This is how CMOs really think and feel about AI

What would a cathartic, open and honest conversation about AI sound like from a few hundred B2B CMOs?

There's a reason we never record the Friday CMO Coffee Talk live sessions. They're an opportunity for participants to share candidly with each other about a wide range of topics. It can get emotional. It often gets very, very real.

There are a wide range of feelings and emotions surrounding the rapid rise of generative AI and it's current/future impact on marketing. Excitement, anticipation, anxiety, fear, loathing, failure and much more.

We have a tradition of sharing unattributed chat highlights from the CMO Coffee Talk sessions here at the beginning of each new week. Whether you're a CMO, just starting your career, or somewhere in between, I hope you feel seen in many of the comments, experiences and emotions shared below.

If you are a B2B CMO or head of marketing and want to join a community of 3,000+ of your peers in a protected, intimate community, let me know or click here to learn more and to sign up .

I love that this is a safe place to talk about how we feel!

There’s also a land grab going on…who are going to be the thought leaders and own the “i’m an AI-savvy marketer” brand?

100% and you get dinged for not being more strategic when the resources you have require you to get in the weeds

and how do you find your sources of intelligence? There is SO much info out there on AI for marketing, it's hard to know what's good vs bad, what's right for your needs, what's fluff, etc.

Yes! Experiments are scarier than ever in the turbulent landscape of B2B SaaS.

I had a new year’s resolution (ish) that I will be creating more content on LI and just plain writing… I wrote one post this year. I don’t know how people find the time…

Can we talk about that fear of change?? The degree of fear people seem to have these days (across companies) within Marketing seems elevated… or is that just me???

Change management is more of my job these days than strategic planning/experimentation

Doing it all is freakin impossible! Now more than ever. One step at a time is the way. Do the best you can. Perfection is not an option!

this whole convo reminded me of this cartoon: "one more thing to take on!": https://marketoonist.com/2023/12/many-hats-of-the-cmo.html

AI can be just another layer of insecurity that comes from being an, um, seasoned (older) CMO.

i'd be curious to know how many of us are getting pressure from our CEOs or others on the leadership team when it comes to AI.? - as an Insight-backed company, there's some pressure there at the board level (for me).

It's sort of like 15 years ago when our CEOs were saying, "We should do social media"

Yes!? And when you are worried about if your teammate is doing their job, you are going to miss your tackle.

we have established security and safe usage policies that includes product requirements from AI tools, in order for them to be ‘approved’ to pilot at my company

...and how much blame can we take for everyone's elses failures?

Being open to learn. its a key skill and not everyone has it. I think that's what this community is about. and when you are open to learn there is never an ending to what you can learn..so it can be overwhelming :-)

The authentic vulnerability of this group is amazing!

My employee reviews were the best ever this year. I never have time to be thoughtful and AI gave me such a great start.

The AI revolution is giving everyone FOMO and nobody wants to be last to the table. It's actual madness and likely a huge distraction to what we need to achieve.

has anyone used rogue? https://www.userogue.com/

it was designed for responding to RFPs, but I've been experimenting with it as an alternative to GPT, particularly for competitive purposes.

I had a temptation to use AI for reviews, but stayed away from it this time around - felt like I wanted reviews coming from me. I still struggle with concept that even with help from AI, it is still me

While AI is here -- in various forms -- to stay. I agree with the fleeting nature of certain novelties / stunt products. Anyone remember Clubhouse?

Can AI clone me (being a department of 1), in charge brand, strategy, product, events, education, events, copy, just launched a Lead Gen Campaign, building a social/education/CE community.? Oh and this week the new shiny object is Tik Tok.? Why aren't we there!

I often wonder how this group has all the things that matter! We have our annual board meet next week and everyone is asked to incorporate AI in every slide that they present (like how they leverage AI in their work).

hearing you say managing marketing is harder than managing sales is reaffirming. ????

As we have seen the huge tech layoffs, particularly from the big ones, how much do you all think its more driven by AI than they are letting on publicly?

Institutional trust is at an all time low.

anxiety is at an all time high - at work, in life, everywhere

Shifting sands is in the zeitgeist at the moment.

Change fatigue is a real factor - think about what we’ve all been through over the last 4 ys.

It’s hard to find places where companies want to build amazing teams and have the time horizon to do that.

I've noticed people are just operating very paranoid right now

Totally agree.

As marketers, are we overfocused on technology and automation and underfocused on fundamentals like positioning, storytelling, insights, and such?

Social media is definitely one of the factors, “None of Us is As dumb as ALL of us"

The amount of employee anxiety is off the charts.

Change fatigue for sure - but we have all been on high alert for so long our systems are burnt out

It can’t be either - or - it always has to be … and ...

It's gonna have to be both - delicate balance but a necessary one

This was my first CMO Coffee Talk meeting - really refreshing conversation.? I don’t feel quite so alone now ?? Thanks so much for the candor.? Look forward to the next one.

Amen, but saying worrying isn't helpful is much easier than stopping worrying.

Amen! “multitasking” is assumed now. Everything is needed yesterday.

“Worrying is like a rocking chair. It doesn’t get you anywhere, but it gives you something to do.”

I am knee-deep in this stuff and we have to remember we’re just trying to do better work. And if AI can help us do that, that’s fantastic. If it can’t, then don’t try to make it work.

“Those who worry before it’s necessary, worry more than necessary”

I think that a lot of people are also dealing with personal things caused by whatever is happening in the world since covid - so many people are balancing personal and work issues (and if you’re a manager, dealing with personal issues of your team as well)

Love this discussion today great convo appreciate the humbleness and vulnerability

“The sign of a keen intellect is to hold two opposing ideas at the same time and not go insane”

How are you guys finding ways to give yourselves grace?

Was it this call that someone demonstrated an AI solution for getting medical advice?

And doing surgeries!

AI is better at reading the average X Ray than the average X Ray tech

my best recollection of AI for healthcare was when Jeremiah Owyang presented Pi [and other technologies]. FWIW

you inspire us to embrace ethical AI, providing real-world marketing examples. We appreciate you! I hope to find time soon to dig in and try the competitive analysis and finding new watering holes examples.

I actually feel pretty good about using AI and I tend to prioritize what I want to use AI for vs what I want to write myself. The latter pertains to the things I am passionate about and it all coming from me.

My biggest fear is that people might automatically assume that content I create myself and ideas that I come up with on my own are actually AI’s.

Owning the market, GTM and revenue! We need to amplify for our own benefit.

“A person always doing his or her best becomes a natural leader, just by example.” -Joe DiMaggio [@Liza]

My first Coffee Talk.? Happy to be here.? Good dialog.? Marketing is always the first to go in a cost cutting exercise, because our value is so hard to demonstrate.? In? an environment of cost cutting and focus on driving efficiency, it’s more important than ever for marketing to sharpen our sword on demonstrating our value.? To Liza’s point, AI has promise to free us to find ways to define and report on our strategic value to the enterprise.? But I’m still trying to prioritize where the low hanging fruit is for that. I’m a B2B marketer BTW.

You’re totally right. We have to create space to let the tinkerers tinker and also to take the best ideas and figuring out how to operationalize them

BTW, I’m not AI-first. I’m strategic value of marketing, using business as a force for good, and changing the way people work and live first—then I used AI to elevate those.

We’re ok with the fact that not all of our customers are early adopters. Why are we not ok with ourselves being that way?

I view time as my enemy. Need to reframe.

Forgiveness is central to peace of mind.

It's still the BIG things that matter most... despite our day to days travails. Spend your time accordingly

Speaking of time —— if AI gives us the gift of time. Will we work more or spend time with those we love doing the things we love? It will be a very personal answer, https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/lizaadams_future-of-work-activity-7124855547006226432-L1fa?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

No one will be on their death bed wishing they spent more time at work.

Does anyone remember “e-business” — now it’s just business.? I feel the same will happen.

My biggest innovation in the past year is setting up the coffee maker the night before so it’s ready when I get up… baby steps.

appreciate your point and had the same challenge at my last (also enterprise-sized) company. It’s important to enable and empower the early-adopters and tinkerers, but forced “innovation at scale” just doesn’t work.

I know a lot of folks don’t like to read history.? Some do and it’s interesting. There’s a great, great book - the 50’s by David Halberstram and it helped me realize that the “great old days” of lifetime employment, etc - weren’t all that great.? Job mobility - zero, the politics of pleasing the boss - and their spouse (usually almost always male / female).? I do wonder if my kids will look back in 50 years and think these were the good old days

we always romanticize the past.

Ann Handley has been doing some great writing on AI and writing in her newsletter.? She has a good balanced approach for a writing guru.

Great conversation. Appreciate the honesty and collaboration from everyone. Great group!

I shared this on LI on how to get started and accelerate learning. Use as you see fit if helpful, https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/lizaadams_ai-adoption-acceleration-strategic-plan-activity-7168344066617790465-7LOr?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

AI doesn’t fix what’s broken. It amplifies what’s there. So we don’t want it to amplify what’s broken

And it amplifies it at exponential levels

AI is just a tool. Our intent and expertise is what guides it. Ultimately, humans will still determine if AI replaces humans

I have a jar where I put in small notes for what I am grateful for every week, then look at those notes at the end of the year...

Various sales reps are trying to use AI and I have to police the carefully constructing messaging and differentiation from being undermined…

Not sure if this is helpful to the group but we recently wrote up our process for using ChatGPT & Human Intuition to generate blog content: https://www.dhirubhai.net/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7168266761396477952

It was interested to think through AI's strengths and weaknesses and how to combine the best of AI with the best of Human Intuition.

Transitioning to the traditionally “lonely” CEO role has been very much not lonely thanks to this group - thanks for letting me stay!

We exhaust ourselves with all the things we SHOULD be doing.

I just figured at my level, I have folks who can tinker away and tell me what's what. I'll take some of that and incorporate it into a strategy. I do use it occasionally for myself when trying to save some time

There is a lot of talking ‘at’ us on what is possible/what can be done, what I’ve been missing is a group of people I can look dumb with where we go and try stuff together. Tinker together and share the learnings together in real-time.? Because I find a lot of people just don’t know where to start (myself included).

Would rather be away from my computer in free time than tinkering with AI prompts ??

I’m VERY glad you said that - what CMO / Exec has the time to do that if you don’t enjoy it!

Not every company needs to be bleeding edge. Get the basics down that work for your marketing efforts and dedicate a % or team members to experimenting.

It’s not our job to figure everything out - but to make sure it’s covered by our teams in some way.

Outside of tech, IMO, not many people really track AI - I have lots of friends that really don’t know much at all

I hear ya. We played around with it for awhile. Creating funny stuff that we shared with family helped us to use it, because it didn't feel like a chore.

Then, we started using the same ideas to create something for work, which led to writing that article.

The CEO - CMO dynamic regarding Ai is all about personality types. If you have a CEO analyst, you need a creative CMO. If you have a CEO extrovert, you need a CMO organizer

I think CMOs need to drive this for the team. If we don’t, the team won’t make it a priority. It’s all about setting the tone and culture.

It seems like EVERYONE wants to be an AI expert right now

What I’d love to see is an AI recipe book or workbook. Watching people do presentations on AI leaves a gap for me between what I can do and what can be done.

I'm overwhelmed by every email is about a webinar/training/blog about Ai and that THAT one is the best intro...

And most of them have no idea what they're talking about ??

And not there here are 7,946 prompts you can use kind of recipes.

I am using my nonprofit as my AI playground

It’s like learning a new language but the language is changing every day.

I feel like it’s moving so fast that you will pick it up where ever it is when you are ready.

Chris Penn from Trust Insights has a GREAT AI mailing list and TON of “how to get started” videos, videos comparing tools, etc - it’s great

The Marketing AI Institute Slack does a digest of good reading as well

Not marketing specific, but lots of broad knowledge and resources here: https://www.moreusefulthings.com

GenAI is not something a CMO can ignore, but that doesn’t mean we need to be an expert. Like any other transformational technology, we need to understand it well enough to know when to use it (and not).

As I head into a new CMO role, I am trying to figure out how to get more AI into my team (do you have a few specialists on the team, or do you try to enable everyone, and then how do you make sure they are using it well/responsibly?)

A lot of my actual learning that applies to work is actually from personal stuff. So great!

I use ChatGPT to help me tone police my emails ;) I type what I really want to say then have chatGPT make it corporate ??

I forced my whole team to experiment AI with over the last year

I use Grammarly’s “improve it” function ALL the time for this haha

There was actually a study that just came out that showed it made people better at predicting the future (but it's humans predicting with AI help, not the AI)

Fear and Loathing in AI!

Thank you for your transparency, vulnerability, and leadership. It is so appreciated!

Marketing is strategy

Great book by Mustafa Suleyman (DeepMind) - The Coming Wave...talks about the joiner of AI, robotics, synthetic biology and quantum computing.? AI is utterly fascinating. But it’s only 25% of what’s around the corner.

To the end of changing things and being a force for good, let’s “improve”, not “disrupt”. Let’s “help”, not “impact.” In tech we choose a lot of morally neutral language…but we don’t have to.

There’s a huge part of the world that doesn’t know that ai exists

I can't even believe how much it's changed my life

Knowing what we don’t want often offers more value than what we want.

Here’s a link for anyone worried about learning “prompt engineering” ??: https://spectrum.ieee.org/prompt-engineering-is-dead

We panicked about Y2K!!!

Shout out to anyone who did paste up on publications back in the day!

Stay focused on foundational principles. Trends come and go…

AI in 2024 is the CRM of 1990!

Oh, the evolution of marketing we've witnessed....I started before the World Wide Web was a thing. Thanks, for the reminder to recognize and celebrate our resilience and ability to reinvent ourselves as a function!

If I could just get people around me (family/friends) to STOP saying "Oh, well, don't believe that ad, it's just 'Marketing'!"... using Marketing as a substitute word for Lying... that would be a win!

Enable the tinkerers with just a few resources!!!

I’m a solid late adapter and am OK with that

That’s where I lean into “let’s have specialists or a small pod tackle AI first” on the team.

Not everyone is really into tinkering with it.

We don't evaluate other martech unless we have a need, right?

The problem is the feeling that we need to evaluate ALL THE AI. But do we, really?

You KNOW it’s a good session when Hitchhiker’s Guide gets quoted!!!

We’ve been using AI for years before OpenAI blew up, it’s just more in our faces now

If you want a complete indoctrination attend MAICON in Cleveland put on by the Marketing AI Institute.? It’s a good one.? Cleveland is lovely in September (10-12).

100% agree that in a few years AI will be so commonplace that we stop talking about it. This is a normal evolution of any technology.

AI has been around for decades. We have all been using AI for years. It’s simply an umbrella terms for a whole category of technologies. Of course, LLMs are the Shiny Object yet it’ll be ok! Fun history read here, and note 2017 pub date. https://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2017/history-artificial-intelligence/

We crave human conversation and interaction in all aspects.

I have used this quote from Latane so many times: "Nobody's going to get fired. And nobody's going to get hired." Use the tool for productivity, so you can focus on the things only a human can do.

AI feels like where we were 5-7 years ago with Cybersecurity. There were 100 cyber companies popping up daily, and now we’re in the consolidation stage. AI will experiences the same thing too, while also being incorporated into tech like others mentioned.

YES! Interfaces should (and will) adapt to us, not the other way around.

From a technologist at heart…

The Technology Adoption Curve of:

Innovators

Early Adopters

Early Majority

Late Majority

Laggards

What is important to know here is that the curve is all about how people in each group TRUST one another. With a new technology like AI, maybe we all would feel better if we could find a technologist we could trust. Could this be the beginning of a new marketing role, a “Mar-Tech” Specialist, capable of helping us bring technology like this into marketing? - Just a thought.

Automating my workflows with AI has been life changing. I think I'd need at least 2-3 employees working for me to do how much I do in a day right now with just me

One good thing about listening to Gong calls is that I can read faces and body language more reliably than the AI can

The trouble with that is how subjective body language and facial expressions are - different neurotypes and cultures are not the same

Agree CS has been around for a long time. It just seems like 5-7 years ago when it was in the spotlight, esp with all the VC spending. Didn’t mean to convey that it’s only been around for 5 years.

Very true. AI doesn’t change the fact that CMOs need to be spending their days driving their businesses, pipeline etc

I’m at an age when I don’t want another day go by without my being thankful for it!

Worrying never makes tomorrow easier. It just makes today gloomier. No idea who said this, but loved it

This seat is lonely. Feels like it comes with a muzzle which is a struggle for me. I'm thankful for this group; just listening helps me feel less alone.

“you guys are my continuing education “ wow

This morning’s chat epitomizes the true purpose of CMO Coffee Talk - supporting marketing leaders. Thanks to everyone who shared their POV!