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Artificial intelligence expresses contradictory perspectives.
Some marketers aren't sure what to make of this new technology. Others see it as an opportunity for next-generation marketing.
There's a lot to think about, so we asked CMI's Chief Strategy Advisor Robert Rose for his thoughts. Luckily, he already spoke at the center of this week's discussion – the Marketing AI Institute Conference (MAICON) in Cleveland, Ohio. Check out his thoughts or read on:
Meeting to discuss marketing AI
This week marked the fifth annual MAICON, an event dedicated to fostering a community of forward-thinking, smart and bold marketers that continues to grow year after year.
It was great to hear talks from well-known thought leaders such as Chris Penn, Andy Crestodina, Andrew Davis, Katie Roberts, Jim Sterne and Amanda Todorovich.
It was also great to meet industry leaders I was less familiar with. Mike Walsh, CEO of Tomorrow, spoke about how AI is part of a larger transformation of the work system. He challenged marketers to think bigger.
Adam Brotman and Andy Sack began Day 2 by sharing their insights from interviews with some of the biggest players in AI, including Sam Altman, Bill Gates and Reid Hoffman, for their 2025 book, AI First: The Playbook for a Future-Proof Business and Brand.
I was a minority among the speakers. I did not fundamentally disagree. I agreed with many, indeed most, of the speakers who spoke about the fundamental changes that AI will bring.
However, I remain convinced that what everyone calls generative AI – which is the real focus of the conference and what most marketers of AI think of – is innovation that supports human creation, not the other way around.
After spending time with the great thinkers in the field, I still don't understand how generative AI is comparable to being bitten by a radioactive spider or discovering a secret formula for superpowers in the lab.
What Generative AI Really Is (Right Now)
Generative AI can – for now – amplify, magnify and scale the expression of your ideas. If the human ideas are small, generative AI will only amplify flawed ideas. If the ideas are flawed, generative AI will make mistakes faster. If your goal is to reduce the use of diverse and expensive human creativity, generative AI will absolutely meet that goal.
What I told the MAICON attendees revolved around the possibility of using generative AI tools for different aspects of the very human, creative and collaborative workflow in marketing. How can you apply these tools without losing the benefits gained through a considered approach to creativity?
Creativity is not a problem to be solved, which is why I talked about the concept of getting ready for AI. To adopt generative AI, you first need to identify the real question or problem it is trying to solve, rather than trying to accommodate the questions raised by generative AI.
Recommending this approach doesn't necessarily mean that I disagree with what thought leaders said this week (well, maybe a few things). I learned more in two days on a rapidly evolving topic than I did in a whole year.
Kudos to the team at Marketing AI Institute, and a huge thank you to all the people new and old that I got to spend time with. And I'd like to say, without any irony, that all of this was made possible by humans doing human things at a physical event. The chemistry, the vibe, and the space contributed as much as the “data” or “content” provided.
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Cover photo by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute
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