AI is transforming marketing departments within organizations and chief marketing officers are navigating what this means when it comes to leading teams.
“It’s amazing how quickly things are changing,” said Adrian Fung, global chief marketing officer at eBay, during a panel at the Brand Innovators beach during Cannes.
As eBay thinks about evolving the organization, the company is challenged with navigating how to take existing marketers who are trying to do really good work and have them think about what is next.
“How do you really evolve? What’s the technology? And so, we’ve been trying to supplement that with a broader skill set,” said Fung. “Bringing in more product management expertise directly into the marketing organization to help sort of craft what the future looks like.”
The organization is bringing in change agents to think about evolving the overall organization and workflows. “We need to dedicate time and space for people to be really able to think about what does the future look like so that people who are doing the day-to-day aren’t completely distracted and paralyzed by the fear of having change,” he explained. “Supplementing the skillset of the core marketing organization with these new skill sets is super important for us to be able to change quickly.”
Microsoft is in a constant process of figuring out how to balance the short-term revenue in the quarter and the long-term product release cycle. Sydne Mullings, general manager, Americas chief marketing officer of Microsoft, said they are in the constant process of figuring this out.
“I always talk to my team about where’s the next best dollar spent,” said Mullings. “And so we spend a lot of our energy on figuring out what performs, what doesn’t, how we never fall in love with the bricks…think that balance is constant and really is about the talent and the team who can make sure they’re always leveraging data, leveraging the insights we have.
For Morgan Stanley Wealth Management & E*Trade, it is a balancing act between when to use AI tools to be efficient versus when to show up with the real human touch.
“We are thinking through what are the tools and capabilities we need, what is the right talent mix. And I think at the end of the day, we’re really leveraging AI for the efficiency, for the productivity,” said Andrea Zaretsky, chief marketing officer at the company. “But what has to remain core is the client and putting them at the center and making sure that the insights, the judgment, that’s all human-based, as well as the creativity.”
Joy Howard, chief marketing officer of Back Market, a tech resale marketplace that landed on the TIME100 Most Influential Companies list for 2026, highlighted the need for athleticism within the marketing department.
“There’s never been a time when working in marketing required more flexibility,” she said. “I really focus a lot on capability within my own team. And I’m very lucky to work for a company who has a very sober view of AI and has been pretty straightforward about the fact that we are not looking to reduce our workforce, but we’re looking to double our business while keeping our head count flat.”
Howard is excited about how her team can use these tools to be empowered and has doubled down on when not to use AI.
“We have a very distinctive brand voice. We invest very heavily in our writing capabilities, which is a big part of how we’re successful,” said Howard. “We zig when others zag, and it really helps us stand out and break through.”
She added that as young people in marketing get going in their careers during one of the most tumultuous times, it is important to expect a lot of change. “The days where you can work two years in the same position and then move on, those are long, long gone,” she explained.
She sees her role as trying to keep people excited and optimistic while embracing the constant change that’s happening right. “Because we work in a space where the emotional valence and the inspiration is so important. So, you have to keep that alive in the face of these relentless pushes towards efficiency and dehumanization,” said Howard.
From a luxury marketing perspective, it’s really crucial that AI is invisible and hides in the background. “We are optimizing towards that,” said Carina Ertl, chief marketing officer of Bucherer USA. “What becomes even more important is the human connection. It’s the experience, especially in luxury retail, where it’s very high-touch and we’re trying to build lifetime value with our clients through experiences in brand building and storytelling.”
