Brands 'flying blind' on AI execution as skills crisis bites

The UK marketing industry may have embraced AI tools faster than any other sector but deep-rooted data skills shortages – which are not being addressed in higher education or the workplace – mean many brands are still “flying blind” in its execution.

That is according to the fourth edition of the Braze Customer Engagement Review, which combines data from the Braze platform with the results of a global survey developed in partnership with Wakefield Research, surveying senior marketing executives.

It reveals that while 92% of marketers are eagerly embracing AI, more than half (52%) identify the lack of data skills among staff as a top-three issue when using data for customer engagement.

And, while grappling with acquiring the necessary skills within their teams, marketers face additional hurdles in outsourcing data tasks that complement their strategies.

In fact, nearly three-fifths (57%) of marketers bemoan working with internal data scientists or business intelligence teams who lack an understanding of marketing priorities. They insist this is a main challenge in leveraging data for customer engagement and poses a huge obstacle to integrating AI effectively into their practices.

Even so, marketers are adopting AI in their droves, leveraging – or planning to leverage – the technology for crucial tasks, including optimising strategies in real-time (53%), generating creative ideas (50%), automating repetitive tasks (49%), enhancing data analysis (49%), personalising campaign messaging (46%) and utilising predictive analytics (43%).

To keep in line with other businesses, it is vital they harness AI, but the possibilities could be endless if they had the right skills readily available – the potential for brands to expand and innovate would go even further, the report claims.

Braze senior vice-president of customer services James Manderson said: “With AI at the forefront of the agenda across markets, it is essential brands are deploying it in the right way, or risk being left behind.

“To capitalise on the potential, we must boost the education of data skills, both in our marketing education at university, and in the workplace. The problem is going to get worse in the future if marketers are not built to understand and manage data correctly.

“This is not just important for marketers but should also be built into the skill-set of CEOs and CMOs. A lack of crucial data skills means businesses are missing out on the key opportunity to not only harness these skills, but ensure they are being used correctly.”