What Krishnan Chatterjee teaches about AI in marketing

The role of AI or technology at large, perhaps, you know, it's not an either or. So this is the future that we're seeing is not Skynet, but more Ironman. Hi Krishnan, in B2B marketing, which is driven largely by performance campaigns, what is the scope really for storytelling? When you think about the messaging in any campaign in B2B marketing, the finest form of message is the story. But otherwise, the alternative is that your campaign messaging is an inside-out piece about your product or company that you want to share,

which quite frankly, customers aren't interested in. So the best packaging of that proposition is really the story of a customer who has implemented the same product or had the same experience with your business. which they are choosing to narrate to others who are similar to them. You know, brand building typically has a mid-to-long-term perspective. As marketing chases short-term business goals, how do you really measure the success of brand campaigns? So now let's link it back to the first question you asked.

Why would customers choose to tell your story on your behalf? It's obviously because they have a good experience with you. They are advocates. They are happy customers. So to that extent, when you work from a brand perspective, your biggest payoff is when you get advocates, when you get happy customers. And then they plug back into your short-term demand generation objectives. Because remember in B2B, there's a funnel, right? There's a funnel through which you organize revenue. As you go down the funnel, the story becomes more and more important.

So ultimately, in a large B2B transaction, a customer will always ask for a reference. Somebody he or she can speak to who has had a similar experience with your organization. So the only way for you to generate those happy experiences is through what your brand does in the medium to long-term, which then fuels back your short-term goals. From the CTO, today the key stakeholders, you know, they also include the CFO and the CEO in some cases. In the tech industry, how has B2B marketing evolved, you know, over the last few years? Good question.

I think a couple of things have happened to B2B marketing. The first I would say is B2B marketeers are increasingly understanding that they have, they don't control the narrative. And their customers control the narrative. Today, with social media, chat, WhatsApp, what have you, customers are in charge amongst themselves and communities. Therefore, like again, the point I made earlier, the focus on developing advocates, happy customers is of huge importance. I think the second focus has become, especially in tech,

increasingly you aren't selling products. You're selling business outcomes. So engineering what you have to offer, both in the context of its importance to the process or the architecture of the organization you're selling to, as well as the role it plays in the larger network of software and layers of technology that customers build. That's becoming extremely important. So this standalone, I am here to sell you a product, has to change or is transitioning to, let's work together so that you get an outcome. It could be in the front office,

better supply chain, better compliance, in the back office, what have you. I think the third thing which is now coming in is, marketeers in B2B have to become recognized as business leaders. So we spoke of AI in storytelling today. As a marketeer, are you at a point where you can completely trust AI versus your intuition? So I think the role of AI or technology at large, perhaps, you know, it's not an either or. So this is, the future that we're seeing is not Skynet, but more Ironman. So the guy in the suit is actually the hero.

And the suit can enhance capabilities which otherwise you would not possess. But definitely today, if I look at the continuum of marketing across analytics, content and channel, all three areas require a tremendous amount of, not just automation, but the ability to autonomously react. You know, you have to be able to generate content which is relevant in real time, which obviously for a marketeer to do may not be the best use. And it's impossible. So if we can adopt the Ironman mindset of saying,

can we surround ourselves with technology which increases our capabilities, you know, augments humanity itself, then we are in the right spot. And that's the way I look at it. Now, let's talk about the ethics of AI. How important is it to weave moral behavior into essentially computer programs as their interactions with human beings increase, you know, across all walks of life? It's a good question. Obviously, ethics of AI is where the Skynet sort of idea is born. And you have Terminators coming back and all of that stuff. So clearly,

you do need to ethically work within boundaries, which doesn't let AI's run amok. And I think, you know, from a data protection perspective and multitude of other fronts, governments, regulatory bodies are quite focused on it. So I think if we stay the path, there is significant awareness of potential pitfalls and people are working on it. And, but like I said earlier, you know, if you think Ironman, if you're just talking about improving transactional effectiveness of the human being, I don't think we should go much off the rails.

The more we think about AI directly running, you know, just like a human being, significant transactions of importance, that's when we'll run the risk. I don't see that happening, quite frankly.