SSince the launch of ChatGPT almost a year ago, finding the right approach to harness the benefits of artificial intelligence has become a priority for many businesses. Marketing executives from Mastercard and EY discussed the opportunities and challenges of integrating AI into workflows in front of an audience of marketing executives at a TIME100 Talks event for Advertising Week on Wednesday .
Cheryl Guerin, executive vice president of global branding and innovation at Mastercard, and Janet Balis, marketing practice leader at EY Consulting in the Americas, joined TIME editor-in-chief Sam Jacobs at our headquarters New York Social in Bryant Park for a conversation about how technology is likely to change industry practices and the important role human connections play in this transition.
While public awareness of the capabilities of artificial intelligence has increased over the past year, Guerin pointed out that for Mastercard and many other companies, the use of AI tools is not entirely new. “Everyone is already using AI to manage products and services every day,” she said, noting that Mastercard has long used artificial intelligence systems to deliver more targeted marketing and track trends.
But access to generative AI – models or algorithms that create completely new results, such as text, images, videos or code – comes with the challenge of learning how to harness this powerful technology, said Guerin. “It makes everything a little faster, a little better and a little more efficient for us,” she said. “It’s an absolute multiplier on what we can do.”
For many companies, understanding how to get the most out of AI will be a dual effort that requires understanding how it can be deployed both externally and internally, Balis said. “There is long-term potential that will absolutely change the shape of businesses. But there are also these incredible micro-uses. Although there has been some consternation over whether advanced AI would take jobs away from workers, Balis sees it as a tool that could help workers. “It’s really about thinking about each job, not whether it will be threatened, but what tasks will be easier,” Balis said.
One of the biggest hurdles to AI integration is ensuring businesses have the right data to power their models. Balis cited a survey from the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), a marketing trade group, which found that 78% of marketers experienced data validation and quality issues, a major barrier to effective use of AI systems. “It’s a big problem if you’re trying to create algorithms, machine learning and AI from data,” Balis said. “No one would want to eat food with bad ingredients.”
As part of efforts to integrate AI into marketing practices, Guerin stressed that it is important for brands not to lose sight of the human touch that makes their brands unique.
“There is a reality in the technicality of being able to trigger better personalization and better insights…but humans have to step in, have a creative touch and ensure that that connection continues to happen,” she says. “If we lose that emotional connection that brands create, it will disappear too.”
TIME100 Talks: Unlocking the Potential of AI in Marketing was presented by Meta.
