The essential
- Impact of AI. Generative AI improves efficiency, reporting and team augmentation for CMOs.
- Focus on income. Marketing managers are shifting from lead generation to responsibility for revenue results.
- Emotional connections. Mastering empathy strengthens brand relationships and customer loyalty.
It’s only mid-summer 2024, but Type A personalities like CMOs are already planning for 2025 with AI in marketing and other skills. The last 12 months have been quite intense, as the pace of headlines and consistent AI integrations has intensified.
Looking ahead to 2025, what skills do CMOs believe they need to hone to remain competitive as leaders to help their businesses thrive?
AI vs. Empathy: The CMO’s Dilemma
Most people agree that there won’t be a radical change. However, a dichotomy seems to be emerging between artificial intelligence and emotional intelligence. Internally, CMOs are using generative AI. Externally, they are leveraging their humanity and empathy for their customers.
Related article: The Unintended Consequences of Using AI in Marketing Strategies
Marketing Directors Now Focus on Financial Results
Respondents for this article also noted a shift, or expansion, from a focus on leads to a sense of accountability for revenue results. Simply driving traffic to e-commerce platforms for sales teams no longer feels like the game of Hungry Hungry Hippos, where the winner has the most marketing qualified leads (MQLs) in the pipeline. CMOs are increasingly interested in adding tactics that support bottom-of-funnel conversions and are also accountable for those results.
Related article: AI and Ethics: Navigating the New Frontier
Marketing Directors Must Master AI for Greater Efficiency
As CMO of Axios HeadquartersChristopher Willis expects top marketing executives to become masters of AI in Marketing.
“There is so much room for efficiency and automation in everything we do,” he said. “Finding the right solutions to add intelligent automation, smart reporting and top-tier team augmentation will allow CMOs to consistently show improvements and increased ROI.”
Related article: CMOs Report 5 Effects of AI on Role
Marketing Directors Align Metrics with Sales Goals
Willis also said the best CMOs will build dashboards to show “the health of the entire engine.” He sees this as a form of accountability and an increase in value.
“Branding and leads are not outcomes,” Willis said. “And our CEOs want to see that we’re looking at outcomes as the goal. I think CMOs and marketing in general have spent many years focused on lead generation. The shift in mindset to be more like the CRO and more about the outcome (pipeline generation) makes the CMO a better strategic partner to the sales organization.”
Related article: Why Marketers Need to Harness the Power of AI Now
Emotional intelligence, key to brand loyalty
At the same time, Jeni Golomb, former marketing director turned founder and CEO of GLASS BURNERsaid today, more than ever, people are hungry for human connections.
“Brands can play a role in this,” she said. “Authentic, compelling stories that resonate with our audience’s values and experiences will strengthen our relationships with brands. When consumers connect with your brand as a brand they identify with, it drives purchase and loyalty. Over the next year, mastering emotional intelligence and empathy will be critical. These skills allow us to create genuine connections with our customers, fostering a sense of loyalty and trust that transcends traditional marketing metrics.”
AI in Marketing Empowers Young Marketers
David Karel, Marketing Director at Times of crisisoffered encouragement to budding marketing managers.
“The rapid maturation of GenAI tools holds great promise for providing teams with a ‘shortcut,’” he said.
In other words, AI in marketing offers opportunities for younger marketers, who may not have as much experience, to reach higher levels.
“You need to invest in hiring the right people with the skills and experience to develop and deploy a great message and a compelling visual identity,” Karel said.
He also sees untapped potential in pre-IPO companies to travel into the territory of demand generation, storytelling, messaging and branding tools and methodologies with skilled CMOs leading marketing and business development.
AI insights are revolutionizing customer behavior analysis
Jarrod Purchase is responsible for global marketing for Eight capsa technology company for traders and investors. He believes machine learning can provide unprecedented insights into customer behavior, which can lead to more personalized and effective marketing campaigns.
“AI used to be a buzzword with no substance,” Purchase said. “Today, everyone uses it in their daily lives, from WhatsApp that provides AI in messages to Android phones that help translate live phone conversations. The key difference is the growing importance of technology and data. While traditional marketing skills like creativity, brand management and strategic planning require human thinking, leveraging AI in this process is now critical to business success. If you’re not already thinking about AI and planning for it, you’re falling behind.”
Related article: Machine Learning and Generative AI in Marketing: Fundamental Differences
Balancing AI and Emotional Intelligence in Marketing 2025
With an increasingly important role of responsibility and an increasingly sophisticated customer base, it makes sense to sharpen skills around generative AI in 2025, while harnessing the power of emotional connections. When asked the “why” behind their answers, these experts agreed on the following:
AI helps…
- Develop the most effective marketing tactics such as personalization.
- Summarize large data sets.
- Automate reporting with intelligent insights.
- Analyzing customer behavior on a larger scale.
EQ helps…
- Build trust with customers who might never speak to a human being in your business.
- Choose messages that resonate with your customers.
- Empower sales teams with more relevant and useful tools than gift cards and fancy e-books.
- Differentiate your brand with authenticity.
What skills do CEOs say CMOs need?
While these skills will be important next year, the talent business owners and leaders are looking for are those with management and execution skills. In fact, the number one skill CMOs need year after year is leadership, according to CMOx founderCasey Slaughter Stanton. In several articles and video interviews in recent years, such as the CMO ConfidentialWhat CEOs want from CMOs isn’t just the ability to master technology: it’s the ability to think like a CEO, taking responsibility for the overall profit and loss (P&L).
Marketing Directors Drive Growth Through Strategic Insights
In a functionality provided by Deliotte In the Wall Street Journal, Surabhi Varshney, vice president of corporate strategy at Celanesesaid how critical the CMO is to the success of the entire organization because of the insights he or she brings. He or she is able to “look at the entire business and come up with a consolidated plan that ultimately drives business growth.”
CMOs must balance artificial intelligence and emotional intelligence to succeed
Of course, artificial intelligence and emotional intelligence are the tools that help CMOs operate this way. As long as they remember that these skills are a means to an end, not an end in themselves, their attention will be focused in the right direction. Marketers have a reputation for getting carried away by the “new shiny thing,” because technology powers so much of their day-to-day responsibilities.
Final Thoughts
This is another beautiful dichotomy of marketing: being practical in using technology and sometimes impractical in defining goals and results. Perhaps adding a sense of humor to the skills for 2025 is not a bad idea either.
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