"AI should be the engine of creativity, not the cause of job cuts," — CMO of Mastercard on the future of AI in marketing

Kramer joined Mastercard in December 2025, having previously worked at Accenture for over 10 years.

Marketers should allow themselves to notice the positive aspects of AI, as this technology has the potential to become a driver of creativity and a source of deeper insights. It is important to specify AI use cases and ask oneself at which stage of the strategy and creative process this technology is truly applicable and where it helps raise the bar.

One of the reasons Kramer decided to move to Mastercard was the strength of the company's brand — caring for it is not only the responsibility of marketing but of the entire company as a whole.

The brand belongs to everyone in the company

The strength of the Mastercard brand is largely explained by a simple fact — the company genuinely cares deeply about its brand, and this is part of its corporate culture. Caring for the brand is not limited to the work of the marketing department; it is important for the entire company.

One of the reasons Kramer moved to Mastercard was the opportunity to work in a company for which the brand means everything. From the outside, there are always doubts about whether things inside the company are really as they appear from the outside, and in the case of Mastercard, these doubts were not confirmed.

Everyone who has ever been responsible for this brand — and this is far more than just the person holding the title of Chief Marketing Officer, but the entire team — makes decisions that define the brand's movement into a new era. Therefore, it is important to give yourself time to look back, understand where the company is now, and consciously and strategically determine where to move next, rather than relying on chance.

Marketers today need all available tools, including AI

The feeling about the development of artificial intelligence is that an entire era has passed, although in reality not much time has elapsed. Kramer joined Accenture at the very moment when AI was gaining momentum — the company, whose focus is on understanding how the next technological wave will impact corporate functions and entire industries, gave her the opportunity to get to know the technology as one of the first.

The main problem with discussions around AI is that a lot of time is spent debating whether the emergence of this technology is the best or worst thing to happen to marketing. This framing of the question should be abandoned, as in reality things are usually more complex, and AI can well be both at the same time — which side it turns out to be depends on specific decisions.

Given the economic, social, and global pressures the world faces today, marketing and communications specialists need all available tools to do their jobs as effectively as possible, and AI is one of them.

If you look at AI only through the lens of what the technology does instead of a person, or through staff reductions and increased efficiency, it is easy to miss a more important question — what can now be done that was simply impossible before, now that this tool exists. There may be a degree of naivety in this approach, but primarily, one should allow oneself to see the positive potential of the technology.

AI can enhance human creativity and deepen insights

AI as a tool and driver of creativity is revealed primarily through breadth — that is, through the opportunity to expand the scope of research and preparation, which ultimately stimulates the emergence of ideas and the creative process.

A telling example is Kramer's recent trip to Japan, where the team had little time for preparation, yet the developed strategy and deep immersion in the cultural context made a strong impression. This was largely made possible by tools that today allow collecting, organizing, and processing large volumes of content in a short amount of time.

It is important to clearly understand exactly where in the strategy and creative process AI is applicable and where it helps raise the bar. The workshop in Japan became a vivid example that such a discussion could have taken place without AI, but it would have been much less broad and deep if the team had not used this technology.