There are a lot of contradictory—and provocative—opinions about AI out there. “In ten years, CEOs who don’t understand data and AI won’t be eligible for the top job in any industry,” Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi said. Historian Yuval Noah Harari cautions that AI firms should face prison over the creation of fake humans. Entrepreneur Marc Andreessen proclaims that AI will save the world.

Whatever your opinion may be, if you’re a CMO, it’s time to start thinking about making a statement that clarifies your company’s position on AI. Why? The most forward-looking CMOs will be the ones who successfully define AI’s role in their industry.

 

Three AI Challenges

Three challenges stand out with AI as it relates to business: Customers and employees are afraid that it will take over our jobs, that it will make biased decisions, and that it will be used to trick us. The reassuring news is that effective communication can surmount these challenges.

Why Positioning Matters

I like to think of business as having a cause, ideally one that serves the greater good in the world. Businesses should prosper when they benefit customers, employees, shareholders and even the environment. Each decision the company makes brings it closer to achieving its purpose, and adopting AI provides yet another opportunity to do so.

Let’s examine how a few companies have woven AI into their mission:

• Adobe sees AI as a co-pilot to creativity, “accelerating ideation, exploration and production for all of our customers.”

• 1-800-Flowers founder Jim McCann believes that “AI technology has the potential to change the world and, in the process, strengthen our relationships.”

• Nvidia’s Chief Executive Jensen Huang states that “everyone can be a programmer” thanks to generative AI. This will not only create new innovations but enhance existing tools and applications.

By defining your stance on AI and communicating the way it’s helping you achieve your mission, you’re creating a valuable opportunity to remind your customers about your mission and commitment to achieving it. This doesn’t mean you should adopt AI for AI’s sake. You could show how you’re saving customers time, making them more creative, or explain why you feel it’s in your customers’ best interest not to adopt AI at all. Either way, communication is the key.

 

 

Picking Your Position

Like with any positioning statement, crafting your position starts by asking the right questions and involving the right people. Here are three questions that can help you spark the conversation with your own teams and stakeholders:

 

1. What’s our company’s overall position on AI?

The first step for any positioning statement is figuring out where you stand. Maybe you believe it’s necessary to progress the business and improve your customers’ lives. Maybe you want to call out how competitors are employing it in an irresponsible way.

Take C3.AI, a B2B AI-based business, as an example. They state in their communication that they practice—and will only practice—ethical AI. They back up this positioning with examples and even go so far as to state they will switch off their AI if they discover it’s being used to violate their ethics.

Many of our clients write a blog post or allocate a section on their website’s “About” section to express their stance on AI. One client made a bold statement by displaying their commitment on a billboard, weaving it into their current positioning with the message “the DAITA CLOUD: bring Gen AI to your Data.”

My company crafted our own stance regarding AI: “We’re champions of responsible AI and responsible communication about AI, with the imperative for every business to share its position on AI including the impact of AI on its customers, employees and stakeholders.”

 

2. How will AI impact our customers, employees and other stakeholders?

Once you’ve told customers what you think about AI, you can explain how AI will show up in their interactions with you. No one wants to be tricked. They want to know whether they are interacting with a human being or a machine. And they want to know how they can interact with a human if needed.

It’s best to tell them upfront how AI will show up and improve their experience with you.

For example, while I was writing this article, I received an email from 1-800-Flowers, titled, “Can AI Bring Us Closer to Each Other?” The company recognized that ChatGPT could help customers express themselves better in holiday cards, so they started incorporating the AI tool in their Mother’s Day and Father’s Day campaigns. You wouldn’t think that a company selling flowers and chocolates would be a leader in using AI, but now I’m excited to test my own corny gift message against ChatGPT.

As entrepreneur Jeff Hawkins said in a New York Times article, “The key to artificial intelligence has always been the representation.” By reassuring customers and being totally transparent, 1-800-Flowers made their customers feel smarter and better for using their product.

 

3. How does AI tie into our overall brand positioning?

Your use of AI is a great reason to get in touch and remind customers about what sets your business apart.

One of our clients is working with us to update their positioning to include their point of view on AI. The company has built its reputation on its ease of use, and during testing, customers instantly connected this brand attribute with how our client could help them deliver AI. By communicating their new position, they emphasized a message they’ve been delivering on since the very beginning.

When you position AI as just another tool you can use to achieve your mission and improve your customers’ lives and businesses, it stops being intimidating and instead becomes another example of your commitment.

 

Key Takeaway

AI is here, bringing new opportunities for advancement, differentiation and positioning to businesses just like yours. By owning the conversation and defining your position early, you can have a big impact on the way you and your use of AI is perceived by the people who matter most: your customers.

LeackStat 2023