The nature of change is changing.

I can set my watch by it.?

It is the moment that occurs like clockwork in the Q&A segment of my university lectures; the moment when a student says, “rehumanizing marketing sounds good, but AI will eliminate marketing and advertising jobs.”

To which my answer is always this firm, declarative statement: “It depends.”? ?

I’ll unpack that after unpacking this:? Each new generation of MarTech creates demand for new skills and mindsets.

The advent of Network TV created demand for people who had the skills to harness the magic of sight, sound, and motion.? The previous generation of advertising practitioners didn’t need this storytelling skill, and many didn’t make the transition.

Fast-forward to the Web which rewarded those who saw broadband as enabling something greater than online static copy; who realized the Web, not television, was the ultimate branding platform, combining video storytelling, immersive experiences, peer reviews, and shopping.? Those who continued using “brand campaign” as code for TV didn’t keep pace new customer behaviors.

Mobile and social rewarded practitioners who saw how these channels shattered the cobwebbed distinction between online and offline.? Those who didn’t struggled in an always-on world.

Borrowing a phrase from @DavidMondragon, my friend and former client: ?I told you that story so I could tell you this one.

Change is happening, fast.? Data from the job site Indeed is showing a 20x increase (off a small base) in postings related to Generative AI.

I answer the students’ question about AI’s impact on their career by saying “it depends” because their future will always hinge on their willingness to accept change as an opportunity to learn; to develop new skills; to be among those with the curiosity to test and learn; to find comfort in the fact that this will not be the last seismic career shift they will face.

Yes, new technologies will undoubtedly replace current skills.? This has always been the case with MarTech.?

Yet Joanna Stern's article in the Wall Street Journal illustrates another dynamic that is equally true:? AI will give rise to new jobs, requiring new skills, paying good money.?

Any brand strategist who has ever designed qualitative or quantitative research will recognize Joanna’s dream job as an AI Prompt Engineer as a modern extension of what they’ve always done — uncovered better insights by asking better questions.

The need to understand human behavior to help marketers grow seems to be our job for the foreseeable future.? Our tool kit is simply getting bigger and more complex.

#rehumanize #humancentered #marketing in an #AI world