The final day of MAICON brought more spectacular speakers and breakout sessions focused on successfully integrating AI and marketing. From setting the data foundation and building a competitive intelligence strategy to learning from #AIfails and future-proofing your career—day three prepared attendees for real-world AI implementation.
Team Human
Douglas Rushkoff - Author, Team Human
“Being social may be the whole point.”
To Douglas Rushkoff, Team Human is a manifesto—a fiery distillation of his most urgent thoughts on civilization and human nature. To kick off the final day of MAICON, he urged attendees to consider the question, “Are you the medium or are you the message?”
There is an anti-human tradition and ideology embedded in our culture, and technology emphasizes it. The nature of mass media isn’t to bring people together, but to separate them from one another because the isolated individual will buy more.
To combat this, Rushkoff encouraged the audience to look at technology through the veil of human possibility. How can we use AI to make brands more human and connect buyers and sellers? How can we use our human creativity to ensure humans are not auto-tuned out of the equation?
Ethics of AI
Karen Hao - AI Reporter, MIT Technology Review
Nikos Acuña - Partner, AI Global Practice Lead, Davis and Partners
Joe Sutherland, PhD - Head of Data Science, Search Discovery
R.J. Talyor - Founder and CEO, Pattern89
The presence of AI in marketing raises difficult questions about how to treat personalization, privacy and consumer interests. Day 3 of MAICON brought together four AI experts with diverse backgrounds to debate these questions.
AI-Powered Digital Transformation: Creating a Competitive Advantage for Your Business
Kanishka Bhattacharya - Senior Director of Data Science and Analytics, Publicis Sapient
James Koetcki - Director of Marketing and Communications, Infinia ML
“When it comes to AI, change is scary for human beings, but it’s the only constant in this.” — Kanishka Bhattacharya
To make AI your company’s competitive advantage, you must first overcome key digital transformation challenges. In a fireside chat, Kanishka Bhattacharya shared examples and tips for overcoming these obstacles, including:
- Show small AI successes with examples and stories to help others learn.
- Instill a “teach me” culture to keep your team constantly learning and humble.
- Gamify change to accelerate it.
A Look Beyond: The Next Frontier in Marketing
David Meerman Scott - Marketing Strategist
Paul Roetzer - Founder and CEO, Marketing Artificial Intelligence Institute
For the final keynote of MAICON 2019, Paul Roetzer and David Meerman Scott discussed what’s next for AI and marketing.
Although AI is synonymous with change, Scott advised marketers to focus on what hasn’t changed—the need to understand people. In the intelligently automated future, marketers will need to focus more time and energy on listening, relationship building, empathy, creativity, culture and community.
From the Attendees
Don't miss your opportunity to be part of the conversation at MAICON 2020 in Cleveland, July 14 - 16. Year two promised expanded programming with more sessions and speakers, a collection of case studies from marketers who have piloted AI in their companies, and an ever-growing community of marketing leaders seeking to drive change in their organizations.
Tickets are on sale now with exclusive 50% off Launch pricing through July 31, 2019.
Ashley Sams
Ashley Sams is director of marketing at Ready North. She joined the agency in 2017 with a background in marketing, specifically for higher education and social media. Ashley is a 2015 graduate of The University of Mount Union where she earned a degree in marketing.