Reckitt’s global director of data-driven and media says generative AI must be used to “replace tasks not jobs”.
When it comes to the application of Generative AI, brands should not sacrifice recruitment and jobs on the altar of productivity, says Reckitt’s global director of data driven and media.
Like many businesses, Reckitt is using generative AI to take away some of the “grunt work” for its marketers, said Sameer Amin, speaking at LEAD 2025 today (6 February). But this drive towards productivity should see tasks replaced, rather than jobs, he said.
When the FMCG business began looking to apply generative AI in its work, it looked closely at how its marketers were spending their time.
“There were some marketers spending less than 4% of their time on campaign origination and activation,” Amin said. By contrast, some junior marketers were spending around 40% of their time on business reporting.
With conversations about integrating generative AI into organisations ongoing, some employees may have concerns about the future of their jobs. Amin stated that AI should “replace tasks not jobs”.
Some of the tasks that generative AI can take over are traditionally done by more junior members of staff, he notes. With Reckitt having a graduate scheme it is extremely proud of, and which has produced many of its senior marketing leaders, the business cannot get to a stage where these more junior roles are made redundant by AI.
Some organisations have laid out plans to use generative AI to slim down their workforce. For example, last year Klarna said it wanted to cut almost half of its employees in coming years by using AI to take on customer service and marketing tasks.
Generative AI isn’t marketing’s future, it’s already part of its present
For Reckitt, its graduate scheme is a valued source of talent and future leadership, meaning it is conscious of the balance between efficiency and recruitment. The business must avoid “the unintended consequences of good intentions”, Amin said.
Reckitt has had to look on “organising around” its tool, he noted: “We’re really looking at restructuring our teams, our departments, our agency relationships based on the tools that we have.”
Amin was joined on the panel by Virgin Media O2 marketing director Simon Valcarcel. He highlighted how the business had used its “AI granny” Daisy to tackle the issue of fraud. For VMO2, generative AI is a “tool not a strategy”.
He stressed his opinion that the technology should “change people’s jobs, not take people’s jobs”, and that it would not alter the fundamentals of marketing.
“[Generative AI] will also underline the importance of having a really strong distinctive brand,” Valcarcel said.
One of the examples discussed on the panel was that of Cadbury’s AI tool ‘My Cadbury Era’, which allowed users to recreate its classic photos with their own images.
Valcarcel pointed out that AI image generators work best for brands like Cadbury with strong brand assets, and that if a brand has not built that, they risk producing “generic” content.
