“What type of language are we going to use to inform this community about what is coming?” says Karen Baker, founder and president of marketing agency Boathouse. “The Black community is very uncomfortable with generative AI and what it’s going to do.”

Driven by technology and a more informed consumer, CMOs are expanding their digital prowess into advanced analytics and tracking, generative AI, and consumer intelligence tools to adapt, execute, and measure their return on resources. This new evolution of Marketing is more foreign to CEOs, given that few come from a marketing background.

As AI becomes increasingly embedded in business, it’s interesting to consider the role senior marketing professionals can play in shaping how it’s implemented from the vantage points of ethics, transparency and corporate strategy.

If 2023 leaves us with any clarity at all, it is this: There is no path back to a less complex, pre-pandemic healthcare environment.

A fitting 2023 word, that. Marketing organizations and creative agencies have had to be especially resilient as they navigate macroeconomic troubles, inflation, geopolitical crises, shrunken ad budgets and technological disruptions like generative AI.

Yet another headline to add to the endless headlines from the last year-plus calling for the inevitable demise of not just the platform, X, but its owner, Elon Musk.

"Headline after headline spells the downfall of not just X, but of Elon Musk himself. The undeniable truth though, as hard a pill it may be to swallow, is that X isn't going anywhere," explained Geoff Gates, creative director for social strategy and content at integrated marketing and communications agency Boathouse Inc.

A successful partnership between corporations and nonprofits should involve more than minimal sponsorship. Too often, corporate partners sign up to give advice and approve content but never put up the dollars to campaign successfully for the change they claim to be seeking. Expecting a nonprofit to front the marketing and communications costs at the level and reach needed to make a real impact is unrealistic.