Do marketers need to become techies now?

Marketers need not become technologists. I do think they need to become technologically fluent.

In the decade where technology has ruled the highest, it seems like 'marketers' and 'technologists' are spoken in the same breath.  

You need to understand enough to know about AI, to know what it can do, where it can fail, and what it could change about your customer experience.

Not become a data engineer, but understand enough about data to know what your personalisation strategy is and how it is built.

As a marketer, you need to be asking what happens when an agent starts doing part of the customer journey that a marketer used to own.

Because marketing is not only using technology, it is increasingly shaping how people discover, evaluate and interact with and experience brands.

This is where the role of marketer changes, from being a Marketer to a ‘Technology fluent strategist’. Someone who sits between customer, brand, business and technology and understands how they work together.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that competitive advantage is the marketer who knows technology. The marketer who knows which technology matters, why it matters and what shouldn’t be automated is the one who has this advantage.

And likely this holds true for many other fields and functions now more than ever. It is no more an option, but it is time to become technologically fluent to remain ahead in your industry.