Ahead of Possible Miami 2024, The Drum is producing a special five-part series focusing on key marketers and how their roles are evolving. In this installation, Colette Stallbaumer, her Microsoft 365 and Future of Work marketing general manager at Microsoft, urges marketers to embrace her AI with a bold test-and-learn approach.
Colette Stallbaumer is an AI evangelist.
Stallbaumer, head of marketing for Microsoft's Future of Work initiative, which aims to develop solutions for an era of productive and fair work, has conducted extensive research aimed at powering evolving businesses. I lead a team that does She also leads a suite of software services known as Microsoft 365. It incorporates Copilot, Microsoft's AI-powered chatbot launched last year (initially released under the name Bing Chat), which has a series of well-documented hallucinations and users. The brand name was changed after some strange exchanges with the company).
Stallbaumer himself has been experimenting with generative AI programs for a little over a year. This schedule roughly coincides with the release of his ChatGPT for OpenAI, the tool that catapulted generative AI into the mainstream (and whose development Microsoft supported with its 49% non-controlling interest in OpenAI). Now, she says, “I can't imagine going back.”
She said: “This makes my day-to-day life so much easier,” she says. For example, “If I miss a comment in a real-time meeting, I can ask her AI instead of repeating it to someone else.” . And when it comes to creativity, Stallbaumer says he relies on AI tools “as a brainstorming partner and source of inspiration.”
Looking to the future, Stallbaumer, who has held various marketing positions within Microsoft and began her career at top advertising agencies such as J. Walter Thompson and DDB, is looking forward to working with AI at its heart, especially the future of marketing. We are looking forward to
A habit-focused approach to AI adoption
Stallbaumer sees AI as a significant opportunity for marketing professionals in terms of enabling new efficiencies across workflows and enhancing creative work.
In terms of efficiency, she points to research showing that most marketers today spend 60% of their time communicating, and only about 40% actually creating it. According to Stallbaumer, there is a unique opportunity to change these numbers with the help of AI.
“No one said they went into marketing to prioritize email,” she says. “People work in marketing because they are strategic and creative thinkers. They understand what customers need and develop products that can make their work and lives better. We want to connect customers to our services, and AI frees us from “digital debt,” or all the notifications that arrive faster than we can keep up. ”
But she predicts that marketing will increasingly incorporate AI into the creative side as well. “The more people understand AI, the more they expect it to help them do the most meaningful parts of their jobs. For example, 87% of employees in creative roles are familiar with AI. say they are comfortable using AI for creative aspects of their work.”
Essentially, she believes that AI will “help each of us get back to what drew us to marketing in the first place: a love of strategic and creative thinking.”
Of course, effectively integrating AI across different functions within an organization is easier said than done.
Stallbaumer recommends a test-and-learn approach. For marketing teams in particular, she recommends:[building] To see and feel the productivity and creativity gains of AI, you need to make technology a daily habit. ” She likens the idea to practicing or learning a new language, saying that effective and efficient AI integration requires “deliberate daily practice.”
In Stallbaumer's view, leading marketing teams continue to work tirelessly today to determine how AI tools work in harmony with human productivity and creativity, and to find the most effective solutions. The team is said to screen applications early.
Here are her words: “It’s not enough to just consider individual productivity. Over the next few years, AI will completely transform the marketing function. Marketing leaders will need to consider which tasks they delegate to AI and which tasks are uniquely human We need to consider whether this is a task and allocate people and resources accordingly.”
AI and the changing role of the CMO
At a leadership level, the job of marketers is changing rapidly (The Drum is exploring this idea in depth this year). CMOs are increasingly expected to contribute to the broader strategic objectives of the business.
This is a reality that Stallbaumer sees in his daily work at Microsoft. In 2024, every CMO will need to help drive the evolution of their company and business. How are customer expectations changing? Are your products and services aligned with them? How do we evolve to respond to this?”
Stallbaumer said AI can help CMOs address both of these priorities, “from uncovering customer insights across data silos and enabling personalization at scale to enabling new out-of-the-box technologies. to stimulating thinking and innovation.”
It's no wonder that nearly 80% of CMOs plan to increase their organizations' spending on AI and data this year, up from 57% in 2023, according to a recent Accenture study.
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And CMOs, who Stallbaumer believes are typically people obsessed with customers and creativity, are uniquely positioned to take full advantage of AI, she says. In her view, successful marketing leaders are: [their] From creativity to AI adoption. ”
Stallbaumer praises this approach, as CMOs she knows are asking entire teams to upskill and prepare for new responsibilities in their roles as AI transforms key marketing functions. I am. “A willingness to rethink and reinvent possibilities determines success. [for today’s CMOs]”
Stallbaumer encourages marketing leaders to think big. His development of AI applications in the world of marketing goes beyond automating boring tasks or brainstorming in creative sessions. It's going to be much broader and more important than that, she says.
“As marketers, we already know the importance of thinking outside the box. We need to do the same with AI in the workplace. Don’t just use it to do the same thing faster. Please,” she urges. “Work with your team to reimagine what’s possible.”
Colette Stallbaumer, general manager of Microsoft 365 and Future of Work at Microsoft, will speak at Possible Miami on Wednesday. On April 17 at 9:45 a.m., she will share her thoughts on “Seizing Her AI Opportunity in the Workplace” at VIP Academy. Click here to find out more and book tickets for the event.
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