Marketing is taming AI at IBM France to create content faster

What are the major challenges of BtoB marketing at IBM France?

Artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI (AI Gen) cannot function without a massive amount of data. This is particularly true in BtoB where they feed on data accumulated by the company. I see three main areas of impact of AI on marketing and communications. First, the creation and use of content is made easier by tools like Watson X, an AI and data platform designed by IBM for businesses. Thanks to AI, we can automate tasks like translation, video or website creation and thus increase our productivity. Second, AI, and AI Gen in particular, has transformed customer relationships. Thanks to the use of internal data, AI makes it possible to personalize and improve it (e.g. intelligent chatbots). This leads to a repositioning of marketing as a key player in the evolution of the company, in close collaboration with IT and the sales department. Finally, the third point is hyperpersonalization. Product renewal (auto, clothing, etc.) is becoming faster and AI makes it possible to better respond to the specific needs of customers (e.g. product feedback loop), by quickly analyzing their feedback to adapt products and services.

What are your priority projects?

IBM is positioning itself on AI and hybrid cloud globally. Our job is to implement these two strategic axes on the French market. Marketing is structured around targeting large accounts and addressing volume of smaller customers via a network of partners and co-marketing. To achieve this, it is essential to align our efforts with those of sales departments and our distribution partners. The main challenge for me and my teams is therefore to adapt the three pillars of marketing: content, transformation and hyperpersonalization to these two types of audiences.

To inform yourself, what do you prefer? Professional newsletters, trade shows, the economic press?

For economic and general news, I consult Les Echos, Le Figaro et Challenges. For more in-depth analyses, I rely on reports from specialized firms (Gartner, IDC and Forrester) and I read studies from l’Institute for Business Value made by IBM. Otherwise, I stay up to date in my profession by participating in trade fairs, conferences and juries. I interact with my peers within professional networks such as the Adetem marketing directors club, for example.

What are the major HR themes of the moment in your company?

A very important point in my eyes is to ensure that my teams are as collaborative as possible with salespeople and are attentive to the market in order to adapt to its developments. We are gradually adopting AI to strengthen our skills through different projects. In my department, I launched a program Lunch & Learn during which employees talk about their experiences with AI during their lunch break. At the global level, IBM inaugurated this summer the Watsonx challenge. It is an international competition which encourages the group’s employees to use AI to develop innovative projects, the best of which will then be selected by the company.

If you had to explain the specificities of the BtoB sector compared to that of BtoC, what would you say?

In B2B, marketing’s relationship with the ecosystem has developed significantly. Furthermore, when you are present only in BtoB without any activity oriented towards the general public, you have to find ways to make yourself known to customers. It’s more complex. Having a BtoC side allows you to reach out more widely and therefore have more impact when you act on the BtoB side.

So I have to find ways to compensate for this by organizing more quality events, perhaps less general public compared to competitors who have a BtoC activity in addition to their BtoB business. If you also have the power to prescribe within your ecosystem via a network of internal influencers who contribute to the company’s influence, this is an additional advantage.