Marketing Operations In The

Age Of AI
Greg Kihlstrom Oct 31, 2023,

Greg Kihlström advises Fortune 1000 companies on

MarTech, CX, and Digital Transformation, and hosts The
Agile Brand Podcast.

getty

AI provides marketers with a great opportunity to manage

complex tasks, analyze vast amounts of data, and
personalize customer experiences that benefit both
customers and the business itself. However, implementing AI
is not without its challenges, and marketing leaders must
take a strategic approach to maximize its value.

In my work advising Fortune 1000 companies on digital

transformation, I often recommend they take a look at how AI
can be integrated directly into their marketing operations.
Let’s explore the impact and challenges of AI on marketing
operations, including its potential to enhance customer
experience, improve efficiency and drive better decision-
making.

Benefits Of AI In Marketing Operations

Strategic adoption of AI in the enterprise can lead to
improved customer experience through personalized
content, offers and experiences that react in real time and
even anticipate opportunities beforehand. For marketing
operations specifically, AI-driven solutions can analyze
consumer data and create targeted marketing campaigns to
improve customer interactions per their interests and needs,
and even take actions to reduce and prevent customer churn
before it happens.

From an internal perspective, AI can also increase efficiency

through automation and streamlined processes. Marketing
teams can automate repetitive tasks such as report
generation, audience segmentation and data analysis tasks,
which will free up the time and effort to focus on more
important tasks.

Another key benefit of AI in marketing operations is

enhanced decision-making capabilities through data
analysis and insights. Powerful algorithms can process vast
amounts of data and provide insights to marketers, allowing
them to make informed decisions on messaging, product
development and customer experience.

The advantage of integrating AI into marketing operations

allows the team to standardize approaches, implement
continuous improvement and manage change more
effectively over time.
Overcoming Implementation Challenges

Forbes Leadership 01:12

Mark Penn On Joe Biden, Nikki Haley AndWhy Gen Z
Supports Hamas.

Despite the numerous benefits of AI in marketing, companies

may face some challenges in the implementation process.
One of the leading challenges I see is possible data quality
issues and the need for high-quality, relevant data. Garbage
in, garbage out. Data cleaning and processing will be
essential to ensure the quality and relevance of data when
using AI to analyze marketing campaigns.

Another challenge is privacy concerns. Customer privacy

must always be a top priority, and companies must be
transparent with how customers’ data and personal
information are being handled.

Companies will also need specialized skills and expertise

required for AI implementation and management with
existing systems and processes. Building a team with the
right experts who can translate data into meaningful insights
and apply them to successful marketing campaigns is
crucial.

Here again is an opportunity for marketing operations to play

a key role—enabling more consistent delivery of data quality
review, implementation within existing platforms, and
training for teams that will need to be reskilled or upskilled to
best benefit from AI-augmented processes and platforms.

Improving The Real-Time Customer

Experience
With the right marketing technologies that are augmented by
data-driven AI, companies can create dynamic, personalized
content and messaging as well as customer journey
orchestration, providing the type of personalized content,
offers and experiences customers find so appealing.

Utilizing AI-powered chatbots and voice assistants for

customer support and engagement is another emerging
opportunity. Chatbots and voice assistants provide an
opportunity for companies to communicate with customers
rapidly, provide immediate support, and gather data that can
be used for future marketing campaigns. Also note, however,
that some of these methods of communication involve other
teams within the organization—from sales to customer
support. Marketing operations can play a key role in the
platform vetting and evaluation process, as well as by
working with liaisons within other teams such as customer
support or sales to ensure that data and workflows are
aligned when a platform or process involves more than one
group within the enterprise.

Developing a clear strategy and road map for AI

implementation is essential to remain competitive, and
marketing operations can be critical in this journey. From
initial identification of goals to evaluating platforms and
coordinating the training and process implementation,
marketing operations can accelerate the benefits an
organization receives from deeper integration with AI-based
tools and methods. So, make sure you leverage the power of
marketing operations as your enterprise undergoes its AI
transformation.

Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for

executives in successful public relations, media strategy,
creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?