The Future Marketeer

According to recent studies about 5 million jobs are predicted to be replaced by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and as we stand on the precipice of the 4th major Industrial Revolution, it’s imperative that marketers need some sharp skills to stand out and prove not everything can or should be done by a machine/computer.

Here are the top 7 skills that all marketers should be possess for thriving in this new age:

Strong Problem Solving Skills

AI has been developed to a great extent and we can naturally see different connections between things due to statistically based data. It cannot always find appropriate solutions to complex problems, but it can assume a casual connection or a relationship between two statistics, devoid of any human reasoning and creative thinking. Therefore, marketers need to make sure that they are capable of identifying the relationships between things quickly and can also provide a creative and unique solution to the problem so that they can stay ahead of AI which incidentally gets smarter by the day!

Critical Thinking

Being able to gather data is one thing, but being in a position to critically analyse that data is the great advantage of marketers competing with AI. The ability of critical thinking is particular only to mankind; therefore, until AI can keep up, marketer’s skills will be required. In order to market in 2020 and the near future, marketers will need to predict what people will need next and deliver it quickly. Hence, anyone seeking a career in the marketing industry needs to make sure they can critically analyse data and identify the creative move that needs to be made.

Creativity

AI is not creative by nature, only by design. A machine is simply not creative, it can be programmed by a creative person to recognise creative decisions, but that won’t transform it into a creative thinker. The next great marketing ideas will not come from an AI machine, but precisely from an individual with a creative and abstract mind. Future marketers will need to have the skills to create strong creative strategies and truly random bits of beauty for consumption.

Emotional Intelligence

Since no machine or AI, are capable of feeling emotions, only simulating them to some degree, they are failing to deliver sympathy, empathy or any other connection to humanity when persuading a potential client. People tend to buy from someone who respects them, understands their needs and values them. Hence, emotional intelligence is essential for future marketers.

People Management

There are some things that AI will never be able to replace and one of them is the ability to manage people. People skills are something proven that only other humans can provide, since machines, robots and other AI, no matter how human-like they’ve been coded, still feel cold to people. Consequently, future marketers have to let their people management skills shine. They will need to demonstrate naturally strong leadership skills such as getting along with people whilst delivering on all objectives successfully, delegating and leading by example.

Negotiation ability

Another great advantage of people is negotiation skills. AI cannot negotiate with people or negotiate terms that would be seen as a fair compromise of two parties. Furthermore, in 2020 marketers are likely to be working within larger teams including several departments, in order to accomplish greater goals and gain bigger profits. This sometimes means that marketers will have to work alongside their competition. Therefore they will need to bring really strong negotiation skills to the table.

Cognitive Flexibility

Last but not least, is the ability to identify different customer needs and offer a variety of options to meet those needs. AI sees humans as equal with data points being the only difference. Therefore, it is unable to market different target groups in a specific way. Future marketers will need to show great abilities in changing, adopting and implementing marketing tactics based on different cultures, religion, location, gender, etc, so that they can stay ahead of what the best marketing practices are for those different data points.

 

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