Joshua Spanier, Vice President of AI and Marketing Strategy at Google, joins Barbara &amp; Americus to discuss how artificial intelligence is transforming marketing from efficiency-driven automation to creative empowerment, redefining customer value, and enabling more personalized, “quest”-based consumer experiences. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Wharton Marketing Matters: Google's Vice President of AI and Marketing Strategy, Joshua Spanier

Knowledge at Wharton

# Full Transcript

**Podcast:** Knowledge at Wharton

## Participants

- **Barbara Kahn** (Wharton School)
- **Americus Reid** (Wharton School)
- **Joshua Spanier** (Google)

## Transcript

The technology is just fine. It's great and only getting better. In fact, AI today, this very second where you and the three of us are talking, is the worst it's ever going to be. Tomorrow it's going to be better. The challenge has been for us is the technology is improving exponentially. Us humans, the way we work, the way we approach and tackle problems is only sort of improving linearly. It's a little bit like our washing machines at home. They have 57 programs and we use hot and cold. Make sure you have the tools to give people to use.

But how do you take the horse to water and get it to drink? How do you actually incentivize, inspire and actually create the things where they want to lean in and use these technologies, even when they're not perfect? Marketing Matters. Marketing is absolutely critical. You can have the greatest product in the world if no one knows about it. It just doesn't matter. People think out of the box, it's going to make you more creative. But sometimes when you're in a constrained situation, that's when a lot of creativity blooms.

Barbara, you use Uber Eats, don't you? My husband does. I don't believe in the internet. I didn't know that the internet was faith-based. I'll tell you, you could just buy the car we bought. We have a hybrid. What'd you buy? I don't know exactly. The power of brands, ladies and gentlemen. This is Marketing Matters on the Wharton Podcast Network. Hello and welcome. You're listening to Marketing Matters on the Wharton Podcast Network.

This is our weekly podcast where we analyze the latest in advertising, marketing, customer behavior, new product launches, retailing, branding, anything marketing. I'm Barbara Kahn, the Patty and J.H. Baker Professor of Marketing. And I'm joined by my co-host, Americus Reid, the Whitney M. Young Jr. Professor of Marketing and the brand identity theorist.

And today, we are very lucky to be joined by Joshua Spanier, who's the vice president of AI and marketing strategy at Google. I'm sure everybody's heard of Google. That's the global tech company that shapes the future of marketing through AI, data, and large-scale digital platforms like Search, YouTube, and Pixel.

Joshua is a senior marketing executive at Google, and he spent over 14 years there and overseeing more than $40 billion in marketing spend. As vice president, he has led the integration of AI across global marketing operations, and he founded Google's Central Measurement and Analytics Function, which I'm sure he's using to demonstrate the impact of all that money he's spending in marketing.

Are you sure that's the point of it? Anyway, Joshua, welcome to our show. Hi, Joshua. Hey, guys. Great to be here. Thanks so much for having me on the show. Of course. So you've been at Google for 14 years. Have you seen a lo...

Wharton Marketing Matters: Google's Vice President of AI and Marketing Strategy, Joshua Spanier

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.

Wharton Marketing Matters: Google's Vice President of AI and Marketing Strategy, Joshua Spanier

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are findingedge in conversations you're not hearing.

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.