This podcast discusses the skills and capabilities that strategists, marketers, and insight professionals will need to develop to stay relevant as AI becomes more advanced.
The Marketing Society member Adam Riley is the founder of marketing insight consultancy Decision Architecture Limited and is joined by David Smith, Director of Insight Consultancy DVL Smith and also a Professor at the University of Hertfordshire Business School.
Adam and David introduce 7 "power skills" that will be critical to staying relevant as AI becomes more advanced.
In this episode they discuss the final two "power skills" - inspiring leadership and decision making.
Inspiring leadership involves showing authenticity, compassion, and charisma - things an AI cannot fully replicate. Leaders must act as role models and problem simplifiers.
With decision making, AI can systematize parts of the process but ultimately complex decisions require a human perspective. Humans add context, intuition and reassurance.
The hosts summarize that in an AI future, focusing on these human power skills will allow strategists to collaborate with AI but also excel where AI falls short.
Key power skills are critical thinking, sensemaking, creativity, storytelling, foresight, inspiring, and decision making.
Humans will still comprehend complexity and empathize in ways AI cannot. Building "T-shaped" teams with expertise across skills is important.
Fostering agility and fluidity in thinking will be critical to work alongside AI and "make a difference."
The hosts welcome discussion on these ideas and skills needed to survive and thrive alongside advancing AI systems.
Bio's
Adam Riley founded marketing insight consultancy Decision Architecture Limited in 2006. His 25-year-plus career has spanned market research agencies, client-side roles and management consultancy. Adam joined TN-AGB in the early nineties, before moving to RSL in its embryonic international research team. After an MBA at The London Business School, he joined Samsung in South Korea, as a Global Marketing Strategist, before moving back to London and becoming a senior member of the marketing strategy practice of Monitor Company (now part of Deloitte).
David Smith is a Director of Insight Consultancy DVL Smith, which he founded in the 1980s. He is also a Professor at the University of Hertfordshire Business School. He holds a PhD in Organisational Psychology from the University of London and is a Graduate Member of the British Psychological Society. He is a former Vice President of ESOMAR, a Fellow and former Chairman of the UK Market Research Society (MRS), a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and also a Fellow of the Institute of Consulting.
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