New skills, new mindset: Leading marketing in an AI future
MARKET VIEW
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Produced by:
Julia Cames
Interim Chief Marketing Officer at Hays
about
Julia Cames
Julia Cames is the Interim Chief Marketing Officer at Hays, where she has spent nearly two years serving as the voice of marketing at board level. With over 20 years of marketing experience, including a background in SaaS at HubSpot, Julia leads a global marketing team of almost 200 people across 30 countries. Her expertise spans B2B strategy, attribution modelling, and driving innovation through AI adoption while maintaining the human connection that defines effective marketing in the recruitment sector.
How is your organisation leveraging AI to uncover deeper insights from data, and where are you seeing the most significant impact?
We have moved well beyond the curiosity phase with AI and are now firmly in applied adoption. The focus is no longer on pilots but on equipping our people with tools that enhance their efficiency. Recruitment has always been about conversations. A client explaining what they need, a candidate sharing their ambitions, and a consultant bringing that together. What people don't see is everything happening behind the scenes: the time spent capturing information, moving between systems, and making sense of fragmented data.
What we are doing at Hays is bringing more intelligence into that process, so consultants can spend less time on administration and more time on what actually matters. Through Hays Tech, we are introducing AI agents directly into the way our consultants work. These are not separate tools; they sit within existing workflows and help capture information, structure it, and make it usable in real time.
Importantly, this is not about replacing the human element. Recruitment is still fundamentally about judgement, relationships, and understanding people. What AI does is remove friction, improve visibility, and support better outcomes for clients and candidates. In simple terms, it helps our consultants focus on people, not process.
How are you connecting behavioural and intent data to drive commercial outcomes?
My background in SaaS instilled a strong appreciation for the marketing flywheel and full-funnel thinking. I consistently encourage my team to examine the entire customer journey and identify incremental improvements that enhance conversion rates. When the scope feels overwhelming, the solution is often to focus on the touchpoints that matter most.
We can observe what people are searching for—practical queries like how to structure a CV. Increasingly, users will turn to AI for answers to those questions rather than searching directly for Hays. Where we add genuine value is in tracking meaningful engagement: when someone creates an account, uploads their CV, or engages with specific content. From there, we can deliver relevant information through targeted personalisation.
Equally important is how we support the sales function. When a high-demand candidate—a senior developer with Python expertise, for example—engages with our platform, we can alert the relevant consultant with context about what that individual has consumed. This transforms the outreach from a cold call into a tailored conversation. The distinction lies in moving beyond aggregate traffic metrics to understanding what specific behaviours signal intent and commercial opportunity.
How has AI changed the collaboration between marketing and sales in your organisation?
AI has created meaningful efficiencies in how we support our sales colleagues. We can now provide timely reminders with relevant assets, templates, and content tailored to their prospect conversations. This reduces the administrative burden on my team while ensuring sales has access to current materials.
What we are increasingly recognising is that candidates and clients engage with our content even when they are not in direct conversation with a consultant. The more insight we have into those digital interactions, the better we can complement—rather than duplicate—the relationship the consultant is building. That is the shift currently underway.
Sales professionals naturally maintain close ownership of their client relationships; that personal connection is fundamental to their success. Our role is to enhance that relationship with intelligence about what individuals have engaged with across our digital channels. This enables more relevant, more informed outreach. The objective is to combine the strength of human connection with the precision of digital insight.
What is your perspective on how SEO and AI-powered search are evolving together?
This has been an instructive period for our team. Twelve months ago, the prevailing assumption was that OpenAI had established a dominant position and Google's Gemini was not yet competitive. Over the past six months, that dynamic has shifted. In Australia, for instance, our performance marketing lead has observed that Google is integrating our key landing pages into AI overviews—content that was originally optimised for traditional SEO.
The implication is that strong SEO practices continue to deliver value in the AI search environment. I had encouraged my team to reconsider our SEO-heavy approach given the changing landscape. The data subsequently showed that our SEO investment is contributing to how Gemini surfaces our content. The lesson is clear: do not abandon the practices that have driven performance historically, because the long-term trajectory remains uncertain.
We are also observing a shift in traffic composition. Social channels and thought leadership are contributing a greater share relative to traditional search, which reinforces the importance of brand authority in the current environment.
What guidance would you offer marketing leaders navigating AI adoption?
The appropriate starting point depends on the specific barriers an organisation faces. For established companies, the challenge may be attracting talent capable of driving innovation. Ensuring the organisation has a clear AI strategy and the right tools in place is essential—not least because prospective employees will ask about your approach to AI, and an ambivalent response is unlikely to inspire confidence.
For scale-ups experiencing rapid growth but struggling to maintain communication quality, implementing a well-trained chatbot to manage initial enquiries can provide immediate relief. For larger marketing functions where teams are engaged in repetitive tasks, automation represents a clear opportunity.
The principle is straightforward: identify where the operational constraints exist, then evaluate how AI can address them. AI will be a defining capability for marketing organisations seeking greater efficiency and impact. As enterprises navigate this transformation, marketing should be positioned at the forefront with a strong voice in strategic discussions. Leaders who embrace this will create value for themselves, their teams, and their organisations.
about
Hays
Hays is a global specialist recruitment firm that connects organisations with talented professionals across a wide range of industries and sectors. Operating in over 30 countries with millions of candidates and clients in its network, Hays is known for its expertise in workforce solutions and its flagship salary guide research. The company combines deep market intelligence with a people-first approach to matching employers with candidates seeking their next career opportunity.
About 6sense
6sense is on a mission to revolutionise the way B2B organisations create revenue by predicting customers most likely to buy and recommending the best course of action to engage anonymous buying teams. 6sense Revenue AI is the only sales and marketing platform to unlock the ability to create, manage and convert high-quality pipeline to revenue. Customers report 2X increases in average contract value, 4X increases in win rate and 20-40% reduction in time to close deals. Know everything, do anything, with 6sense.