Why P&G’s CEO is Investing in Brand in the Age of AI

Something I’ve grown tired of (or maybe I’ve always been tired of it) is the constant stream of headlines about how AI is about to take all white-collar jobs.

There’s so much fear and pessimism around technology. I think most of that fear is just marketing. AI companies want you to buy their products. And the easiest way to sell more AI is to scare everyone into thinking their job depends on it. (It’s a cheap message to sell in the midst of layoffs, inflation, and general economic and political fears.)

The best way to fight a message of fear is with one of hope. That’s why I want to talk about Procter & Gamble’s new CEO, Shailesh Jejurikar.

Jejurikar recently sat down with Jordyn Holman from The New York Times for a Q&A about the future of the company. The Times asked Jejurikar about P&G’s recent layoffs, rising inflation, and artificial intelligence. 

The full interview is worth a read. But I wanted to explore Jejurikar’s reflections on AI and brand building:

Media fragmentation is a scale challenge and opportunity for enterprises 

The Times started the conversation by asking Jejurikar about change. As a new CEO of a legacy company, the first thing he noted was “media fragmentation.” This became a subtle theme throughout the interview. Piecing it together, Jejurikar tells a story of enterprise marketing.

Brand building used to be much simpler. Companies could buy TV and print ads and expect to get their message in front of the country. Today, media is distributed. TV and print are now just considered niche media channels, just like social media, influencers, and search.

Central to distributed messaging across fragmented media is listening to customers. Jejurikar says, 

You need to do social listening every day. What are people saying on social media? What does it mean? Are you getting any insights out of that? Do you need to respond to that? Do you need to adjust your creative content based on that? 

In a world where you made a few ads a year, it was important. Now where content is in the thousands, branding is even more important to be sharp. The brand idea has to be crystal clear.

The key takeaway: The role of brand marketers is bigger and more important than ever. Where does AI fit into this?

AI is expanding (not eliminating) enterprise brand marketing roles

The Times asked Jejurikar point-blank about AI automation. “What kind of work do you see AI eliminating?”

I found Jejurikar’s take nuanced and grounded. Jejurikar acknowledged areas where AI is actively automating tasks and even roles at P&G, “I can move a lot of my manufacturing lines to autonomous manufacturing,” but he added a note about where AI is bolstering new roles and expanding existing ones. His main example was in brand building. 

Jejurikar told the Times, “The number of people we now need to generate [brand content has] dramatically increased. The brand building space is where we are adding the most number of people right now.”

I highlighted this point because marketing, alongside roles like software development, has for a long time been a career punching bag. It’s the quintessential example that AI doomerists use to talk about jobs that won’t exist next year. 

Jejurikar said brand marketing is where P&G is expanding headcount because brand is more important in the era of AI.

Jejurikar’s contrarian conclusion

In a rapid-fire portion at the end of the conversation, the Times asked, “What’s your most contrarian take?”

Jejurikar said, “I believe there was never a better time for a large company to leverage the changes in the landscape and create a bigger moat.” He is touching on a theme threading the larger conversation. 

We constantly read about AI and fragmented media as major enterprise disruptors. These are often portrayed as the ultimate equalizers for scrappy startups to take on industry giants. I doubt Jejurikar would argue with the equalizing thesis. But he adds to the conversation by explaining how these same technologies advantage the incumbents. 

Today, brand content is made in constant conversation with customers. Companies must continuously listen, parse out what’s actionable, and generate thousands of pieces of clear, on-brand creative across countless distributed channels, a logistical feat where enterprise resources distinctly win out.

Which is why P&G is hiring brand experts faster than ever. P&G is leaning into the complexity of modern marketing instead of running away from it. That’s a more interesting message than “AI is taking away all our jobs.”

What every public-facing CEO says without saying

What I notice in this conversation is what’s not said. There’s a meta message throughout this New York Times interview that I think every executive feels. When Jejurikar explains that branding is more distributed today, he says this while demonstrating it in real time. Part of P&G’s distributed brand building is executive and strategic comms. 

Why does the CEO of one of the largest organizations in the world make time out of their busy day for a light conversation with the Times? Because a big part of P&G's marketing going forward likely relies on public-facing leadership. 

I call this executive-led marketing. CEOs today have a unique marketing advantage. Everyone wants to hear from the top. Journalists want to speak directly with the CEO to understand the industry. Investors want to hear from CEOs to make capital allocation decisions. Team members look to CEOs to understand culture. Even customers look to company leadership to understand product direction. 

CEOs like Jejurikar are increasingly becoming public figures to raise funding, hire top talent, and solidify their role as industry leaders. If AI is doing anything, it is making real human conversation more compelling than ever. I predict we’ll see more CEOs step into the spotlight to give even century-old enterprises a human face and voice.