Marketers embrace AI across workflows, but questions over guardrails and job impacts remain

Marketing execs are pushing for company-wide AI adoption, expecting everyone to use AI tools to expedite brainstorming, scale creative ideas and win client business. That expectation exists without a universal line in the sand for where machine learning ends and human ingenuity begins. 

“We’re going to navigate it all through conversation, and what feels right, when does it feel right,” said Evin Shutt, global CEO at 72andSunny marketing agency. Shutt later added, “What might feel uncomfortable now, six months from now, we might be like ‘remember when we thought that was weird?’”

Shutt recently joined a special episode of the Digiday Podcast to discuss the agency’s approach to AI. 

Marketing leaders are writing AI frameworks in pencil. Meanwhile, employees and those breaking into the ad business are navigating the changes in real time. AI has created roles that haven’t existed before, like AI art director, prompt engineer or chief AI officer. There’s concern, however, of what roles AI will replace.

“There is a lot of learning that AI is doing that a lot of early talent, I guess, won’t get to experience if AI gets to that point where they [the AI agents] do start replacing some of those entry-level jobs,” said Isaiah Clay, a recent graduate of Southern University out of Louisiana. Clay also spoke on the Digiday Podcast about how AI has impacted career prospects. 

He later added, “It’s a lot of different structural barriers, traditional barriers that AI is also adding another barrier for me.”