Abdulaziz AlAifan on Turning AI Into a Strategic Marketing Partner

Like many marketers, I was seeing how quickly AI was changing our industry. There was a lot of discussion about whether AI would eventually replace marketers. I wasn't interested in learning how to outperform AI. I wanted to understand how to work with it. How could I use it to think more strategically, improve my campaigns, and become more effective at what I do?

That was what drew me to the program. I wasn't looking for a program on writing prompts. I wanted to understand the bigger picture of how AI fits into marketing strategy.
 

I now see AI as much more than a tool for writing captions or putting together presentations. It has become a thinking partner.

I use it to challenge and refine ideas, plans, campaigns, and strategies. Sometimes you become so familiar with your work that you approach problems on autopilot. AI can push you to reframe the question and consider something you might not have thought about otherwise.

That shift also helped me become one of the people supporting AI transformation in our department. It is not just about using the technology myself, but helping others recognize how much more they can do with it.

One of the hardest parts of translating data into strategy is that you do not always have the full picture. Sometimes information is missing, and sometimes there are factors outside your control that make the strategy you are recommending difficult to execute. Summer visitation is a good example. The data might tell us we need to attract more visitors, and we could respond with promotions or discounts. But when the weather is extremely hot, those incentives alone may not be enough.

I used AI to help develop and pitch a Spider-Man-themed activation at Diriyah tied to the release of a new Spider-Man movie. The idea was to attract more families, one of our target audiences, by offering free entry during the summer. It worked. The activation became one of our successes of the year, bringing in more visitors over a single weekend than we had seen across multiple weekends during the winter season.

For me, it was a great example of using AI to think beyond the obvious solution and develop an idea that could work within the constraints we faced.

The biggest surprise was discovering that the brand side can be even more demanding than agency life. Everyone talks about how intense agency work is, but when you are marketing a destination like Diriyah, your role becomes part of how you experience the world.

I find myself looking at everything through that lens. If I am thinking about real estate, I start asking how we could improve the marketing of Diriyah's real estate offerings. The same happens when I travel, go out to eat, or experience something related to history, culture, or sports. I am constantly thinking about what those experiences could mean for Diriyah.

It is demanding because you never completely switch off that way of thinking. But it is also incredibly rewarding. You can see the tangible impact of the work, and that makes going to work every day something I genuinely enjoy.

One of the things I enjoyed most was meeting people from different industries and countries and hearing how they were using AI. It made me realize I was not using AI nearly as much as I could be. Other participants were approaching their work in ways I had not considered, and I picked up practical tips for improving my own workflows.

Sometimes you need to see how someone in a completely different industry uses a technology to recognize what you could be doing yourself differently.

Marketing in Saudi Arabia moves quickly. You have to be adaptable and willing to keep learning if you want to evolve and stand out.

For me, AI is part of that. But the important shift is understanding that you are not competing with it. You are learning how to use it to become a better strategist and make your marketing more effective. That is one of the biggest things I took from the program.

I would tell them not to expect a program about writing prompts or learning which AI tools to use. The program goes beyond that. It is about understanding the bigger picture and how AI can help you think more strategically.

If you want to challenge the way you approach marketing, develop stronger ideas, and use AI as a partner rather than just another tool, it is definitely worth exploring. Make decisions with better questions.