Teresa Barreira, the chief marketing and communications officer at Publicis Sapient, is urging marketers to avoid committing "random acts of AI."
This warning highlights a critical shift in corporate digital transformation. Rather than applying artificial intelligence to inefficient processes, Barreira said that companies must first fix broken workflows to ensure technology adds genuine value rather than complicating existing failures.
In an interview with Forbes, Barreira detailed how her team integrated AI into their operational structure. She said her organization developed more than 100 custom AI assistants [2] to handle routine operations. This systemic approach allowed the team to automate 80% of their daily tasks [1].
By shifting the bulk of repetitive labor to these specialized tools, the company has restructured the role of its employees. Barreira said that 20% of the work remains for humans [3]. This remaining portion is reserved for high-value tasks that require human intuition, creativity, and strategic oversight.
Barreira said that the temptation to implement AI without a clear strategy often leads to fragmented results. She said that the goal should be to prevent adding AI to broken workflows, which only accelerates the production of errors.
Instead of fragmented adoption, the Publicis Sapient model emphasizes the creation of a dedicated ecosystem of assistants. This method ensures that AI serves as a foundation for productivity, allowing staff to focus on the complex problems that machines cannot solve.
“Don't commit random acts of AI.”
The transition from general-purpose AI tools to a fleet of specialized 'custom assistants' represents a move toward hyper-automation. By automating 80% of routine work, Publicis Sapient is testing a labor model where human employees function primarily as strategic editors and decision-makers rather than producers of raw output.
