Marketers Hopes and Fears
for Artificial Intelligence
David Berkowitz
Chief Strategy Officer, Sysomos
@sysomos / @dberkowitz
dberkowitz@sysomos.com

About this presentation
This talk about artificial intelligence (AI) was presented at IAB Conecta in
Mexico City in August 2017. This version has been annotated and edited for
clarity.
For the research featured here, Sysomos partnered with The Drum, which
surveyed more than 200 marketing professionals in May 2017. The vast
majority of respondents were in senior management levels, and they hailed
from brands, agencies, media companies, and technology providers.
In the notes field of each slide, you can find links to any additional sources.
For any questions about this talk, please reach out to me anytime.
Thanks for reading this.
David Berkowitz
dberkowitz@sysomos.com

These are the associations
most people seem to have
with AI…

“The greatest benefit
of the arrival of
artificial intelligence
is that AIs will help
define humanity. We
need AIs to tell us
who we are.”
-Kevin Kelly, The Inevitable

“47% of all jobs will be taken by
robots.”
- The Future of Employment
“47% of all jobs will
be taken by robots.”
-The Future of Employment

Strong vs Narrow AI
Narrow AI refers to non-sentient technology focused on one specific task.
Strong AI refers to consciousness and sentience, where AI can be applied to any problem.

“In the next 10 years, 99%
of the artificial intelligence
that you will interact with,
directly or indirectly, will be
nerdly narrow, supersmart
specialists.”
-Kevin Kelly, The Inevitable

“More and more products
and services will fuse
machine intelligence with
crowd work to help users
get things done.”
-Shivon Zilis in Harvard Business Review

This isn’t the AI you’ve been looking for, but
it is an early example of predictive problem-
solving assistants.

Why is the race for AI
so hot right now?
• Data sets
• Processing power
• Practical goals
• New algorithms
• ‘Adjacent possible’

In the talk, we turned the presentation into a kind of game show, surveying the
audience about their views. For those who saw the presentation live, that interactive
feature won’t appear here, but I would love hearing your opinions about the topic.

Do marketers understand AI?
Yes
46%
No
54%

Are marketers investigating the full potential of AI?
Yes
36%
No
64%

Why do marketers want to invest in AI?
64%
61%
49%
42%
39%
36%
24%
Increase productivity Increase efficiency Generate new
opportunities
New innovation Increase sales Cost savings Verify performance

Top applications for AI
49% 49%
40%
30%
27%
24%
21%
18%
11%
9%
Competitive
intelligence
Customer
service/ CRM
Media planning/
buying
Auditing:
delivery,
transparency,
fraud
Billing/ finance Community
management
PR/analyst
relations
Creative briefs Recruitment/ HR Legal/ rights
management
What kinds of applications of AI are most interesting to your business?

Which function at your company will benefit the most from AI?
Exec team
7% Brand manager
5%
Strategist/planner
16%
Analyst/researcher
25%
Media buyer/planner
15%
Account manager
6%
Creative
10%
Production
8%
Other
8%

Marketers do not want AI in creativity or recruitment
16%
23%
5%
22%
9%
16%
44%
15%
5%
37%
Customer
service/CRM
PR/analyst
relations
Competitive
intelligence
Legal/rights
management
40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%
How much of your job today do you think could be replaced by AI by the end of the decade?

AI can produce works of creativity

Impact on marketing activity expected over next 5 years
3%
14%
19%
18%
8%
22%
4% 4%
3%
1%
4%
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
How long do you think it will be before AI makes a significant impact on your marketing activity?

Will AI harm jobs in marketing?
Yes, some
roles will be
replaced by
AI
61%
No, AI will
let us work
more
effectively
39%

Will the rise of AI lead to job losses?
2%
14%
26%
14%
12%
20%
5%
4%
3%
2% 2%
0 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
How much of your job today do you think could be replaced by AI by the end of the decade?

It’s not just marketers who are concerned

It’s not just marketers who are concerned
14
23
29.1
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
New platform won't catch on
Platform obsolescence
I'm replaced by AI
Software Developer Fears
Source: Evans Data Corp

“The advent of AI didn’t
diminish the performance
of purely human chess
players. Quite the
opposite… There are more
than twice as many grand
masters now as there were
when Deep Blue beat
Kasparov.”
-Kevin Kelly, The Inevitable

What job do you want A.I. to do?

What job do you want A.I. to do?
Create your A.I. job interview

Key takeaways:
Get ready for a messy few years ahead
• For the next several years, technologies will
augment what we can do
• There will be immediate opportunities for
specialists who can identify and implement
AI
• Some jobs are more prone to replacement
by automation than others
• People are hesitant to relinquish creative
tasks to AI, but AI can replace creative
functions

¡Gracias! ¡Mantente en contacto!
dberkowitz@sysomos.com
@sysomos / @dberkowitz
www.sysomos.com
This really is my Spanish-language
LinkedIn profile. I took a few liberties
with my description.