The mention of artificial intelligence (AI) can instil both fear and excitement in the hearts of tech executives and jobseekers alike, as the latest wave of technology looks set to change the very way we work and live.
For Shannon Duffy, chief marketing officer at identity management firm Okta, AI brings only optimism, as long as it’s approached in the right way.
“[AI] impacts us at the company level. It impacts me as a marketer, impacts me as a leader. I’ve pretty much done B2B tech marketing my entire career, and people say this, but it is the biggest shift we have seen. Forget about the internet, forget about the cloud. This is fundamentally going to change humanity, the labour force, everything,” she says.
“I think, as with most things in life, there’s fear in that, but there’s also optimism in what it unlocks as a marketer, as a marketing leader, and as a company leader. That’s really a focus for me – trying to shepherd my team and the company through this next phase and what it means for our jobs, and what we do, and how we tell the story.”
In her role, Duffy looks after both marketing and communications, roles in which AI has great potential to streamline productivity.
Duffy’s teams are responsible for everything from product marketing and demand generation to PR and events – essentially everything that contributes to the brand’s narrative and how it is represented to its clients and their customers.
Labelling the introduction of AI as “unprecedented”, Duffy says her teams and Okta “lean on the side of optimism versus fear” when it comes to AI’s introduction, both to the company internally and in the services it offers.
“[AI] impacts us at the company level. It impacts me as a marketer, impacts me as a leader. It is the biggest shift we have seen. Forget about the internet, forget about the cloud. This is fundamentally going to change humanity, the labour force, everything”
Shannon Duffy, Okta
But for many, there is fear surrounding AI. Either employees are scared their roles will become obsolete because AI will replace them, or they are given new tools to navigate with varying levels of guidance.
Duffy says the thoughts going through the heads of many employees are, “I don’t know how” or “Is this going to mean I go away?”
Research has found mixed approaches when it comes to training staff to use AI tools. Last year, The Adaptavist Group found that 20% of women have had less than an hour of AI training, with 10% of men saying the same.
Duffy says the introduction of AI tools is no good without the appropriate skills to use them, claiming many simply use large language models (LLMs) as a “glorified search engine” when they have the potential to be so much more.
“Just pushing tools down and being like, ‘Use the tools, don’t worry, it’ll be fine,’ is an inauthentic way to lead through this technology shift,” she says.
“This is an unprecedented time. All of us are figuring it out. Going back to the optimism component, this is something that we, this generation of marketers, have an opportunity to figure out.”
Creating schedules, videos and imagery are just some of the things Duffy says AI could do from a marketing and PR perspective, but not without appropriate internal training.
While the increased productivity AI promises won’t necessarily threaten the jobs of people now using it, Duffy says it’s likely to mean a reduction in annual headcount budgets – there just won’t be the need to hire as many people.
“One of the big things is people thinking that their job’s going to be replaced, and that’s just not the case,” she says. “Some jobs will be, but what do we replace them with? Marketing is a perfect example; there’s a lot of manual work in marketing. What if we took those people and reskilled them in how to prompt AI to create personalised templates at scale? It’s the same human, but what they’re doing is different.”
People are still an important part of the process. Marketing content created solely with AI is often “inauthentic” and filled with errors and hallucinations, states Duffy.
AI for the career ladder
There is a concern that the use of AI to automate mundane tasks might remove entry-level jobs, making it more difficult for young people or those pursuing a new career to get their foot on the ladder.
But candidates like these could prove to be even more valuable than those with formal education, as long as they have the right skills, says Duffy.
“I am optimistic about what [AI] means for humanity, for technology and for marketers. But there’s also the immediate concern of what this means for these entry-level jobs. If someone came to me and said, ‘I have no marketing experience, but I really know how to prompt these tools to do marketing-like things’, I’d be like, ‘Let’s talk about a job’. They don’t need to have a traditional background.”
In fact, Duffy, who has university-aged children, says learning how to use AI properly could be a huge benefit in job applications. Many free resources are available to help people understand how AI can increase productivity and drive innovation. By mastering prompt engineering and discovering how to extract maximum value from these systems, it is possible to unlock their full potential and stand out in competitive job markets.
[AI is presenting] a humanity shift that, from a leadership perspective, we’re going to have to help our companies, our employees – in my case, my children – navigate for the future Shannon Duffy, Okta
Unfortunately, not enough universities and schools across the globe will be teaching young people how AI will affect their future lives and jobs, putting the onus on the students to gain the knowledge they need themselves.
But Duffy claims, in some cases, LLMs themselves can be used to learn how to better utilise them, and she sees these technologies as a potential “equaliser”.
“If you don’t have the resources or the background and cannot go to a traditional university, you can go to the LLMs. They will teach you how to use LLMs, and now you have a marketable skill.”
Duffy has “only ever wanted to do marketing” and admits AI has been one of the biggest shifts in her career.
“I’m doing what I thought I wanted to do, but what I was not prepared for is leading through this, not just a technology shift, this humanity shift,” she says.
“And that’s not to be fear mongering, but it is a humanity shift that, from a leadership perspective, we’re going to have to help our companies, our employees – in my case, my children – navigate for the future.”
But what drew her to her role and career still exists, regardless of the tools made to navigate it.
Duffy surmises: “We are the storytellers, we are the pixie dust that makes it magical and helps you understand how technology can go from being something cold and straightforward to something that businesses can use to really drive the relationship with their customers in a meaningful way and make their businesses grow and a day in the life of their employees easier.”
