The Death of the T-Shaped Marketer in 2024?

The concept of the T-shaped marketer has been commonplace in marketing for a while. I first came across it when doing my MSc in Digital Marketing at Manchester Met Uni in 2016. It was one of the first topics covered and the tutors enthusiastically emphasised the huge benefits of achieving this T-shape to a marketer’s career. This blog explains why the AI revolution will kill the traditional idea of the T-shaped Marketer....

What is a T-Shaped marketer?

If you’re wondering what I'm talking about, a T-shaped marketer describes a marketer who possesses a broad understanding of multiple marketing disciplines (the horizontal bar of the 'T') combined with deep expertise in one specific area (the vertical bar of the 'T'). This framework encourages marketers to develop a versatile skill set while specialising in a domain where they can offer unique value and insight. In terms of a marketer’s career, typically this involves learning a specialisation early in one’s career, before broadening knowledge and skills later when in more senior positions.

Example of what a T-Shaped marketer could look like:

The argument for becoming a T-Shaped Marketer

The importance of being a T-shaped marketer lies in its balance between breadth and depth. The broad knowledge across various fields enables marketers to communicate effectively with different teams, integrate strategies, and understand the broader business context. This versatility is crucial for adapting to new trends and technologies and for driving innovation within marketing teams and projects.

Broad skills include areas like strategy and planning, market research, basic knowledge of all the digital marketing tools, and understanding of content strategies, while the depth could be in more technical areas such as web design, SEO, PPC, CRM or data analytics.

By mastering specific areas, these professionals can lead initiatives and drive improvements that rely on their deep expertise, while their broad skills ensure these improvements align with the overall business strategy and support integration between marketing functions.

Why this is all going to change…

In 2024 and moving forward, it is argued that the rise of generative AI technologies is revolutionising all marketing processes and will change these specialisms dramatically. Look how Google SCG is changing search or how new tools like Sora are going to impact on video content creation. This then challenges the traditional model of the T-shaped marketer as AI tools take over both the breadth and depth of many marketing functions, automating complex tasks such as data analysis, content creation and website coding. This shift suggests a transformation in the skills that marketers need to develop and changes in the requirements of some existing deep skills.  While the concept of having broad knowledge remains relevant, the nature of the depth is changing. It is less about mastering a niche marketing skill and more about understanding how to integrate and leverage AI within various marketing domains.

Considering these changes, it would be wise to reconsider what constitutes depth for marketers. The expertise once required to manually execute and optimise marketing strategies is rapidly being replaced by the need for strategic oversight and mastery of AI tools. Thus, the T-shaped marketer is evolving from specialist to synthesist, someone who can blend AI capabilities with strategic insights to achieve effectiveness (doing things better, faster and cheaper).

Before we reach our conclusion, I am going to dip into 10 marketing activity areas and have a top-line look at what impact AI is having on them and how it might change the processes and skills we have built up previously.

The Impact of AI on Specific Marketing Disciplines

1. Market & Customer Research

AI is revolutionising market research by enhancing how data is collected, analysed, and utilised for strategic decision-making. Sentiment analysis tools are revolutionising how businesses understand and respond to customers. There are AI tools now for social listening, review analysis and management, competitor analysis, brand insights and opinion mining, to name a few.

Have a look into tools such as Sprout Social, InMoment, Brandwatch and MonkeyLearn as some examples of AI tools that are changing market research. Brand24 is a social media monitoring tool that allows you to collect real-time mentions of your brand

2. Data & Analytics

In the realm of data analytics, AI algorithms excel at processing vast amounts of information to identify patterns and predict trends. This capability allows marketers to make informed decisions quickly, optimising marketing strategies in real time. This will revolutionise how we analyse data, which is the engine room of marketing. AI is helping us analyse personal data, purchase histories, web browsing behaviours and more. The chart below outlines some of the areas or analytics that AI will impact:

AI enhances marketing analytics by integrating machine learning models that predict customer behaviour and identify optimisation opportunities in marketing campaigns. This not only improves accuracy but also accelerates decision-making processes. The AI data revolution is just beginning…

3. Graphic Design

AI is turning the graphic design process upside down. Tools like Midjourney are providing designers (and non-designers) with incredible capabilities already and they are improving all the time. The image below is the cover image for this blog piece and is an example of how incredible images can be produced instantly and with ease.

The image was created with Midjourney and with the prompt below I got this amazing image that would have taken a skilled digital artist several days to produce:

This was my prompt:

"Generate a high-definition, cinematic panorama. Picture a futuristic metropolis awakening at dawn, with the early light casting long shadows and illuminating the advanced architectural marvels. In the middle of the scene there is a man, well lit, standing with legs together and straight and with both arms stetched horizonally out to each side so that his body forms the shape of a T. Also in the scene is an assassin training his gun on the T-shaped man like a sniper. Both characters are well lit and visible to the viewers of the scene. --v 6.0"

The result is not perfect. It took a several re-prompts to get my man to have his arms out properly in a T-shape and despite several attempts, no assassin joined the scene to complete the story of the death of the T-shaped marketer (perhaps it contravened the site guidelines against violence).

This shift in design process is changing the landscape of design roles within marketing teams and is shifting the skill set away from things like Photoshop and Illustrator skills and towards prompting skills.

Tools like Adobe’s Sensei, which use AI to automate routine design tasks and suggest design elements based on content is another example. Most of the existing design software from Wix to Canva are building AI capabilities into their solution. This innovation reduces the time spent on designs and allows marketers to focus more on strategy and less on execution.

4. Video Content Creation

So far, in my experience, generative AI in video is way behind images, but I think it will catch up and be even more revolutionary in the future.

Video is known to be the most important media for building brand and engaging customers, with the big social media platforms rewarding brands that provide engaging video content.

At the same time, creating high quality video content can be difficult and costly, but that's about to change – Sora enter stage right….

Many of us in the marketing community have been blown away by the quality and length of the demo videos released by OpenAI. This blew my mind at the time, and it looks like a step change compared to the best tools on the market currently such as Runway, and this week again my mind was blown by Sora...

Check out this music video

This is the first official commissioned music video collaboration between a music artist and filmmaker made with OpenAI's Sora video model. Again its not without many flaws, it had to be knitted together and it feels somewhat strange in my view but it shows just how far the technology has come.

Sora is not available yet, but I am excited based on what I have seen and hoping that it’s as powerful and effective as it looks.

AI is also changing video production by automating editing and enhancing content personalisation. AI-driven platforms can generate scripts, streamline post-production processes, and customise video content for different audiences, significantly speeding up production timelines.

5. Website Design & Build

AI is simplifying web development by automating coding and design, reducing the time and skill required to build and maintain websites. Sites such as Dora and Cody are just two examples of AI powered website builders. This technology is empowering marketers to directly implement and manage web projects without deep coding knowledge. AI tools, combined with ever improving build software such as Wix (the software that enabled me to build this site on my own without any deep knowledge of coding) are making it easier to build a basic website without coding skills.

In terms of using AI to create code, one of the most popular tools is Open AI’s Codex, an AI system that translates natural language to code. Codex powers GitHub Copilot, another popular AI code tool. As a general-purpose programming model, OpenAI Codex can be applied to almost any programming task. That said, the tool is in beta and so results will vary.

AlphaCode by DeepMind is another tool that is shaking up the industry. Interestingly, this tool outperforms human coders in certain situations. AlphaCode outperformed 45% of programmers in coding competitions with at least 5,000 participants.

However, there are problems with code generators, too. That's why for the moment, AI coding tools are used to help developers become more productive and efficient, rather than to replace them entirely.

6. SEO & Content Marketing

AI's ability to analyse search trends and generate content has started to automate significant aspects of SEO and content creation. This advancement is shifting the role of content marketers from writing and keyword optimisation to strategy and oversight.

Tools like ChatGPT are revolutionising SEO and content marketing by generating content that not only engages readers but also aligns with SEO best practices. This shift is reducing the need for deep SEO knowledge, as AI handles complexity behind the scenes. The term “AIO” (Artificial Intelligence Optimisation) is becoming more commonly used in content creation and search.

It's worth highlighting some specific AI software here - Jasper.ai and Surfer SEO for SEO optimised content writing. Hootsuite’s OwlyWriter AI is a great content creation tool for social media. You enter a prompt and OwlyWriter gives you copy for social media posts, saving you hours of work.

In my experience using AI for content creation is still flawed and still needs human intervention. Certainly at the ideation and planning stage of writing and also when drafting and researching facts, as the AI is not always reliable and doesn't always explore the issues in enough depth.

Nevertheless, it probably took me half the time it would have done without the help of AI to write this blog. Quality will improve in future though no doubt, which could leave a lot of copywriters looking for different work...

7. Social Media

From curating content to engaging with followers, AI tools are enhancing social media management. By automating routine tasks, AI allows marketers to focus on strategy and creative elements that enhance brand presence on social platforms. AI tools are also improving customer interaction through chatbots and personalised responses, enhancing user engagement without constant human oversight.

This article from Zapier provides a useful view on the 12 best AI tools for social media management in 2024 and gives in-depth analysis of tools like Flick and Vista Social.

The engine of social media is creative output – images and videos, and with the revolution in Generative AI for creative content, we are going to see a new wave of social media content generated by AI. Hopefully it doesn’t all become too generic….

8. Digital Advertising / PPC

AI is transforming digital advertising by optimising ad placement and targeting, improving the efficiency of campaigns, and reducing costs. Marketers increasingly need to oversee AI operations rather than delve into the granular details of PPC management.

AI helps with automated bidding strategies and improved targeting algorithms, which help marketers optimise ad spend and increase ROI. The complexity of campaign management is reduced, allowing marketers to focus on overall strategy and creative content.

Recently I tested out Amazon’s automated AI PPC tools with mixed results and I reverted to manual operation afterwards as I found I could be more tactical making my own bidding decisions, but as the software improves (and users like myself get more used to handing over the reigns) more PPC mamangement will be handed over to AI.

Programmatic advertsing has been around for a while now, but AI is supercharging this, providing advertisers with powerful tools such as Dynamic Cretaive Content, which automatically modifies creative ad contentin real time based on the viewers behaviour Here is a useful article by Forbes that has an in-depth look at the impact of AI on programmatic advertising.

Albert.ai is an example of an AI tool that helps manage digital advertising campaigns. Have a read of the description on their website of what Albert.AI does:

“Albert is a cloud-based artificial intelligence platform that plugs into a digital marketer’s existing tech stack and operates it. Albert is the self-learning digital marketing ally for marketers: a thinker, a doer, and a support system; autonomously orchestrating and evolving campaigns. Always aware of the entire landscape, Albert analyzes the previously unanalyzable, taking purposeful action and flexibly optimizing against business goals. The result: better allocation of budget against channels, audiences and tactics in search, social and programmatic channels.”

This describes quite a high level of thinking and decision making. I haven’t used this tool yet but would appreciate if anyone reading this has, let us know your opinion of it in the comments section below..

9. E-Commerce Operations, CRO & Email Marketing

AI is profoundly impacting eCommerce through personalised shopping experiences and optimised conversion rates. Its also being used for demand forecasting and inventory management.

E-commerce platforms, using AI, can adjust product prices in real-time based on demand, competition, and inventory, maximising sales and profits. This is known as dynamic pricing (think about Uber's surge pricing or airlines flight prices, both fluctuating based on supply and demand).

This useful article by Shopify outlines 10 of the best AI tools for e-commerce.

In email marketing, AI enhances personalisation, ensuring that messages are tailored to the recipient’s preferences and behaviours.

Some Gen AI tools to help in your CRO and email marketing include Reply.IO for email replies and Fullstory for website journey mapping and analysis and CRO.

10. Growth Hacking & PR

Growth hacking is about employing smart strategies to grow a business rapidly and cost-effectively. At its core is trying out niche ways to attract new customers, quickly measuring the results and reacting quickly, looking to the data to say which method is gaining traction and following it up.

For example in B2B growth marketing lead scoring is important to evaluate which activities are responsible for driving positive leads that convert . Traditionally, sales teams would manually score leads based on basic criteria. However, with predictive analytics, AI examines historical data on leads that converted (and those that didn't) and scores new leads based on the likelihood of them converting.

AI tools are valuable for modern growth hacking strategies, offering capabilities like helping the testing process, predictive analytics and automated campaign adjustments that accelerate growth. In PR, AI tools streamline media monitoring and content distribution, enabling more targeted and effective public relations strategies.

Some tools to consider in this area are Influencity for influencer marketing. Another is Landbot.io which offers a way to convert your website visitors into leads using landing pages with chatbots and you can set up one in a few minutes, using no code at all.

Conclusion: The New T-Shaped Paradigm for Marketers

So, does all of this mean the death of the T-shaped marketer? The answer is yes and no. In my view the T-shaped marketer of the future will need to have AI prompting as the deep specialism over and above any other deep specialist knowledge. Understanding how to get AI to carry out tasks quickly and get the result you want will be key. The essence of being a T-shaped marketer is evolving—breadth of knowledge is becoming paramount as AI handles the depth.

This shift does not render deep expertise entirely obsolete but highlights the need for adaptability and a comprehensive understanding of AI’s role in marketing. Those who embrace this new reality will find themselves well-equipped to navigate the future of marketing, whereas those who cling to the old paradigms of specialisation without integrating AI into their skillset may find themselves left behind.

In essence, the T-shaped marketer isn't disappearing; it is being redefined. The vertical bar of the 'T' now represents expertise in AI-driven marketing tools and techniques, essential for leveraging the full potential of AI in marketing. This evolution underscores a critical transition from specialist to strategist, from depth to breadth. Regardless of role, we will all have to adapt to a new and very different way of working.