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Humans of Martech - 82: Scott Brinker: Balancing excitement for AI and composability with a renewed focus on the human element in martech

82: Scott Brinker: Balancing excitement for AI and composability with a renewed focus on the human element in martech

Humans of Martech

08/01/23 • 47 min

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What’s up everyone, today we have the distinct honor of being joined by the Martech Landscape creator, the Author of Hacking Marketing, The Godfather of Martech himself, mister Scott Brinker.

Summary: Scott sees AI as a power boost, not a replacement in marketing. He imagines marketers wielding AI to parse data and enhance specialist roles. AI's potential when combined with composability democratizes technical tool access, letting every marketer glean key insights from huge data. Yet, the human touch in martech is vital; marketing leaders need training and internalcommunication chops. Scott's future martech leaders are tech-savvy, eloquent communicators, guiding their teams through the constant evolution of the marketing landscape.

About Scott

  • Throughout his career, Scott’s navigated seamlessly between the realms of marketing and technology
  • He put his first entrepreneurial mark in the martech world when he Co-founded ion interactive, a martech SaaS providing interactive content tools for marketers
  • In 2008, he began sharing industry insights on the Chief Marketing Technologist blog with the hope of serving as a resource to help spread the “marketing technology” meme
  • A few years later, he released the first ever version of the Martech Landscape maps, back when there was only about 150 martech vendors
  • He launched the esteemed MarTech conference in 2014 and remains its program chair to this day
  • Today he’s VP of Platform Ecosystem at HubSpot where he enhances their synergy with the broader marketing tech landscape, a landscape that maps over 11,000 vendors today
  • He continues to be the acclaimed force behind chiefmartec.com, hailed universally as the martech world's ultimate wellspring of knowledge and insight

How Marketing Jobs Will Be Reshaped by AI

Scott firmly places himself in the camp that views AI not as a threat to marketing jobs but as a crucial tool for the modern marketer. He holds a strong belief that good marketing requires human input, and this won't be changing anytime soon. Scott reframes the common adage, often heard in marketing circles, that a marketer's job won't be replaced by AI but by another marketer who is adept at using AI.

As tongue-in-cheek as this phrase might be, Scott sees a lot of truth in it. He views AI as a broad set of capabilities that can be harnessed in various ways to enhance marketing. While the initial applications, such as content generation, are undoubtedly intriguing, the real potential of AI in marketing goes beyond these use cases.

Scott argues that the power of AI lies in how it allows marketers to better harness data, and enables more sophisticated automation across the entire marketing spectrum. Particularly on the Martech side of things, Scott anticipates marketing operations leaders and Martech professionals leveraging generative AI to up-level their stack and operational capabilities.

Rather than viewing AI as a potential replacement for their roles, Scott suggests that marketers should see AI as a key part of their job description. It won't take over all aspects of their work, but it will become a significant component of what they do.

Takeaway: The future of AI in marketing is not about replacement but about enhancement. AI is set to become a vital tool that will empower marketers to up-level their operational capabilities and harness data more effectively. As Scott astutely points out, the job of a marketer won't be replaced by AI; instead, it will be reshaped by those marketers who can successfully integrate AI into their strategies.

Early-Stage Marketers Should Choose a Focus Area Then Utilize AI

According to Scott, marketing has always offered a myriad of different specialties and that, arguably, has been amplified over the past 10 to 15 years. Yes, there's a role for the 'jack-of-all-trades' or marketing generalist. Still, as Scott astutely notes, there are also several specialized roles that marketers can pursue, each requiring a unique set of skills. Whether it's hosting a podcast or being a master in content creation, each specialization requires dedication and unique abilities.

In terms of marketing operations, Scott suggests that this is another area of marketing requiring a specialized skill set. For those new to marketing, the challenge then becomes deciding whether to become a generalist marketing manager or sp...

08/01/23 • 47 min

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