When marketing becomes overly siloed and bureaucratic, it hinders innovation by restricting access to strategic, meaningful work primarily to those with tenure and titles.
AI is disrupting these conventions and democratizing opportunity by elevating capabilities over credentials.
GenAI automates repetitive tasks, freeing more people up to tap uniquely human strengths like creativity, empathy, curiosity, and ethics to drive breakthroughs.
Hear it firsthand. Find champions like Gabe in your organization.
Click below to watch Gabriel Moronta, Head of Growth Visla, describe how AI empowers him to pursue impact based on the value of ideas, not credentials.
Here are 5 key actions to drive impact in the era where Impact Eats Status:
1. Focus on the unrepeatable.
By offloading repetitive tasks to AI, marketers can invest time in building empathy, storytelling, and ethical skills that set them apart. This focus on unique human strengths reorients top talent toward higher judgment and strategy - increasing business growth through innovation while achieving personal career impact based on merit over status.
2. Measure impact, not outputs.
Evaluating AI success based on business impact rather than output metrics redirects efforts toward what matters most to end goals. This orientation toward demonstrable results removes reliance on status awards. Outcomes will eventually become connected to tangible bottom-line value like pipeline growth - accelerating AI adoption through data-driven ROI.
3. Incentivize adoption by linking AI to business value.
Incentivizing teams to use AI tools by tying adoption goals directly to real business results speeds up adoption across the organization. This concrete approach breaks through reluctance to change old ways of doing things or learn new skills. Spreading AI by focusing on how it drives business value unlocks more opportunities for creativity across marketing teams. Integrating rigorous governance and ethics practices ensures responsible innovation.
4. Democratize access to customer insights.
Breaking down internally competitive data silos empowers all marketers to leverage AI, not just insider teams. Consumer closeness is decentralized through equal access to customer analytics - enabling agility over status quo hierarchy. Hyper-personalized journeys resonate across any department or level - driving loyalty, satisfaction, and ultimately revenue through org-wide coordination and capabilities trumping tenure.
5. Cultivate grassroots experimentation.
Providing informal teams with resources to experiment with AI use cases unlocks bottom-up innovation vs. top-down vision setting. Rapid experimentation and funding empower risk-taking over status consciousness - achieving more ideas challenged early at a low cost. Success is dictated by high impact over team rank.
The VMware award-winning Marketing AI Council began as a grassroots experiment by a small group of marketers. This organic approach led to executive buy-in and a Gold Award in the International Marcom Awards, validating the power of ground-up innovation.
Empower through access and lead the charge, not the chase.
A Deloitte survey reveals 53% of companies are prioritizing hiring AI talent over retraining staff, reflecting an early adoption phase. However, combining external recruiting and internal democratization of AI skilling creates opportunities to disrupt outdated hierarchies. By giving ambitious marketers access to reskilling, regardless of tenure, marketing leadership can cultivate an agile, equitable structure - empowering all levels to drive initiatives aligned with their strengthened capabilities.
Referenced source
Deloitte’s State of AI in the Enterprise, 5th Edition report
About the graphics
Décollage is a technique in abstract art where an existing image or artwork is partially scraped, torn, or removed to reveal new surfaces and textures underneath. GenAI brings a parallel shakeup to marketing through its automation and democratization, revealing creative potential from unconventional sources.
About me
I'm Catherine Richards, the writer and editor of The Strategist Blog and 'Making GenAI Work for Work.' I want to help marketers use our unique human skills to think strategically about the value we provide and shape our own success stories. Because being human is the ultimate marketing asset.
About The Strategist Blog
The Strategist Blog is content created by marketers, for marketers, and shares knowledge and insight to help marketers strategize our human plus AI advantage.
Looking to become an AI marketing leader in your org? Check out Making GenAI Work for Work: Create a Marketing AI Council and Making GenAI Work for Work: Find Your Use Case.
Just getting started? Check out Making GenAI Work for Work: Nobody is Coming to Save You
Posts in the 'Making GenAI Work for Work' series are published on LinkedIn and The Strategist Blog.
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