According to Adobe's 2024 Digital Trends Study, a quarter of senior client-side executives say they already have skill-building programs in place around generative AI.
A further two-thirds (65%, Figure 1) say their upskilling is in progress or currently in the planning stages, with a further 10% admitting they have not started yet or have no plans to upskill.
When asked about their readiness to align their AI roadmaps to broader business objectives and identify KPIs to measure AI impact, respondents were also pretty similar.
Is there a lack of strategic oversight?
The report's authors argue that more strategic oversight is needed if the adoption of generative AI is to meet expectations. He takes into account the fact that two-thirds of senior executives say they are optimistic that this technology will lead to significant or substantial business transformation in everything from analytics to technology development. . From customer service and content to his workflow and sales process (see Figure 2).
The first use case for generative AI is content
When it comes to what practitioners are actually looking to do with generative AI in 2024, as shown in Figure 3, creative workflows and asset production are the most popular (41% intend to implement it in this field in 2024). ), followed by customer journey optimization and support. Self-service (both 38%), updating content in real time (36%), and improving campaign iterations through testing (31%).
These findings and others in the report clearly demonstrate that content is the first, and perhaps most practical (or low-hanging fruit) use case for generative AI. This is not surprising, but perhaps more skill-building programs (along with strategic oversight) are needed to ensure marketing teams don't hit the ground running before they can start walking.
Upskilling is now aligned with the development of the AI roadmap (see Figure 1). But this report also reminds us that, above all, consumers want to know whether their data is being used responsibly if their expectations are to be met. The importance of governance and ethical AI use is one reason why nearly half of senior marketers plan to prioritize a basic understanding of AI for all employees in 2024. There is no doubt that this is the case (Figure 4).
Skills training for key staff and a fundamental understanding of overall AI will be a top priority in 2024
Client-side senior executives say their top priority in preparing for generative AI in 2024 is to provide advanced AI skills to key team members (48%) and provide all employees with basic AI skills. Ensuring understanding (46%). This was closely followed by “developing policies for the ethical use of AI and data security” (45%) and “developing and implementing AI governance frameworks” (44%).
In the consumer portion of the survey, those still resistant to the use of generative AI to make chatbots more useful (23%) or image generation to make marketing messages more engaging (32%) The broader marketing organization will be quickly trained to understand the pros and cons of this technology.
