EP 189: As an agency owner – how should you be thinking about AI with Paul Roetzer

Artificial intelligence generates lots of interest and more than a little bit of fear among agency owners. How will machine learning, AI, and all that super-technical stuff change agency life? Will it make agency work irrelevant?

Not according to my guest, Paul Roetzer from PR 2020 and The Marketing Artificial Intelligence Institute. In this episode, Paul shared how his agency is leaning into AI because of the power and possibilities he sees in terms of agency efficiency and profitability. He makes a strong case that AI has the potential to make agency work more intelligent and even more human.

AI is one more way agencies can leverage new technology and new tools to serve our clients better, to help them grow their businesses, and to more profitably, efficiently, and effectively grow our own agencies.

I’m sure that some of you find this a little scary to even contemplate. But just like we’ve embraced all of the technologies before AI (the internet, mobile, programmatic media buying, etc.) we’re going to have to wrap our heads around this one too.

One of the best aspects of owning an agency is that we constantly get to evolve and re-invent ourselves to better serve our clients. AI gives us all the opportunity to scale and grow in ways we couldn’t imagine. AI isn’t about robots stealing jobs. It’s about the potential to eliminate the boring, repetitive tasks so we can spend more time thinking creatively.

Paul always sets his eyes toward the horizon. He’s continually wondering what will happen next in our industry and how he and his agency can be at the forefront of that. So, I wasn’t at all surprised when Paul and I were talking a few years ago and AI started to creep into the conversation.

In the last year or so, Paul has doubled down on that, not only in terms of what he’s doing with his own agency but also through his new organization, the Marketing Artificial Intelligence Institute. Later this summer, the Marketing Artificial Intelligence Institute is presenting MAICON, an AI convention for marketing leaders (use discount code McLellan19 to save $100 off the registration fee). Its mission is to make AI approachable and actionable for modern marketers so they can use this technology to build a powerful competitive advantage.

Paul has also written two books that I highly recommend: The Marketing Agency Blueprint and The Marketing Performance Blueprint.

What You Will Learn in this Episode:  

• How intelligent automation will continue to make repetitive agency work easier
• Why AI isn’t after your agency job
• How machine learning can help you share data with clients in a cost-effective way
• How agencies can understand AI and be a learning resource for clients
• How to develop use cases for testing AI in your agency
• Why small and mid-sized agencies are well-positioned to pivot into AI

Ways to Contact Paul Roetzer:

• MAICON: https://www.marketingaiinstitute.com/events/marketing-artificial-intelligence-conference-2019
  discount code: MCLELLAN19
• Website: https://www.pr2020.com/
• Website: https://www.marketingaiinstitute.com/
• Resources Page: https://www.marketingaiinstitute.com/resources
• New Intelligent Automation Solutions Post
• How Do We Prepare College Students for the Age of AI? Post
• Book: AI for Marketers: An Introduction and Primer: Second Edition