Will AI replace product marketing?

Am I being a curmudgeon? A Cassandra?? A click-baiter?? Or, simply clear-eyed about the impact of ChatGPT on Product Marketing???

To be honest, I’m not really sure what I think yet. I sat on this article for a few days, thinking I might come back to it, think it through, make it more coherent - or at least read better.? But ultimately I decided this rambling is a fair reflection of my AI-blown brain right now, so here you go.?

First, let me answer the rhetorical clickbaity question: no, AI will not “replace product marketing.” At least, not if you think it means “do away with the profession.”? But that rarely happens.? There are still travel agents.? Someone is still making buggy whips.? You can still go into a store to pick out speciality items for your bed, bath and…more?.

So, I'm excited and anxious about what ChatGPT could mean for product marketers.? Pre-built GPT prompts courtesy of Product Marketing Alliance (thanks Richard King!) last week just amped up both of those feelings for me.?

My excited side

GPT has already become my daily productivity booster and creative sidekick.? (I sprang for the subscription, feels like bribing it to be my accessible friend.)? It’s sparking ideas I might not have ever considered, let alone in the 5 minutes it takes me to prompt and 15 seconds it takes to get an answer.? Many have become starting points for validation and deepening, sharpening elsewhere - and more dialogue with ChatGPT.? We are now "collaborating" several times a day.?

(In fact, it just helped me find “clear-eyed” for my somewhat alliterative intro.? When asked for a synonym for provocateur beginning with C, it’s first answer was “instigator.”? After a few more failed attempts I came up with “click-baiter”.? Bad prompting didn’t help.)

In fact, given how fast (and mind-bendingly fun) it is to get answers to complex questions, it’s already beginning to feel like malpractice to my clients NOT to run certain things through ChatGPT, whether as a starting point, a second opinion, or another pair of eyes.

My anxious side - PMM misunderstood

I can't help worrying that there will be a trickle, then a surge, of people building strategic GTM foundations (positioning, ICP, buyer personas, core messaging) atop poorly vetted ChatGTM answers.

To be clear, I don’t see good PMM’s unwittingly falling into this trap.? We tend to be too curious and skeptical by nature.??

But I can see a world where stakeholders allow even less time, company focus and budget for doing foundational, strategic PMM work ahead of the shiny assets everyone wants.??

This is what I fear the most, probably because it is an extension of the fear and frustration I had long before ChatGPT came along.? That despite the rise of PMM as a strategic discipline, it is still too often misunderstood, under-resourced, and under-underutilized.??

What most people see and intuitively understand about PMM is content and launch coordination.? When those hit the mark, it is the last mile in a web of external and internal value chains few people outside PMM see or understand.??

The less you know about that work, the easier it is to think ChatGPT is a good enough substitute.??

And yes, I hear it.? What I just said.? It’s what I imagine everyone who worries about being replaced by AI would think.??

But hey, even the best PMMs are highly imperfect. We have biases.? We miss things.? Am I being too dismissive of ChatGPT???

The limitations of AI - long live PMMs!

I don’t yet see ChatGPT compensating for some crucial human skills, like how we key in on a prospect's or seller’s tone of voice or facial expression shifts when we stumble onto some unpredictable hot button in the course of a seemingly winding conversation.? And instinctively knowing when, how, when not, and how not to drill in to explore.??

And then there’s using unique understanding of your product (including weaknesses that, if ChatGPT knew about them, your competitors would clobber you with them).? That understanding guides, at least subconsciously, how we explore, what give more or less weight to, what we are skeptical about and what gets us truly amped up.?

Our self-prompts and filters include knowing what will work with the readiness of our marketers, sellers, CSM; what’s needed to get executives bought in; how our distillation might naturally extend brand narrative, fit brand permission, inspire campaigns, feed a content agenda… a dizzying array that even the most methodical among us don’t really have systems and algorithms for.

Given this, how often will over-simple GPT prompts produce unreliable answers? How often will ChatGPT miss subtleties, or hallucinate - confidently and convincingly - even with the best of prompts??

Best practices vs. (increasingly exploited) human nature

It should go without saying that best practice use of ChatGPT should be do not rely on weakly vetted ChatGPT for GTM foundations.??

But… something about the way these last several years have unfolded has permanently lowered my expectations for how much of humanity is capable and willing to follow best practices in the face of slick appearances and sugar rushes.?

So I guess if there is any thesis to this article it’s this: the question of when AI is actually, substantively good enough to replace aspects of product marketing can be decoupled from the question about whether when AI is perceived to be good enough.? Surely, if anyone can appreciate that difference, product marketers can.???

If feels like the seduction of AI is poised to grow exponentially - perhaps faster than AI itself.? Animal spirits have proven to move far faster and farther than reality, even realities powered by technology.??

Bringing it back to my pre-existing anxiety - the less PMM is appreciated, the easier it will be for seduction to overwhelm best practice.

Professional existentialism

What if the day does come where AI truly does become “good enough” to do core PMM work, reliably?? Well, we B2B PMMs know the shape of the stock answer because most of us had to write it in at least an FAQ for some product that had the real or imagined potential of automating someone out of a job:

“AI will free up PMMs to do more ______ (strategic, creative, personalized) work.”

PMM isn’t special.? Not when GPT4 is passing the bar, or coding apps.?

PMM is, however, the profession I know. It’s the only front row seat I have to the AI revolution.

Ultimately, all knowledge workers will face some version of the same existential question - it is simply a matter of timing and degree.

In the short term, I don’t think any PMM need worry about being replaced by AI.? They may, however, be replaced by another human who knows how to use AI better.

Giddyup.