The human brain is simply not clever enough to embrace the complex decisions that marketing will increasingly require, argues a report from Deloitte.

But it’s not all bad news for people – all that’s required is that they are placed within an entirely new marketing operating model, one that embraces AI, rather than resists it, argues the report, Reviving Marketing: The New CMO.

Deloitte partner David Phillips told AdNews the research was compiled to look at increasing concerns about the role of a Chief Marketing Officer, in terms of both its decreasing voice, and the high turnover of staff in the position.

Researchers spoke to 20 senior CMOs in Australia over six months, and carried out a review of 10 global quantitative studies to compile the report.

Although there is a widespread perception in the industry that technology is a threat to creativity, Phillips believes marketers should see AI as a positive development.

“The change is absolutely inevitable,” he said.

“The only question for me is the rate it’s going to happen. The technology is still three to four years away and it’s going to take really progressive clients. I don’t see the revolution happening for another 10-12 years, but we should start to figure out what it means.”

Campaigns of the future, he said, could be run much like car makers build factories, with machines at the centre, and humans around them.

“This model is going to make being a marketer more enjoyable,” he maintained.

“The human brain can’t make the decision it needs to make given all the variables, such as media, personalisation, creative optimisation and audience management, in marketing today, so the sooner it happens the better for marketers.”

The report found the US is ahead of the game in accepting a new, tech-dominated operating model in which legacy roles have been removed.

But a willingness to embrace technology was less apparent in Australia. Deloitte researchers found that 60% of CMOs there believed the role of tech would stay the same or decline in the future.

Sourced from Deloitte, AdNews; additional content by WARC staff