on AI risks losing the human touch that makes brands relatable. Instead of delegating everything to AI, it should be used to amplify creativity – while maintaining brand consistency and a sense of authenticity.
Consistency starts with firm brand guardrails, built around:
- Establishing clear tone-of-voice guidelines for AI outputs
- Creating systems to review and refine AI-generated content
- Balancing automation with human oversight for nuanced messaging.
AI’s real value lies in its ability to help marketers multiply efforts by 10x or 100x – not simply reduce workloads. By combining AI’s efficiency with human creativity, brands can engage their audience without diluting the humanity and strength of their identity.
TL;DR: Use AI to enhance your ability to tell unique stories at scale, but ensure the human perspective guides the overall strategy.
3. Embrace data-led decision-making.
T3. Embrace data-led decision-making.
Traditional marketing often starts with a hypothesis: targeting a specific group or addressing a core demographic with pre-determined messaging strategies. But AI enables marketers to bypass initial hypotheses and creative guesswork. Powered by machine learning, neural networks, and large language models, you can now leverage data to drive confident, impactful decision-making.
And this gives your brand the ability to deliver:
- Precision targeting: the right AI tools can identify the most relevant groups to engage with and determine how to communicate effectively.
- Enhanced messaging: AI can tailor messages to meet consumer preferences, ensuring relevance and resonance.
- Increased relevance: AI can eliminate irrelevant or redundant communications by basing decisions on robust data patterns.
TL;DR: Focus on using AI for decision-making rather than just data collection to ensure your marketing efforts are targeted, effective, and aligned with consumer needs.
AI is about revenue generation, not cost-cutting.
One common misconception is that AI’s primary value lies in reducing operational costs. However, the real opportunity lies in driving revenue by enhancing customer engagement and loyalty. As one speaker aptly put it, this is not about trimming expenses—it’s about creating richer experiences that convert audiences into advocates.
AI empowers marketers to:
- Create hyper-personalised messaging that resonates deeply with diverse audiences.
- Understand customers at a granular level and communicate with them more effectively.
- Use insights to drive innovation in product positioning and campaign strategies.
One key takeaway.
AI is a transformative force for enterprise marketers, but its adoption requires intentionality and strategy. By starting with specific problems, scaling creativity responsibly, and embracing data-led decision-making, brands can unlock AI’s true potential.
AI isn’t a panacea for all your marketing problems, but it can be a powerful catalyst for growth – built on deeper connections and smarter innovations.
The insights in this series are based on conversations and learnings you can find in our new podcast, The Array. Want to learn more? Catch up with episode #004, featuring Lucy Colback, Technology Writer for The Financial Times.
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