How To Win In The AI boom

‘To get the most out of artificial intelligence, marketing chiefs need to fall in love with the problem, not the solution.’ That’s the most important piece of advice shared at Man Bites Dog’s recent Food for Thought Leadership dinner in London.

It’s important to first define the challenges you face and then – only if appropriate – use AI to solve them. The alternative is chasing tech for its own sake, which is expensive and, whisper it, a fool’s errand.

A lot of the latter is happening right now within organisations, a trend Ed Greig, Chief Disruptor at Deloitte Digital and guest speaker at the event, described as ‘sprinting in the fog’.

Frenzied activity like this is symptomatic of a technology hype-cycle: businesses rushing to adopt but not really understanding why.

The eye of the hype-cycle

In truth, we are probably yet to enter the period in which AI becomes truly useful. With every major technological era, from electricity to the internet, the best, most ground-breaking ideas tend to arrive only when the noise fades.

A brilliant example is the humble QR code. Today, we know exactly what to do with them and they have a limited yet practical use. Fifteen years ago, it was a different story: enormous hype, but no agreed benefits whatsoever.

A relevant example for marketing leaders today is something we at Man Bites Dog like to call “doughnut content” – glossy but fundamentally empty of thought.

AI is flooding the market with content that looks impressive but has no intellectual nutrition, fuelling writing that reads fine but with an eerie, liminal aftertaste. There’s no authenticity, originality or value.

It’s similar to ultra-processed food, which is quick and looks like something you could consume, but you don’t get much out of it.

And just as with ultra-processed food, a backlash is coming for doughnut content.

Audiences, especially in B2B, are starting to crave substance again: depth, expertise, credibility, personality. When the novelty of AI-generated fluff wears off, authentic, insightful content will stand out even more.

Where AI wins

None of this is to say that AI is having a weak impact. On the contrary, it’s already changing behaviour.

For example, AI summaries in search results are shifting how people access and interact with information, which is a huge change for the internet as we know it. As a result, marketing professionals now need to get better at delivering content that answers real problems with authority.

More broadly, AI is great for organising, refining and categorising. Building efficiency is the name of the game, as is reducing lag or doing menial digital tasks faster than any human.

But it has its limits. It tends to make its biggest positive difference when things are improved and augmented, but, in general, not replaced. It can make a good business even better, but it won’t make a bad business good.

So leadership matters: if mundane jobs are automated, the C-suite must decide how to redeploy people effectively to protect long-term talent pipelines.

With all this considered, AI has broad appeal and transformative potential. Once CMOs navigate the use-case cul-de-sacs and remove the tinsel, its underlying power is massive.

Another important reminder from the discussion: you’re not behind on AI. Hype has distorted expectations, convincing us that we should somehow be further ahead innovation-wise and getting more out of it.

This is the “illusion of progress,” which cloaks just how unfinished most projects are across the board, even in large, well-funded outfits.

The futurist Roy Amara’s adage from 1978 is as true now as it was then: ‘We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run’.

In other words, the hype about the next 12 months is likely exaggerated, but considerations for the next decade are probably underdone.

What to do now

If you’re just starting to find your way with AI, then don’t worry, you’re in a strong position. The best advice from the evening: think big, start small, test often and, when it works, scale fast.

Instead of rushing ahead, businesses should work on their rhythm: test, learn, iterate and create feedback loops to ensure everything remains focused on your goals.

But even before you do any of that, consider behaviour. Is your department and the broader business culturally attuned to digital transformation? Because all the tools in the world won’t start a revolution unless your teams are on the same page.

Note too that marketing will always be the closest function to the customer, so its core purpose isn’t going away. What will change is how tightly it integrates with product and service operations.

Rather than a silo that just “does comms,” marketing should become the feedback engine, or an interface between customer insight and product evolution. It’s about shortening the distance between intent and execution.

Even in heavily regulated industries, there’s a benefit to thinking in these terms now. CMOs may not be able to implement everything immediately because of regulatory constraints, but they can start building the vision and laying foundations for the future.

Clear direction enables creative solutions even within tight legal frameworks, like in the case of sandboxes for financial products.

In summary, the future belongs to marketing leaders who build trust, communicate clearly and guide people through uncertainty rather than sprint blindfolded into it.

With a methodical, sensible and frenzy-free approach, you can lay the foundations for long-term success while swerving AI’s many pitfalls.

If you are looking for a bit more support on all this, please get in touch, we love a challenge, and we'd love to help.