At the IMC Nedbank Conference on 18 September, Dr Gillian Hammah, chief marketing officer at Aya Digital, challenged leaders to stop settling for average performance, outdated thinking, and fear-driven decisions about AI.
Dr Gillian Hammah at the Nedbank IMC Conference 2025.
Her presentation, People or AI: The Decision Facing Marketers Today, offered a practical roadmap for organisations preparing their 2026 strategies. She believes AI is levelling the playing field and the leaders who blend people and technology intelligently will pull ahead.
“AI will not replace humans,” she said, “but humans who use AI will dominate those who don’t.”
Below are her seven key insights for decision-makers preparing their next chapter:
1. Align AI with your business or department strategy
Before adopting AI tools, start with the problem you want to solve. Is your goal to cut costs, improve efficiency, or enhance customer experience? Identify the friction points — whether operational bottlenecks, time-consuming processes, or customer pain points and then determine how AI can address them.
“Don’t start with AI for AI’s sake,” Hammah cautioned. “Start with the problem and work your way through to the answer.”
2. Decide what to automate and what to elevate
AI should handle the repetitive and time-consuming tasks so people can focus on higher-value work. Automation boosts efficiency, while elevation builds creativity and leadership.
Use AI to streamline workflows, but let people drive strategy, relationships, and culture.
3. Reassess your talent model
The way organisations view talent must change. A 2024 Capgemini study found that 71% of marketing companies expect their business models to transform in the next three years because of generative AI.
Hammah recommends five focus areas for HR and leadership teams:
- AI fluency: Ensure everyone has a baseline understanding of AI.
- Onboarding: Instil AI awareness from day one.
- Training: Equip teams with ongoing learning opportunities.
- Culture: Build a workplace that embraces AI.
Performance management: Redefine how success is measured in hybrid human–AI teams.
4. Conduct an ROI reality check
Integrating AI isn’t a vanity project. Leaders should measure impact against real business outcomes:
How do costs compare between traditional and AI-augmented teams? Has productivity improved? Are customer experiences stronger?
5. Count the cost of waiting
Standing still comes at a price. As competitors automate and innovate, organisations that delay risk losing efficiency, customers, and talent.
“Manual processes slow you down. Customers expect more. And your best people will leave if they feel your company isn’t keeping up,” Hammah warned.
6. Build your transition plan
Change doesn’t happen overnight. Hammah suggests a phased approach:
- Quick wins: Identify low-risk, high-impact AI use cases.
- Upskill: Train existing teams in AI tools and workflows.
- Recruit differently: Hire for new skill sets that complement automation.
7. Decide how you will measure success
AI performance can’t be measured by business metrics alone. Hammah recommends tracking progress across three layers:
- Business KPIs – revenue growth, cost reduction, customer experience.
- Technical performance – the reliability and output of AI models.
- User adoption – how well staff and customers are engaging with new systems.
Words of advice for employees
For employees Hammah said they should recognise that their roles have evolved, aim to become highly valuable by leveraging their strengths, acquire complementary skills, and develop AI capabilities—especially prompt engineering—to remain relevant and indispensable.
