"AI won't replace you, but somebody who uses AI will."
This powerful statement, shared by Emily Pick, Lead Product Marketing Manager at Clari, captures the urgency of AI adoption for today's product marketers. In a recent conversation with Ryane Bohm, Head of Product Marketing at Copy.ai, Emily shared her journey from being an ad-hoc AI user to becoming an internal AI evangelist.
Emily's turning point came about six months ago. She realized that ignoring AI was no longer an option. Market expectations have shifted. Companies now assume PMMs are leveraging AI to scale their efforts. AI proficiency has become a career necessity rather than a bonus skill.
But where do you start? How can product marketers, often overwhelmed by a deluge of tactical "busy work" and pressured to deliver more with less, begin to harness the power of AI? In this article, we'll dive into Emily's practical insights and real-world examples. We'll create a roadmap for PMMs looking to fight burnout, offload repetitive tasks, and create space for high-impact strategic thinking.
This guide will provide you with a framework to start your AI journey with confidence, whether you're a solo marketer wearing many hats or a PMM leader guiding a team. Let's explore how you can move from being bogged down by tactical execution to scaling your impact with the power of AI.
The pressure on PMMs to do more with less is immense. The market expectation has changed. Companies now assume PMMs are using AI to scale their efforts. This makes AI proficiency a career necessity, not a bonus skill.
"If you're not using AI now, you're behind," Emily notes. "There's maybe a little bit of foresight, a bit of career future-proofing, kind of reading the tea leaves."
The shift is real. Emily's CMO issued a directive: instead of hiring more people to combat burnout, the company invested in AI tools to make the existing team more effective. This trend is widespread across the industry. Companies increasingly expect PMMs to leverage AI to "almost double themselves."
Identify the low-hanging fruit—the repetitive, time-consuming tasks that bog PMMs down. Offload this work to free up critical time for strategy.
"So much of that kind of mindless busy work… you're able to offload it and go do more strategic tasks," Emily explains.
Emily shares her experience using AI to update numerous assets after a new company narrative was launched. She used it for things like one-pagers and Highspot content. It's a perfect example of a high-volume, low-complexity task AI can streamline.
"It would update the copy for me," she says. "I still think AI is at like 75 to 80% as far as output where I'm fully trusted. But still, that 75 to 80% lift when having to go through and recreate is huge."
The time-savings is transformative. PMMs can focus on:
It's the difference between treading water and making strategic strides. No more being mired in tactical updates.
Getting started with AI doesn't have to be overwhelming. Emily outlines a simple, phased approach any PMM can follow.
Explore the AI features already built into your current tech stack. Tools like Close, for example, offer AI-powered capabilities for tasks like win/loss analysis or conversation intelligence. Leverage what you already have. You can start realizing value without a hefty learning curve or additional investment.
Branch out to using general language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT for more versatile tasks:
Be mindful of data privacy at this stage. "If you do not have an enterprise license, you should not be sharing any proprietary information or data," Emily cautions. "It will be used to train those resources."
This is the advanced stage. Connect tools to create automated processes.
Emily shares a powerful example: "The field can go push a button in Salesforce and a custom one-pager that matches our solution to the customer they're talking to just appears in Slack."
The setup requires more technical effort. But the payoff in time-savings and scalability is immense.
AI is powerful but not infallible. PMMs must act as auditors, not just users. Navigate two critical risks: data security and accuracy.
On data security, Emily is unequivocal: "Free is never free… you might not be paying us money, but you might be paying us with your data."
She shares a cautionary tale. A friend's AI-generated NPS analysis was a "complete lie". It had to be redone manually. The PSA is clear. Never feed proprietary company or customer data into a public AI tool without an enterprise-grade license.
Accuracy is the other key pitfall. AI can produce impressively fluent outputs. However, it can also "hallucinate" information or make reasoning errors.
Emily stresses the importance of human oversight. Treat AI drafts as a starting point rather than a final product. "Can you imagine co-signing your name to an AI report that's just so wrong?" she asks. "Then they're like, 'Did you even check this?' You have to be so specific in how you prompt and thoughtful about the guardrails."
PMMs provide that critical layer of verification and refinement. Treat AI as a partner, not a replacement. Marketers can reap the efficiency benefits while still maintaining the accuracy and quality of their work.
AI adoption is no longer optional for PMMs who want to stay competitive. PMMs can quickly experience the benefits of AI by starting with the low-hanging fruit—automating repetitive tasks like asset updates. The "Crawl, Walk, Run" framework provides a manageable path to increasing AI sophistication over time.
However, Emily's insights also serve as a cautionary tale. AI is a powerful tool, but it's not infallible. PMMs must remain vigilant about data security. Never feed proprietary information into public AI tools without enterprise-grade protection. Moreover, human oversight remains critical. Treat AI output as a starting point, not the final product.
As we look to the future of product marketing, AI will clearly play an increasingly central role. But as Emily's experience demonstrates, this shift isn't about replacing PMMs. It's about improving them.
Embrace AI as a strategic partner to handle tactical execution. Product marketers can then focus on what they do best—deeply understanding customers, shaping strategy, and driving growth. The future is bright for PMMs who are ready to harness the power of AI to scale their impact and thrive in an ever-evolving landscape.
AI has shifted from a bonus skill to a career necessity for product marketers. Companies expect PMMs to leverage AI to scale their efforts, boost productivity, and combat burnout. Failing to use AI puts PMMs at a competitive disadvantage.
While AI can provide significant productivity gains, its output currently requires human verification. PMMs must carefully review and edit AI-generated work to avoid errors and ensure accuracy before using it in their campaigns and assets.
The "Crawl, Walk, Run" framework provides a structured path for product marketers to gradually increase their AI sophistication. It involves starting with basic AI-powered tools, then progressing to more advanced and automated workflows as skills and confidence grow.
By automating repetitive tasks like asset updates, content creation, and data analysis, AI frees up product marketers to focus on higher-value strategic activities. This includes deep customer research, go-to-market planning, and cross-functional alignment.
Product marketers must exercise caution when using public AI tools for work involving proprietary company or customer data. Inputting sensitive information into AI without an enterprise-grade license could compromise data security. When in doubt, check with IT first.
To prevent endorsing erroneous AI output, PMMs must be thoughtful and specific in how they prompt the AI. Setting clear guardrails, fact-checking outputs against reliable sources, and adding human analysis are critical before putting their name on AI-generated work.
AI excels at automating tedious, repetitive product marketing tasks like generating content variations, personalizing assets, updating data fields, and conducting initial research. This frees PMMs to take on work requiring human creativity, empathy and judgment.
For PMMs new to AI, start by experimenting with user-friendly tools designed for marketers, like AI-powered writing assistants and content optimization software. As comfort grows, look for opportunities to automate existing workflows with AI one step at a time.
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