Marketing leaders—those outperforming their peers—recognize that cognitive computing and artificial intelligence technologies are game-changers for marketing. The IBM Institute for Business Value recently conducted a study examining how likely Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) and heads of sales are to embrace cognitive computing. The Institute surveyed 525 CMOs and 389 heads of sales across 18 industries. The research found that:
- 88% of the outperformers believe they are ready to adopt cognitive computing
- 91% of the outperformers believe that cognitive computing will be important to their organization’s future
- 93% of them believe that cognitive and AI is mature enough to be market ready
As Maria Winans, Chief Marketing Officer for IBM Watson Customer Engagement recently told Forbes, “The survey further validated that marketers and sales leaders believe that this technology is game changing.”
The challenge may be how quickly marketers will adopt cognitive computing. The research found that the majority of survey respondents are in the early stages of considering and evaluating cognitive technologies. The report, however, points out, “But the longer they linger there, the greater their risk of falling further behind those companies that are already implementing and operating cognitive today.” Put that statement in the context of an additional finding: 61% of marketing and sales executives surveyed expect cognitive computing will be a disruptive force in their industries.
The question you should ask yourself, then, is where do you want to be when the marketing industry fully embraces cognitive? Your peers are saying it’s both a game changer and a disrupter. To use the terminology of Geoffrey Moore’s Crossing the Chasm, do you want to be an early adopter, do you want to be in the early majority, or do you want to be in the late majority or a laggard? Can you afford to be left behind as your discipline and your industry changes? Or do you want to ensure that you—and your organization—become one of the outperformers?
Read more blog posts about cognitive computing:
What the Heck is Cognitive Computing?
