3135: Sprout Social's Vision for AI in Marketing: Insights for 2025 and Beyond

[00:00:04] How is AI reshaping the way we connect, communicate and engage on all social platforms?

[00:00:11] Well today my guest is Scott Morris. He's the CMO of Sprout Social and together we're going to be exploring the transformative impact of AI on social media, marketing and so much more.

[00:00:24] And if you're new to Sprout Social, they have over 30,000 brands relying on their platform and they've been at the forefront of integrating AI to empower marketers to automate their workflows and ultimately unlock deeper insights.

[00:00:39] And at a time where there is a stronger focus on the ROI of any AI or indeed tech project, I once got to share some findings from some of the extensive research into AI's exact role in shaping customer expectations, creating a more tailored experience and also how it's revolutionising customer service.

[00:01:00] But I'm hoping we can bring it all to life with some real world success stories and maybe a few bold predictions for 2025 too.

[00:01:09] So if you're interested in learning how AI is becoming mission critical for modern marketers, I'm hoping today we can answer the question of how AI can be the key to building a smarter, more connected future for brands and their audiences.

[00:01:24] But let's find out. Let's get Scott onto the podcast now.

[00:01:28] So a massive warm welcome to the show. Can you tell everyone listening a little about who you are and what you do?

[00:01:36] Yeah, thanks so much. It's really great to be here with you today.

[00:01:39] So my name is Scott Morris and I'm the Chief Marketing Officer of Sprout Social.

[00:01:44] If you're not familiar with Sprout, Sprout is basically a social media management platform.

[00:01:50] So what it allows companies to do is to basically manage all of their social media from one place.

[00:01:56] That includes, of course, the actual posting and engagement with folks on social, social listening, analytics, social customer care, and even things like employee advocacy, which basically allows you to amplify your brand on social via your own employees.

[00:02:15] And of course, influencer marketing. Can't forget that. That's such a hot category right now.

[00:02:19] So our platform basically allows companies to manage all of those things.

[00:02:24] We have about 30,000 customers and big brands, you know, Subaru, Shopify, Salesforce, General Mills, Chicago Bulls.

[00:02:33] So lots of well-known brands.

[00:02:35] And I am, as the Chief Marketing Officer, I basically lead the entire global marketing and communications team.

[00:02:42] So I'm responsible for building our brand, for delivering world-class demand, helping our sellers generate pipeline, driving customer adoption and loyalty, things like that.

[00:02:55] Well, it's so cool to have you join me on the podcast.

[00:02:57] And one of the reasons I was excited to get you on here today is you set off my tech spidey sensors when I was reading that Sprout had experienced some pretty strong momentum out there.

[00:03:08] So I've got to ask, can you tell me more about that growth and what is behind it?

[00:03:12] What's driving that?

[00:03:14] Yeah, sure. Happy to talk about that.

[00:03:16] So, yeah, Sprout, we've been very fortunate at Sprout.

[00:03:19] We've had a great growth trajectory.

[00:03:22] If I think about why that's the case, like what are the things that have been fueling that, I think, you know, one of them is really the strong focus on customers.

[00:03:32] And don't get me wrong, every company says they are customer focused.

[00:03:37] Every company says they put the customer at the center of everything they do.

[00:03:41] But Sprout really, really does focus a lot on that.

[00:03:45] We have this saying that we use internally that we want to be a joy to do business with or a joy to work with.

[00:03:51] And we really, really infuse that through everything that we do.

[00:03:56] So really focusing on being partners with our customers, especially because for most of them, social media is a journey.

[00:04:02] Some of them are coming from a fairly immature perspective in terms of their social operations.

[00:04:08] And some of them are very, very advanced.

[00:04:10] And we want to be able to be there with them through every step of that journey to help them grow and learn.

[00:04:16] And we can do that right along with them.

[00:04:19] We also really focus a lot on partnerships.

[00:04:23] And by partnerships, I mean partnerships with the network.

[00:04:26] So X and Instagram, et cetera.

[00:04:29] So we have some of the deepest partnerships with the networks, which means we're able to do things like we were the first company in our space to offer integration with threads, for example, because of that deep partnership.

[00:04:40] But we also have great partnerships with the other companies in the tech stack that most of our customers use.

[00:04:47] Salesforce would be a great example of that.

[00:04:49] Really, really deep integration with Salesforce.

[00:04:52] You know, customer care is social media is really the place where a lot of people are doing customer service and customer care now.

[00:05:00] So that integration with Salesforce really helps connect all of those conversations on social in through to Salesforce and the systems of record that companies are using.

[00:05:10] And that integration is really, really seamless.

[00:05:13] And I think the final thing that maybe I would say is we have really broad market appeal.

[00:05:20] Right.

[00:05:20] So you've got small businesses using our product.

[00:05:23] You've got really large enterprises using our product.

[00:05:26] You've got agencies using our product.

[00:05:28] And really, you know, we serve all of those markets, which has really helped fuel our growth.

[00:05:32] As this is a tech podcast, something I'd love to dig a little bit deeper on with you today is the rise of AI.

[00:05:38] We've seen it firsthand over the last two years.

[00:05:41] And there's a recent stat.

[00:05:43] I don't know if you saw this, but I think it was on LinkedIn that something like 52, 53 percent, certainly more than 50 percent of content or long form posts on the platform are generated by AI now.

[00:05:56] So the content is generated there.

[00:05:57] So what's your take at Sprout on the use of AI, both in its potential for marketing professionals and the social media industry at large?

[00:06:06] There's a lot of criticism for it in some circles, but I think as long as it's a tool where whoever's using it alongside the technology and almost like collaboration or co-pilot, I think it's fine.

[00:06:17] But what's your take on this?

[00:06:19] Yeah, well, wouldn't be a tech conversation without talking about AI, right?

[00:06:23] It's obviously top of mind for everyone.

[00:06:25] I was actually just looking through at your podcast.

[00:06:27] And even when the main topic wasn't AI, it was almost always part of the conversation because how can it not be?

[00:06:33] And, you know, as a marketing leader myself, even if I put our own products aside, this is obviously something I've been really focused on.

[00:06:41] I joined Sprout about a year ago.

[00:06:43] We didn't really have a strategy for using AI within our own marketing organization at the time.

[00:06:48] So one of the first things I did was, you know, build a strategy around that and start executing the plan really with the goal of making my marketers more productive and making my marketing funnel more performant.

[00:07:01] So we've invested a lot and learned a lot along the way as we've been doing that as well.

[00:07:06] And then our product, of course, you know, it is a product for marketers.

[00:07:09] It is a product that helps you manage your social media.

[00:07:11] And so we also have deep AI infused throughout the entire product experience.

[00:07:17] And I think in terms of like my take or our take on AI, I recognize that people have mixed reactions to AI, right?

[00:07:27] And so you have to use it smartly and you have to use it in a way that as far as I'm concerned is pretty transparent, right?

[00:07:35] I think for me, you know, we've seen brands who use AI to be able to do things that actually benefit their customers or their consumers, right?

[00:07:47] Like providing more personalized connections, finding creative ways to engage and actually winning customer trust and loyalty in doing that.

[00:07:57] And you can do that very effectively on social and you can do that with AI.

[00:08:00] I think for us, what we've been really focused on is trying to create as many efficiencies as we can with AI by building on existing strengths, right?

[00:08:12] So, for example, how do you take the most tedious aspects of someone's job and use AI to help make them a lot more productive so that they can focus their time on the stuff that they actually enjoy doing and kind of being more creative in their work?

[00:08:29] That's been really a hallmark of how we've been using AI and integrating it across our entire platform.

[00:08:36] And that also includes, you know, things like how can we leverage AI to take all of the great data and insights that you get from something like social.

[00:08:48] Think about the millions or billions of data points that are out there in social and synthesize those and actually create those insights for you rather than having to kind of crawl through all of that data yourself.

[00:09:00] So there's a lot of ways you can use AI smartly that really benefits not only the company but benefits the people who are experiencing it.

[00:09:09] And you mentioned using AI more smartly there.

[00:09:13] Can you tell me a little bit more about Sprout's recent AI innovations?

[00:09:16] And also, how are you seeing customers leverage some of those innovations to benefit from AI?

[00:09:23] Because there's a lot of talk around AI and a lot of hype.

[00:09:25] But I think that measurable difference that you can have, that ROI that you can have and business value you can generate from it,

[00:09:32] these are the questions I think we're all going to be focusing on in 2025 as the technology matures.

[00:09:38] But what are you seeing here?

[00:09:40] Yeah.

[00:09:41] And by the way, you know, I know some people almost feel threatened by AI, right?

[00:09:45] There's that, I can't remember who said it, but there's the statement that's like,

[00:09:50] don't worry about your job being replaced by AI.

[00:09:53] Worry about your job being stolen by someone who knows how to use AI better than you do, right?

[00:09:59] So I think it really kind of can't be about that.

[00:10:02] You know, for us, you know, we've really worked to seamlessly integrate AI into our customers' workflows, right?

[00:10:10] And that means AI actually is working behind the scenes to improve how marketers work,

[00:10:16] doing things like automating their workflows or using AI to really surface the most important information

[00:10:24] or the most important insights.

[00:10:26] You could also use it to craft engaging content, as I mentioned earlier, analyzing data, uncovering strategic insights.

[00:10:34] Specifically, if I look at our product and how we've implemented it,

[00:10:38] we have something called Analyze by AI Assist.

[00:10:41] And what that does is it basically offers an executive summary of insights in the reporting that you get out of our platform.

[00:10:49] So that makes it much faster to understand performance of your social media content, for example,

[00:10:55] while also having kind of a curated analysis.

[00:10:58] Again, that's all fueled by AI.

[00:11:01] Another way that we use AI is through content comment sentiment.

[00:11:06] So what does that mean?

[00:11:07] That means helping marketers understand basically how their audiences are responding to certain content

[00:11:14] through positive or negative or neutral comments.

[00:11:19] And it counts all of those up and it analyzes those.

[00:11:22] And it basically helps marketers get insight into the why behind performance.

[00:11:28] So I think that's been really helpful.

[00:11:30] And maybe a third area is conversation breakdown,

[00:11:33] where basically we're bringing in kind of new data lenses to look at sentiment or using sentiment as an example,

[00:11:41] that will really give a much more powerful view of the active conversations that you're having in social.

[00:11:47] And what that basically does is it makes it easier to identify trends and insights faster.

[00:11:52] So again, all of these ways that we're using AI to really speed up the work that you're already doing

[00:11:58] or keeping you a couple steps ahead so that you don't have to do all of that tedious work

[00:12:04] because why not let AI do that work for you?

[00:12:06] And you can also use it for crafting posts, right?

[00:12:09] That's a very straightforward thing you can do in Sprout as well,

[00:12:12] where basically you can tell us what it is you want to post about

[00:12:16] or point to an article that you want to post about.

[00:12:19] And AI will generate the post for you or a couple different versions that you can then figure out

[00:12:24] which one do you want to use or do you want to customize before you actually post it.

[00:12:28] Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head there with using it to help you speed up

[00:12:32] and help you get where you need to be faster.

[00:12:35] And if we stick on this theme of AI generating tangible benefits and value,

[00:12:40] can you tell me a bit more about how your own research supports AI's potential to drive business impact and growth?

[00:12:47] Because again, impact and growth, this is the secret sauce that everyone's chasing, right?

[00:12:53] Yeah, that's right.

[00:12:55] So we've done quite a bit of research in this area ourselves

[00:12:58] in terms of like the surveys that we do and the research reports that we publish.

[00:13:04] And, you know, we found a couple of things here.

[00:13:06] So business leaders definitely understand that the potential for social media to influence every aspect of their organization.

[00:13:17] You know, their customers are on social.

[00:13:19] Their customers expect those brands to be sort of fluent in both communicating and even selling to them across social platforms.

[00:13:28] A survey that we conducted found that the vast majority is like 97% of business leaders agreed, of course, that AI would help them,

[00:13:40] but also specifically with analyzing social media data and insights more efficiently.

[00:13:45] Also, the vast majority said that their company's success would depend on how effectively it used those social media data and insights to inform business strategy, right?

[00:13:57] So it's not just, you know, social media is not something that just the social media team or even the marketers or the CMO might care about,

[00:14:04] but really something that is relevant to the C-suite because you get so many great insights from social

[00:14:10] that tell you so much about your customers or prospects, what they care about,

[00:14:15] and basically how you want to engage with them.

[00:14:19] We also have a new report coming out.

[00:14:23] I think it's in January.

[00:14:24] It's our annual kind of index report that we put out once a year, and we haven't quite released that yet, but a little preview there.

[00:14:33] You know, it really underscores how AI is really now understood as mission critical to modern marketers, right?

[00:14:40] So, for example, the findings indicate that marketing leaders view AI as a critical tool for the future,

[00:14:47] and they're definitely planning on increasing their investment in all things that touch AI,

[00:14:52] and they see it as a way to empower their team growth.

[00:14:55] And that's something that's interesting because, again, I made that comment earlier, you know,

[00:14:59] about, you know, losing your job to someone who knows AI better than you.

[00:15:03] There's also this fear that AI is going to replace a bunch of jobs,

[00:15:06] and I'm sure it will and probably already is, but we actually found in our research that marketers are looking to AI

[00:15:13] to empower their teams rather than displaced jobs, right?

[00:15:17] They basically want AI to help make their teams more productive so that they can then do more

[00:15:23] versus, you know, using AI to replace the folks that they have.

[00:15:28] Ah, you hit me with a teaser there.

[00:15:30] So it sounds like we might need to get you back on next year when you're allowed to share some more of those insights.

[00:15:35] And I think it's also interesting to see how AI is impacting the world of customer service.

[00:15:40] So to bring that to life, are there any real-world examples that you could share that maybe like how you work with Salesforce

[00:15:49] that you mentioned a few moments ago or anything that just highlights the potential of AI in this space?

[00:15:54] And especially for people listening or business leaders listening that may be sat on the fence and thinking,

[00:15:58] well, what kind of impact can this have on my business and how can I use it?

[00:16:02] Are there any real-world examples you can share there?

[00:16:06] Yeah, you actually brought up Salesforce.

[00:16:08] So maybe I will actually talk about that a little bit, but less on the partnership side,

[00:16:14] although anyone who follows Salesforce or follows tech is very aware of the leadership role.

[00:16:19] Salesforce is playing in AI with Agent Force and all of the amazing things they've been putting out,

[00:16:26] and we're very well integrated into that as well.

[00:16:28] But also Salesforce is a customer of ours, right?

[00:16:31] So Salesforce is actually using Sprout to help manage their social media.

[00:16:36] You imagine this company like Salesforce, they have, I think, 150 social channels.

[00:16:40] You know, if you think about all the different handles they have across all the different platforms,

[00:16:45] and they use Sprout to basically manage engagement across all of those,

[00:16:49] pull insights, and actually execute strategy.

[00:16:52] And it's all AI-powered as well.

[00:16:56] You know, I'll give you an example.

[00:16:58] Dreamforce, probably the largest tech conference or maybe the largest B2B tech conference in the world.

[00:17:04] I think they get like 40 or 50,000 people in San Francisco every autumn.

[00:17:10] And basically Salesforce leverages Sprout through that entire experience of Dreamforce.

[00:17:17] Salesforce does some really amazing stuff.

[00:17:19] They actually engage directly with every attendee they can on social,

[00:17:24] not only replying to their direct messages and things like that,

[00:17:27] but engaging with posts proactively,

[00:17:30] finding ways to make the event itself more meaningful for the attendees

[00:17:34] by using things like social sentiment and leveraging those social conversations.

[00:17:40] They leverage Sprout's listening and also our sentiment detection

[00:17:45] to basically help them understand what are attendees saying?

[00:17:49] What are they thinking about?

[00:17:50] What are they excited about?

[00:17:52] Surface any issues, especially, you know, if there's something negative that's happening

[00:17:55] or a potential customer service issue,

[00:17:58] so they can quickly reply and really proactively take care of that.

[00:18:02] They also use our automated workflows just to create content faster

[00:18:06] and to speed up approvals and things like that while they're on the ground.

[00:18:10] And all of those things are run by AI.

[00:18:12] You know, our listening tool analyzes, as I mentioned earlier,

[00:18:15] you know, millions of social conversations,

[00:18:18] pulls in the most important ones for brands.

[00:18:21] And, you know, Salesforce deeply, deeply understands

[00:18:23] the importance of really understanding their customers.

[00:18:26] And that's, you know, one way that our platform helps them

[00:18:29] in a customer service context.

[00:18:33] So as AI matures in 2025, I'm going to ask you to maybe look

[00:18:38] at my virtual crystal ball here and look ahead.

[00:18:41] What do you see as happening next?

[00:18:44] What opportunities do you see presenting for the future

[00:18:48] of the marketing industry?

[00:18:49] I appreciate it's a pretty big question.

[00:18:51] It's almost a podcast episode on its own,

[00:18:53] but how do you see this evolving this year?

[00:18:56] Yeah, well, already, obviously, AI has been revolutionizing

[00:19:02] the marketing landscape, right?

[00:19:04] So there's no doubt about that.

[00:19:06] And that will continue.

[00:19:07] I'm actually really excited about that as a marketer.

[00:19:10] I think there's so many great opportunities there.

[00:19:13] And for my company, I'm really excited that we're sort of

[00:19:16] at the forefront of that transformation.

[00:19:18] I fully expect that AI will continue to enhance areas

[00:19:23] like content creation, personalization.

[00:19:27] We're using a lot for that right now.

[00:19:29] Customer support, as we talked about.

[00:19:32] And I think we're going to start seeing more advanced tools

[00:19:35] for automating routine tasks.

[00:19:37] I think that there's a lot more you can do with AI

[00:19:40] for things like predictive analytics

[00:19:42] that will generate insights.

[00:19:44] I think, again, integration with other tools that you use,

[00:19:49] like for multimedia content creation, things like that.

[00:19:52] I also think that brands will need to make quick decisions

[00:19:59] on how to best embrace all of the new AI innovation

[00:20:03] coming their way, especially regarding things like

[00:20:06] customer data use, human involvement, monitoring biases,

[00:20:11] and things like that.

[00:20:12] The pace and complexity of these changes really means

[00:20:16] you need to trust your software partner

[00:20:18] to consistently do right by you.

[00:20:21] And so that's why it's really important

[00:20:23] that people really choose carefully there.

[00:20:25] And I think companies that have a really strong track record

[00:20:28] of customer trust and of basically having the right principles

[00:20:33] and guardrails in place,

[00:20:34] those are the companies ultimately that really will win

[00:20:37] because they're going to be best equipped

[00:20:39] to serve their customers in the future.

[00:20:43] Well, thank you so much for taking the time to sit down with me

[00:20:46] and share some of your insights around how you're seeing brands using

[00:20:50] and planning to use AI for social,

[00:20:54] whether it be customer care, intelligence, automation reporting.

[00:20:57] The list is long, but I think you've really helped bring that to life today.

[00:21:01] But before I let you go, I'm going to ask you to leave

[00:21:02] one final gift for everybody listening around the world,

[00:21:06] and that is a book that means something to you

[00:21:08] or that you would recommend that I can add to our Amazon wishlist

[00:21:12] for them to check out.

[00:21:13] What are you going to leave them with and why?

[00:21:15] Yeah.

[00:21:16] So a book that I read a couple of months ago

[00:21:21] that had a big impact on me,

[00:21:23] it was called Playing With Reality,

[00:21:27] How Games Have Shaped Our World.

[00:21:30] And it's a really fascinating book,

[00:21:33] a nonfiction book.

[00:21:34] It's written by a neuroscientist, Kelly Clancy,

[00:21:38] and it's fascinating because it explores the history of games

[00:21:42] going all the way back to the Enlightenment.

[00:21:44] I mean, she sort of fuses science and world history

[00:21:50] and politics and game theory

[00:21:52] to basically document the role that games have played

[00:21:55] in everything that touches basically, you know,

[00:22:00] the human experience, AI, medicine, economics, philosophy,

[00:22:04] you name it.

[00:22:05] So fascinating book, highly recommend it,

[00:22:07] available on Amazon.

[00:22:09] Check it out.

[00:22:10] Oh, what a great choice.

[00:22:11] I'm going to be checking that out.

[00:22:12] I'm going to add it straight to our Amazon wishlist.

[00:22:15] And of course, we've covered a lot

[00:22:16] in a short amount of time today.

[00:22:18] Your report is not available as a time of recording,

[00:22:21] but anyone listening wanting to look out for that,

[00:22:24] wanting to learn more about Sprout Social

[00:22:25] or connecting with you or your team,

[00:22:27] anywhere you'd like to point everyone listening?

[00:22:30] Absolutely.

[00:22:30] So you can head on over to sproutsocial.com

[00:22:35] and that's where you can find our latest research.

[00:22:37] A lot of it is on our blog, by the way,

[00:22:40] insights and product news.

[00:22:41] But of course, we are a social media management platform.

[00:22:45] So a great place to find us is on social.

[00:22:48] And of course, we're on all of them.

[00:22:49] We are on X and Instagram and Facebook and LinkedIn

[00:22:52] and all the places you would expect us.

[00:22:54] And then personally, LinkedIn is my channel of choice.

[00:23:00] So feel free to find me there.

[00:23:01] It's my full name, Scott Michael Morris.

[00:23:03] I'm on LinkedIn and would be happy to connect there.

[00:23:06] I would love to connect with any of your listeners

[00:23:09] and hear their perspectives on AI

[00:23:11] and how they anticipate it will benefit business strategies

[00:23:14] or impact consumer behavior.

[00:23:16] I love learning from other folks

[00:23:18] and getting their perspective.

[00:23:19] So we'd love to hear from your listeners.

[00:23:22] Awesome.

[00:23:23] I'll make sure there's links added to everything you mentioned there

[00:23:26] to make it easier for people to find you.

[00:23:28] And I can't thank you enough for sitting down with me today

[00:23:30] sharing real life examples of how AI is impacting work

[00:23:36] and also how Sprout uses AI partners internally

[00:23:41] for IT support, writing, customer care and so much more.

[00:23:44] We covered a lot of ground.

[00:23:45] And I do urge people to check you out.

[00:23:47] But more than anything,

[00:23:48] just thank you for bringing this topic to light today.

[00:23:50] I'm sure it will be incredibly valuable to people listening.

[00:23:53] Thanks again.

[00:23:54] Great, Neil.

[00:23:54] Thanks so much for having me.

[00:23:55] It was terrific.

[00:23:56] Thanks so much.

[00:23:57] I think as we've learned from our conversation with Scott today,

[00:24:00] AI is yes a tool, but it's also much more than that.

[00:24:03] It's a catalyst for innovation

[00:24:05] in how brands can approach social media and their marketing.

[00:24:10] Whether it be automating tasks,

[00:24:11] which we hear a lot about or enhancing personalization.

[00:24:15] And the real cool thing happens for me is when you begin to drive real tangible benefits

[00:24:21] through driving business outcomes.

[00:24:23] Hopefully helping marketers achieve more with less or more with more.

[00:24:28] A big thank you to Scott and the Sprout social team for arranging this podcast

[00:24:32] and allowing us to sit down and share these invaluable insights.

[00:24:36] But for everyone listening,

[00:24:37] how do you see AI shaping your industry

[00:24:40] or the way that you connect with your audience?

[00:24:42] Let me know your thoughts.

[00:24:44] I'd love to continue this discussion.

[00:24:46] Instagram, X, LinkedIn, just at Neil C. Hughes.

[00:24:50] And my email is techblogwriter at outlook.com.

[00:24:53] But that's it for now.

[00:24:54] So I'll speak with you all again tomorrow.

[00:24:56] Bye for now.