Alison Simpson, CEO of The CMA, welcomes Microsoft's Amol Shah, Americas Data & AI Lead, and Audrey Davidson, Head of Integrated Marketing Americas, to discuss generative AI and the future of the marketing profession.

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Welcome to CMA Connect, Canada's marketing podcast, where industry experts discuss how marketers must manage the tectonic shifts that will change how brand and businesses are built for tomorrow, while also delivering on today's business needs.

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Alison: It's an absolute pleasure to have Audrey Davidson and Amol Shah from Microsoft joining us on CMA Connect today. Not surprisingly, generative AI is a very hot topic for the marketing profession right now. It's also evolving and expanding very quickly and represents certainly a lot of excitement, but also some daunting time for everyone involved. So we really see today as a great opportunity to discuss generative AI from two different and very well informed perspectives.

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Audrey is the head of Integrated Marketing for the Americas and Amol is the data and I lead for sales enablement and Operations for the Americas at Microsoft. Welcome, Audrey and Amol. Thanks, Alison. Great to be here. Thanks, Alison. Yeah. Great to be here. On the hopefully very rare chance that there's someone listening who doesn't know. I'm going to give a quick definition of generative A.I..

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Alison: Quite simply, it's a form of machine learning like m365, copilot and chat GPT that can produce text, video, images and other types of content. So with that simple definition behind us, let's get started. I'm going to kick things off with you, and I'd love to hear. How do you recommend companies approach and think about AI? Yeah, it's a great question.

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Amol: So I've been in tech for probably 20 plus years now, and although Microsoft has been an AI company for some time, the pace of innovation right now is by far the most transformative I've personally seen. And so, you know, A.I. breakthroughs are going to change and augment how we work, how we live. And so I would kind of think about that question in three ways, which is, number one, I think everyone's mindset needs to evolve with that, right?

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And especially from a traditional marketing perspective, we need to evolve into more of a learn it all mindset versus a know it all mindset. And so what I mean by that is we really need to spend the time understanding A.I. how it could support the business, the technology behind it, how it's used, the principles behind it, all of that stuff.

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We need to really, as marketing professionals, really need to spend the time understanding and also have the mindset to to want to want to understand it. The second thing I would say is like the the AI, you know, piece of it right now can be overwhelming. And so I would say we need to think about how we start small with low risk use cases, meaning we don't need to completely revamp a process or an engine overnight.

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Eventually, you need to get there, but start small and then building on on number one. It's a really cool time in the industry right now, and we have an opportunity to learn from peers, from influencers, from competitors. And so we need to embrace that. And so personally, I you know, I spent a lot of time with customers, with partners.

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I talk to peers in the industry, understanding their perspectives, understanding where they're at, understanding where the technology is taking them and how how they're leveraging it. And so those are be the kind of the three things that just, you know, learn from everyone around you start small, lower low risk use cases and evolve the mindset all up in terms of how to transform marketing as a whole.

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Alison: That's a great, great advice and a great starting point. Amol, thank you very much. Now, the two of you absolutely have a front seat for the AI revolution in many ways and I'd love to hear from both of you. What are the consistent themes that you're seeing companies and marketers ask about AI? Audrey Why don't you kick this one off?

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Audrey: Yeah, sure, I'd love to. The biggest theme that I'm really noticing right now is curiosity and excitement around the art of the possible. So from automation and streamlining of processes for efficiency to predictive analytics and personalization for those improved experiences, I think that again, I just kind of center on that theme of curiosity and excitement is because people are just really eager to kind of either figure it out or experiment.

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And then, you know, the marketers that I speak with, they're just really looking to embrace it and looking for the upsides and focusing on, you know, those time efficiencies that can really be granted so that we can all spend the time focusing on, you know, kind of the the strategic things that we want to focus on can be a really great enabler.

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Alison: You're absolutely right, Audrey. Amol I'd love to hear what you'd add to that. Amol:

Content generation is one areas around proposals, contracts, presentations, Yeah, themes I guess that I'm seeing right now as it relates to marketing is for area specifically designs, invoices, all of that stuff I get from different kind of industries and the idea of how do you leverage high into the flow of work and business process.

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Amol: And so that that's number one. Secondly, I would say there's a big portion of data and analytics that comes into play. One of the biggest barriers that we've always seen around adoption of AI tools is data. And so specifically how to how does marketing interact with data engineers, data scientists, business analysts and the struggle with the complexity of making data integration and data warehousing, machine learning, business intelligence all work together from a marketing perspective.

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And so that idea of data and analytics is coming up to the forefront in terms of AI as a whole customer service. And again, it's something we typically don't get very involved in from a marketing perspective, but customer experience, customer service is going to evolve with AI. And as marketers, we need to be a part of that.

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And so think about how chat bots are being leveraged right now. And then the last thing again, something not traditional, but the idea of app development code generation and how do we think about that from a go to market perspective in terms of how agile we are when it comes to launching or refining products? And so I would say those are kind of the four areas that I've seen pretty consistently across the board when it comes to how marketing and CMO's are thinking about leveraging AI.

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Alison: Thanks Amol. Now Audrey I think you mentioned that one of the potential areas is to free us up as marketers to focus on higher level work. So I'd love you to build on that and share how you see it transforming the way that organizations and marketers are working. Audrey: Yeah, no, absolutely. I mean, I think it really is making life ton easier for us.

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You know, I think it's an exciting time to be a marketer because of that. So, you know, digital tools and platforms, leveraging AI and machine learning, you know, they're providing unprecedented opportunities for us to reach and engage with audiences in creative and innovative ways. You know, I think about how AI to what Amol was always saying can assist with data analysis, content creation, leads, scoring, interactions with customers and then again allowing, you know, freeing up time for marketers to kind of go and focus on that creativity and strategy.

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There's also the productivity element. I think that the integration of AI and automation into our marketing processes really enables us as marketers to streamline our tasks, automate those routine activities, and then focus on, again, the more strategic aspects of our roles in terms of some some examples within our own commercial marketing function, our team of data geniuses are doing the intuitive things, so they're using AI, AI for content, summarization, categorization and transcription.

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We have a chat bot that summarizes our marketing literature, eliminating the cumbersome process of finding and digesting large volumes of information. They're also doing the not so intuitive things, so layering AI into existing and bespoke marketing apps. And this results in marketers spending less time navigating our tool and pulling out those insights and filling out forms by asking simple questions to the chat bot.

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And the chat bot does the work almost instantaneously. So the shortens that distance between discovery insight and action. And then I guess there's other things that they're working on for the sake of experimentation and learning. But I think there's just again, so many opportunities for us just to embrace and transform our, our organizations. Alison: And Audrey and Amol, even in a tech company, change can still be intimidating,

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So to what degree are you finding your teams excited and really embracing the opportunities? And to what degree is it? Can it be a little overwhelming or a little bit intimidating? Amol: Yeah, I mean, you know, just building on the on the last part what Audrey said, I think, you know, transforming the way we traditionally think about how we reach customers is difficult.

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Right? I brought up customer experience before as an example, and we have the data that says 91% of consumers are more likely to shop with brands that provide relevant recommendations and offers is an example. Right? And that's not a surprise. We all know that we all get bombarded with different echos, but from our perspective, it's changing the way we traditionally do things, everything from SEO to how we leverage websites.

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And Audrey talked about chat bots, but across our entire organization, whether it's, you know, Microsoft 365 teams, PowerPoint word through LinkedIn, you know, we can take you through cases of how we've had to change things. So like for example, personal productivity, speech, transcription captioning within teams, content design and production within PowerPoint, within Xbox, we've leveraged generative AI for those personal recommendations that I've talked about within LinkedIn.

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We've talked about image captioning and accessibility and leveraging AI. From that perspective. You know, outlook is a simple thing around contextual assistance as an example Bing as you've seen with chatbot and Bing chat, conversational intelligence. So there's all these different ways that we're leveraging it, but that does require a lot of people to change. So it's going to be, as I said, it's going to be an evolution, it's a mindset change as a whole.

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But we're slowly getting there. Alison: And those are great examples how A.I. is really impacting Microsoft's approach to product and marketing. What are you doing to ensure that you're staying competitive as AI continues to have all that incredible speed?

Audrey: I was chatting with an agency head the other day and you know, they were they were sharing how as enabling them to produce content and half the time at half to cost.

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So that's a win win for both agency and client. So I think that again, when we just look at the possibilities, it's not necessarily just within any given function within an organization, but also, you know, the the relationships and then also, you know, kind of time to market cost to market within the partnerships that we have. That's a very compelling example.

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Alison: Audrey, thank you so much. So Amol, when we first Folke, I described you as an AI guru and you very quickly told me that given how fast the field is moving, it's absolutely impossible for anyone to truly be a guru. So with how rapidly things are evolving and expanding, is it possible in your mind to be a true expert?

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Amol: Yeah, I mean, I think there's, you know, here's what I would kind of how I've responded to this. And we have a really good framework within Microsoft which talks about different rooms of the house is where we call it and you know, the conversation with a CIO is going to be very different than a conversation with the CMO.

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Right. And I think part of that is we're consistent, like we're constantly learning about the different use cases. I mean, every single week we get hundreds if not thousands of new AI use cases. And so, yes, we can be experts. There's a technical piece to this, but there's also a business side to this. And I think, you know, it's the it's the first time that I've seen in a long time that we're the bridging of the technical and the business side is coming together so rapidly.

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So in that sense, I would say, yes, we can we can be experts, but it is this idea of you have to constantly learn and evolve the conversation. And so we're at a point right now where, again, we're learning from customers, we're learning from partners, we're learning from consumers around how they use it, the types of use cases, the benefits, the cost advantages, the arc.

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All of this is kind of, you know, we're working through our real time, right? And so, you know, I think there's a balance. Yes. Can you call yourself an expert, a guru? Absolutely. But there is always a little but to that. And I think having that mindset and learn it all culture that I talked about earlier is the but. Alison: Absolutely great, especially on the learn it all culture,

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That's such an important element for all of us when it comes to embracing and really benefiting from any new technology. And certainly it's true in this case as well. So there's also obviously going to be quite a demand for organizations finding top talent. So what recommendations do you have for companies that are looking to attract and find the right talent to pursue this new opportunity?

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Alison: And Amol I'd love you to take the lead on that question if you'd like. Amol: I would say from a talent perspective, you know, and I'll speak from strictly a marketing lens, right? I think some of those qualities that we talked about earlier in terms of how do you think about transformation in marketing as a whole is kind of one of those key differentiators that I think I'm going to be looking for and I'm hoping others are looking for, too, right?

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And so when you think about generative A.I. in the traditional marketing sense, whether it's from an agency perspective or from it's from a pure technology perspective, it's ensuring people obviously understand the technology, understand how they can understand the use cases, but again, apply the application of that into the day to day marketing is going to be extremely important.

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And so those qualities around just mindset I think is going to be important. Understanding how they can transform the marketing function. Using generative AI is going to be equally important. And then I think we just need to think broader about, you know, the traditional industries and ways we think about attracting talent. Right? And going back in my 17 years at Microsoft, we always had this kind of profile of what a marketer looked like and where they needed to come from.

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And I think that whole that that's going to evolve and that's going to change into different roles within different companies and how we bring them in. Audrey: And I think I think I'd just like to add to that too. I think it also gives us the opportunity to elevate the kind of the need for critical thinking because, you know, well, air is a tool, right?

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And so, you know, well, it's got a lot of kind of great capabilities that it brings to the table. We still need to apply critical thinking skills. And I think that's the fun part of marketing. Amol:

Yeah, and that's a great idea. Just building off of that, like the stuff we discussed earlier around how, you know, marketers typically used to spend their time around content design, production, editorial assistants, personalized recommendations.

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They've spent a lot of time doing that, and that's going to change, right? And so how do you shift the role into more critical thinking and more strategic? And and so that thought needs to and that profile is going to change considerably. So, yeah, I completely agree with that point. Alison:

And building on that, Audrey, if you were mentoring a new marketer or speaking to an experienced marketer, what advice would you give them?

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Audrey: Yeah, I'll go back to what Amol had said earlier. Just embrace being a learn it all. You know, the field is rapidly evolving. Continuous learning is going to be key. I think that generative AI holds immense and just immense potential for marketers to again streamline processes, enhance creativity and deliver more personalized and engaging experiences. I think, like anything, it's important to approach its adoption thoughtfully and strategically, as we've been saying throughout, to achieve those desired outcomes that that were kind of setting out to achieve.

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I was reading not long ago a McKinsey study that it is from a few years ago, but it cites that of all of the companies functions, marketing perhaps has the most to gain from it. And I think that, you know, when we look at our core activities of understanding customer needs and matching them to products and services and then persuading people to buy, those are all capabilities that AI can dramatically enhance.

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But to the kind of previous point, we can't lose sight of the fact that it's a tool and we need to apply critical thinking skills, which is again, the fun part of what we do. So my advice is really get curious, be creative. Generative AI has so much potential to enhance all of that creativity and enable content generation and drive those efficiencies.

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Alison: You're so right. And for anyone that I've talked to that's worried about well, I face my role as a marketer. I've always said no. I want a marketer who understands and leverages AI could though. So Amol it's always fun to hear about company is that are doing A.I. well. So I'd love to hear your opinion on from a Canadian in a more global perspective.

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Exactly that. Who do you think is doing A.I.? Well, currently? Amol: Yeah. Great question. I think there is, what's so exciting is this is not unique to one industry right now. What we're seeing across our entire customer base, not only in Canada but across the world, is different industries really embracing it and looking for ways to apply it in their core business.

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Right? And so, you know, I think about areas within just, you know, CPG as an example. You know, you think Pepsi was one good example where they're taking, you know, machine learning and A.I. to identify consumer shopping trends and, you know, produce real time store level insights. And so when we talked about predictions as an example, that's a way to improve predictions and recommendations considerably leveraging the data that they already have.

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You know, one industry is airlines, which, you know, a lot of our frustration is around aircraft turnaround and whether they're on time. Well, you know, leveraging data insights will help that. And we've seen a lot of our global airline customers leveraging technology as it relates to AI to help with that. One great example was CarMax, which is one of our customers and how they use the Azure Open AI Service.

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And so think about, you know, they had over 100,000 customer reviews and think about how they need to sell cars. And so leveraging the air, they were able to take those 100,000 plus customer reviews and create short descriptions that surface key takeaways for each make model year of the vehicle, which for a customer is really, really good and helps them make a decision around purchase.

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What was really cool, the stat they gave us was it would have taken an individual 11 years to do what AI did in a day, which is phenomenal. Right? And what they what the AI produced was 80% good, which meant they didn't have a lot of intervention. It was pretty much good to go right off the bat. So it helped that, you know, so all of that is to say it helped with the customer experience, it helped with revenue, it helped with increasing SEO.

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So all of those core functions that again, we would have spent tons of time executing on, they're able to do in a day. And that was a great example. And then I'll bring in, you know, one of a local company within Canada, which is Viral Nation. And you know, from a pure marketing services perspective, they're doing some really cool things around evolving how companies need to think about marketing.

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And so taking the traditional marketing model and underpinning it with more of a modern, AI driven approach around the tech to drive greater impact and innovation as it relates to social brand influencers, etc. They're really changing the game in terms of how we should think about that. And so across all these industries and you know, there's more across health care, across energy, everyone is leveraging this in different ways, which is, which is really cool to see.

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Alison: So I'd love to end by asking each of you, what do you see as a key takeaway that you'd like marketers to know about generative AI? Audrey, you want to kick us off? Audrey:

Absolutely. Again, get curious, just embrace it. I think. Try it and to partner up with people within your organization that, as I call our analytics team, are our data geniuses and explore, you know, kind of play in the sandbox.

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Alison: Great advice. Amol, What would you add to that? Amol: Yeah, I would just say for everyone to just understand we're at an inflection point. You know, I mentioned it, the breakthroughs and I are going to change the way people work and live. It's really the defining technology of our time. And so really be optimistic about what AI can do.

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It is meant to help people industry, society as a whole. Personally, Audrey and I see this every day where, you know, Microsoft's committed to making the promise of AI real and doing it responsibly. And so it's really having that optimistic, curious mindset I talked about earlier on the AI and what it can actually do to help people in the world as a whole.

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So that would be my takeaway at a very high level. Alison: Audrey and Amol, you've given us lots to think about, some really great advice and some great actionable ways to embrace and benefit from generative AI. So a great big thank you to both of you for spending time with us today and sharing your expertise that really, really appreciate it.

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And I know our listeners and our marketing community are benefiting from it as well. So we're really just starting to understand the potential and the challenges. And I'm certainly excited, as I know both of you are, about how the marketing profession can learn and progress together. So on that note, the CMA has got some terrific generative AI resources that marketers can benefit from that really can complement this conversation and our podcast as well as we've now got a number of thought leadership articles on a wide range of topics on our website.

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And we've launched some training as well. So we've got a new series, a new training course this fall that's going to be specific to CMO's and VP's and we're bringing back a training session from the spring that was very successful and that's how I can make you a better marketer. And then we've also got an AI working group and they've introduced a series as well.

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So obviously I'm representing the Canadian marketing profession. We're working closely with all of our members and making sure that we can help enable them throughout the journey and I train them all. You've been a big part of that today, having members and thought leaders and expertise like you as part of our broader membership is a really great way to share learning across the profession and enable us to all succeed together. So again, a great big thank you to both of you and I hope you have a good afternoon.

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So thanks, Alison. Awesome. Thank you. You too. Thanks for joining us. Be sure to visit the CMA dot Com and sign up for your free my CMA account. It's a great way to stay connected and benefit from the latest marketing thought leadership news and industry trends.