Don’t Worry, AI Isn’t Taking Your Job Yet

As plans for artificial intelligence (AI) come to fruition, chatter about the imminent decline of marketing jobs has become inevitable. But as we researched for the 2018 State of Martech report, we found that marketers are optimistic about their job security.

In fact, a majority of marketers aren’t actually worried about their jobs. Nearly two-thirds say they don’t feel like the advancement of marketing technology threatens their roles. Marketing tactics require more than technology alone to be successful, and 56 percent of marketers believe an equal mix of creativity and technology will drive marketing strategies five years from now. While we can’t predict what will happen after that, the data confirms that humans are a useful and productive part of marketing, and they view martech as a complement to their own jobs.

Technology’s Role

That’s not to say that marketers don’t rely and depend on technology to create more efficient practices for their companies, though. SOM blog 2 picThe data says marketers are eager to experiment with and apply new martech. Thirteen percent say their company has fully implemented IoT – and 56 percent say their organization is planning to implement the ever-growing network of connectivity and communications.

While widespread adoption of tools such as IoT can play a pivotal role in the evolution of martech, there doesn’t appear to be a one-size-fits-all solution. Nearly 70 percent of marketers say the perfect marketing stack doesn’t exist – and it may never.

Martech at Work

Technology like chatbots, blockchain or AI can create exceptional marketing campaigns – like when luxury luggage brand Tumi partnered with AgilOne to overhaul its marketing strategy. The smart AI crawls for customer data to send crafted one-to-one messages, push notifications and personalized recommendations. The company sent 40 million fewer emails in 2017 and saw e-commerce sales increase six times over. But it’s important to note that all technology carries risk of imperfection, like when several Amazon accounts were automatically shut down last April without an apparent reason.WS_SoM2018-Cover-300×300 (1)

Simply put, even the most advanced technology can’t replace human creativity or instinct – and marketers see the value in that. Even with rapid growth, martech isn’t cannibalizing human jobs yet. Humans remain vital to the execution of effective marketing campaigns, and by removing the human element completely, marketers risk losing touch with their most valuable assets: consumers.

To learn more about how marketers feel about technology, download State of Martech 2018.