This is the early findings session of the Humanized Growth in the era of AI study, held on 19 December 2024. It was convened to review early learning, discuss implications, identify areas to probe further, and agree next steps.
The headline of the early learning is a tension. AI is treated as critical to short term marketing success, and the same evidence shows no long term competitive advantage coming from it.
Key findings
- Present day use is concentrated on efficiency, with analytics and real-time data and AI generated creative as the two visible applications.
- AI generated creative arrives with hesitation rather than enthusiasm.
- The conversation among CMOs is moving from efficiency toward unlocking growth, and from augmentation toward disruption between 2019 and 2024.
- Generic output is the risk marketers name. The deck sets vanilla or generic branding directly against brand differentiation.
- Agents are met with both excitement and worry, and the deck raises the question of whether early movers gain anything durable.
- The role the study proposes for marketing is to be in the lead, with the CMO driving Humanized Growth.
How the session was run
The agenda ran through six items: a recap of overall objectives, a project plan update, a summary of early findings, discussion and interpretation, further areas to probe, and next steps. The longest block was discussion.
The study’s five questions frame the work: how marketing has used AI to drive growth, which C-suite partners matter most, which company-wide initiatives marketing joins, where AI-enabled growth opportunities lie, and how marketing keeps the business humanized.
Inputs at this stage were desk research from public sources and from IRG partners, plus CMO participation described as highly motivated.
Quality rising, and what it makes possible
The deck illustrates rising output quality with the evolution of Midjourney, running from version 1 in February 2022 to version 6 in December 2023, all against one unchanged prompt.
The applications that follow from that quality are hyper-personalized customer experience, AI-enhanced product innovation, and AI-powered innovation more broadly. The deck records early experience and expansion of the solution set.
The worries under the optimism
Two concerns run through the early learning. One is that AI output tends toward vanilla or generic branding, which cuts against brand differentiation. The other is an inability to reach the consumer.
The response sketched is a shift in marketing mindset from push to pull, digital twinning, and a need for partnering.
Scope and limitations
These are interim findings. The interview program was planned at 30 CMO vision interviews with more important CMOs still to come in 2025, the quantitative survey had not yet run, and a further interim findings session was still to be scheduled.
Source
This page summarises Humanized Growth in the era of AI: Early Findings Session, by IRG, Oxford Future of Marketing Initiative, 19th December 2024.