Beyond AI Tools: Building Capabilities That Actually Scale

[00:00:00] Tessa Burg: Hello, and welcome to another episode of Leader Generation, brought to you by Mod Op. I’m your host, Tessa Burg, and today I am joined by Michael Ditter. He is the Director of Artificial Intelligence Strategy and Emerging Technology at Diageo, and we are going to explore how to take AI experimentation into true scalable integration at the enterprise level.

[00:00:22] Tessa Burg: Michael, thank you so much for joining us. This is such a great topic to cover at the beginning of the year in 2026. As we know, a lot of people have been trying to use AI apps in different parts of their workflow, reevaluate maybe initiatives that they started but didn’t quite succeed. So it’ll be really, really awesome to learn more about your process, what’s worked, what you’ve learned, and what’s next for you at Diageo.

[00:00:49] Michael Ditter: Tessa, so happy to be here. Happy 2026. And very excited to have this conversation and share more. I think, you know, for me it’s such an interesting and exciting moment given the pace of change. And I think the number one thing that you’ll kind of hear from me today is, you know, I’ve really leaned into kind of building capability as, uh, a key differentiator for kind of what we’re doing at Diageo and what I’ve done personally in this space.

[00:01:21] Tessa Burg: And that’s a great place to start. Tell us a little bit about your personal background and Diageo as a company.

[00:01:28] Michael Ditter: Yeah, so I have about 15 years of experience at the intersection of consumer goods strategy and technology. Um, I am a technologically fluent builder, so, um, I, uh, build with the modern AI tool stack, the what are affectionately referred to as vibe coding tools, Replit, Cursor …

[00:01:53] Michael Ditter: Um, conversational AI, mainly 11 Labs, obviously all of the, the Frontier Lab, uh, platforms, OpenAI, ChatGPT and Gemini. Um, so I’m a technically fluent builder, um, who, uh. As a background in strategy, so I grew up as a consultant, uh, working with, uh, consumer goods clients primarily. And, uh, those two skills I think gimme a, a unique vantage point, um, coming into an organization like Diageo on, um, how to think about, uh, applying this, uh, capability.

[00:02:37] Michael Ditter: As a source of competitive advantage for an organization. Um, so, uh, that background, uh, and time is, is uh, something that I kind of take into my day to day every day.

[00:02:50] Tessa Burg: I love that. And I think large companies can almost see themselves as a disadvantage because it’s just so hard to move and change so many people.

[00:03:02] Tessa Burg: So when you started this journey, what were some of the experiments that you were starting with, and then how did you prioritize those and what did you learn from those early experiments?

[00:03:14] Michael Ditter: Yeah, you know. We did spend so much time in the first couple years. If you think about kind of the, the journey that, uh, we collectively have been on and Diageo is, is kind of no different.

[00:03:27] Michael Ditter: Um, doing kind of pilots and experiments and then trying to identify, um, kind of what things kind of had positive ROI and how to scale, uh, those initiatives. Um, when I came into the role at Diageo, I really kind of turned it on its head and said, you know what? Um. The, the tools and kind of technology are there now I’ve, I’ve been in role for about a year and a half.

[00:03:51] Michael Ditter: Um, and I would say that like, that’s basically true for, for the last kind of, at least year of that year and a half that I’ve been in the role where like the technology is there. Um, and so I kind of flipped it on its head where I kind of knew right from the get go that the, uh, the biggest platform, uh, for me to drive real impact in an organization like this.

[00:04:13] Michael Ditter: Was to focus on building, uh, capability, uh, within our organization and within our people. And so I, um, I focused on a couple kind of key areas where I knew I would be able to unlock the most value. One was around, um, how we use and apply AI for content and content creation. One was around how we use AI to unlock, um.

[00:04:40] Michael Ditter: Uh, greater insights about our consumers at the speed of culture. Um, uh, and then, uh, one was around, uh, how we, uh, use, uh, gen AI to, uh, create differentiated consumer experiences. Uh, so, um, we kind of quickly moved from kind of a, a world of kind of like small pilots and kind of like testing and learning to, um, a prioritized set of, um.

[00:05:09] Michael Ditter: I think key initiatives behind these pillars. That was first and foremost, um, uh, powered by capability and capability building within these domains. And, uh, to enable that I, and kind of the team, we’ve done everything from, um, day long capability building sessions where we go hands on and kind of bring to life.

[00:05:35] Michael Ditter: Um. How to use the tools, how to apply it to someone’s work. Um, the, the content creation, uh, insight generation, um, uh, type workflows that we’re, uh, trying to go after two, um, you know, one-on-one, um, uh, individual or kind of small team sessions. So much about kind of, uh, learning to kind of lead in this space.

[00:06:03] Michael Ditter: I think has to do with kind of coming to it with a good bit of empathy, meeting people kind of where they are. Um, it’s, uh, making it kind of relevant for their own experience. So it’s, um, really getting to know kind of what they’re working on. Um, you know, I often start each conversation with like. Gimme the hardest thing that you’re working on right now.

[00:06:25] Michael Ditter: Um, and you kind of find the hook, um, and then bring to life kind of whatever it is that you’re gonna share with them, kind of with, uh, their context. So, um, the shift from kind of, uh, pilot to kind of unlocking value at scale, uh, started with a focus on kind of capabilities and, uh, prioritization across kind of a, a key set of kind of growth enablers within the business.

[00:06:54] Tessa Burg: I love and as we know, especially in CPG, growth comes from consumers consumer demand. So I’m sure for listeners who maybe aren’t familiar with the named Diageo, you are familiar with the brands including Bailey’s, Smirnoff, Captain Morgan, Crown Royal, Kettle One. I feel like I’m missing some, uh, Bullet Bourbon.

[00:07:21] Tessa Burg: Uh. And when each of those brands has to take on its own sort of personality and its own sort of environment, like are there processes or ways that you are, how do you differentiate technology capabilities and integrations that can go across all of them versus based on what you’re learning about the consumers and insights needs to be more specific.

[00:07:47] Michael Ditter: Yeah, so let me actually start by saying this because like you’re right to call out. We have a very diverse, uh, portfolio. Um, Diageo is one of the most extraordinary places I’ve ever worked. And not because of AI but because of, kind of the environment that kind of makes kind of like AI and some of the capability work that I’m doing, thrive.

[00:08:14] Michael Ditter: Um, so you’re right, we have a very iconic portfolio, but, but those iconic brands create permission for boldness. They give us a platform to try many different things in kind of, uh, unique different ways and kind of experiment and test and learn. Um, so. Yes, you are absolutely right that, um, with such a diverse portfolio, there was so much to learn.

[00:08:47] Michael Ditter: Um, in terms of when I think about the operational work that we’ve stood up, how do we for instance, manage uh, very different and distinct brand worlds brand tone of voice. Within kind of our content ecosystem, how do we think about, um, the different approaches, uh, to leverage from an answer engine optimization, AEO, or GEO, uh, perspective and, and how it’s different, uh, given kind of some of the different brands.

[00:09:21] Michael Ditter: Um, but that diverse portfolio and the um, kind of unique touch that kinda like each one of our brands needs creates a lot of opportunity too. Uh, try and experiment many different things and approaches, um, and, uh, thereby point an advantage.

[00:09:44] Tessa Burg: And so when you were looking at those different experiments and the workflows that the brands have, how did you prioritize which, what to target first in terms of those integration, touchpoint, and did?

[00:10:01] Tessa Burg: Did anything fail along the way? Like I always think you learned so much more from trying up that didn’t work. So what were some of those priorities that emerged first and then what were some of the learnings you got?

[00:10:12] Michael Ditter: Yeah. Um, so first and foremost, we live in a world today where when you’re applying generative AI to the enterprise.

[00:10:28] Michael Ditter: You need to be unlocking value, right? That is just the context we live in and the tools can do it. Um, and so, um, priority number one was, you know, does this, uh, area that we’re focused on create real meaningful value, right? Um, there then are kinda like a set of, um, things that. Myself and the team were always looking at as it relates to how does this enable us to, uh, really deliver unique and differentiated consumer experiences?

[00:11:03] Michael Ditter: How does this create a defensible competitive advantage? Um, but first and foremost it was, you know, can this unlock real value? Um, and, and not just productivity. Right. There, there’s, there’s a productivity side of it. And, and, uh. There is a huge unlock for us. Uh, when you think about, um, for instance, new, uh, gen AI enabled content production workflows.

[00:11:28] Michael Ditter: Uh, but there also is a big growth side, uh, of the equation where you’re using generative AI to, um, get sharper insights at the speed of culture. Uh, you are using, uh, generative AI to, uh. Sharpen how you’re showing up in front of consumers, the, the 800 million weekly active consumers on ChatGPT, the the Billion Plus, uh, using kind of, uh, Gemini and, and uh, uh, Google’s, uh, AI kind of chat platform.

[00:12:03] Michael Ditter: So, um, prioritizing kind of where you focus, knowing that kind of gen AI can kind of unlock, uh, kind of real value today was kind of, uh, step one. And, and so we used, um. Just like good old fashioned strategy. Like where, where is the value and kind of where can we, uh, drive a lot of impact right now? And then what infrastructure do we need to put in place?

[00:12:26] Michael Ditter: Do I need to put in place to make sure that I’m supporting, um, the team in making this shift? Right? Because putting the technology in, um, and saying like, I did it. You didn’t right it. It’s, um. It’s not just about the technology, it’s about the people and, uh, leading them through, um, this capability change.

[00:12:49] Michael Ditter: Now you asked about kind of lessons learned along the way, kind of where, um, where did we make mistakes and, and what did we learn from it? Because you’re right, you learn so much. Um, um, this, uh. Has been a particular space where, kind of along the lines of kind of building capability, it has been, um, a big part of my focus to make sure that people understand that, that it’s kind of okay to fail.

[00:13:20] Michael Ditter: It’s okay to make a mistake. Um, I’ll give you a, a recent example. We use generative AI for content creation, as I mentioned, as part of that we set up agents. Those agents are skilled, for instance, in a particular brand’s tone of voice, um, or how that brand, um, uh, shows up and. We were not getting kind of the, the output that we expected.

[00:13:49] Michael Ditter: Uh, and we were kind of like, you know, going kind of back and forth and, you know, turned out that we had some of the programming, you know, the, the training language kind of loaded incorrectly on that agent. Um, it’s things like that where, you know, you take. Both like the small lessons and the big lessons and you, you make it a thing in front of the team where it’s like, uh, you know, this is great.

[00:14:10] Michael Ditter: Like we, we just learned something. Uh, and we’re gonna kind of now kind of like put, and I know it seems so small, but you take that over and over again and kinda like build in the team this mindset of like, yeah, like making a mistake is okay. I learn a lot. You know, obviously we’re, we’re, we’re putting in the infrastructure so we don’t make big, big mistakes.

[00:14:29] Michael Ditter: Right. You know, um, we have a marketing AI council, uh, we take kind of. How we show up, how we show up kind of, uh, responsibly, especially in this type of category, very, very seriously. Um, but making kind of little mistakes each day, uh, teaches you so much. And, uh, try to really kind of celebrate, uh, when those happen, flag them, uh, and, you know, make a big deal about kind of turning it into a positive in terms of, uh, you know, how we kind of learn something that we’re then kind of operationalizing within our workflow.

[00:15:03] Tessa Burg: And I think that’s a skill in itself, like getting people to move from what they’re used to, which is I receive all these insights, I put together this big plan, and then I launched this big campaign to, I’m getting, as you said, these sharper insights so I can move at the speed of culture as a person.

[00:15:21] Tessa Burg: Learning how to move at the speed of culture is a new skill because working in an iterative manner isn’t something we’ve had to do. Traditionally, are there other skills that you’ve seen people have to develop or that when you suggest to them like, Hey, I think if you learn this over here, it’s also gonna be another unlock for your own creativity and your own ability to create value as you’ve gone through this process of integration versus, you know, just pure automation?

[00:15:51] Michael Ditter: Yeah. Tessa, there’s something that you just said that like sparked this idea in my head, which is. We’ve really moved to a place where the idea of these very specialized roles. I am someone who writes brand copy. I am someone who. Designs websites. I am someone who comes up with the, the creative strategy.

[00:16:22] Michael Ditter: The, the, the lines between those roles are blurring. And so I think the, the thing that I try to both, um, live by doing, right, because, you know, the, the greatest gift we all have is just to like, um, you know. Walk the talk, right. You know, show up each day and kind of like live the, uh, the life that, that you are kind of professing about, you know, work within the capabilities that, that you’re kind of talking about can kind of do all these amazing things.

[00:16:53] Michael Ditter: Um, so much of what I try to do is kind of demonstrate to our teams how the lines between those, those roles are blurring. And we now live in this amazing world where, um, you can be someone who. You’re the brand strategist, but you’re kind of riffing on kind of creative copy and direction. You’re maybe trying a couple different kind of, um, creative directions and looking at kind of image outputs or kind of short five or eight second videos on kind of a, a brand platform, uh, social campaign that you’re thinking about with an agency.

[00:17:30] Michael Ditter: Um, and so I try to demonstrate and kind of like live by that example kind of each day with our teams. And so whether. Um, I am in a agency briefing meeting, uh, whether I’m kind of reviewing, uh, recent work that, uh, we’ve done with a partner, um, riffing on kind of, you know, our long-term brand strategy. I will take each one of those moments to kind of show, huh.

[00:18:00] Michael Ditter: Alright. Like, let me show you how, um, I can kind of like. Put on the creative hat and kind of give you a couple different kind of directions on this. Let me show you how I can, um, put on the, the brand finance hat and kind of blow out a bunch of different scenarios. Um, and so I think finding those moments, uh, to kind of teach that skill, um, is, is so important, right?

[00:18:25] Michael Ditter: Because, you know, it’s, it’s. To some extent, no. And wow, you know, roles are changing. But like, what does that mean? It means, um, you know, we are going from a world where, um, you know, individual specialists were kind of so valued to a world where, gosh, you know, I, I need kind of like the, the, the type of player who can really do it all, who can kinda wear a bunch of different hats and can, can kind of work across kind of the, the whole value chain and kind of see the bigger picture here in what I’m doing.

[00:18:57] Tessa Burg: Yeah, I agree. And not only do you need people who can see that bigger picture, but also not be threatened by people who come in with a deep specialist or deep expertise in one of the areas that they’re potentially experimenting in, and also just thrive and see feedback and failure as fuel for experience and creative value unlock and.

[00:19:25] Tessa Burg: When you get that combination, because I, for myself, I’m terrible designer. I cannot design, like back in the day when I started, webmaster was a role and so people thought developers could also design, and I just produced some real ugly websites and I tried, and it’s not my skillset, but I will say it’s gotten a lot better with using a lot of the tools that are available today.

[00:19:49] Tessa Burg: But I will never be as good as someone who actually. Specialized in design, but when we combine those together, like the fact that I am able to spin up a concept so much quickly without being designer, and then also pair with an incredible designer and get it to the next level, that’s where. That people power paired with AI, paired with expertise, gets you higher quality, higher value, faster as opposed to what I feel like you were saying before.

[00:20:18] Tessa Burg: It’s not just about productivity. It’s not just about did we save a bunch of time? It’s are people showing up with the right mindset and the right skills to use this tech in the way that really creates that growth and value?

[00:20:32] Michael Ditter: Yeah, I mean, I’ll take the example that you just shared. Um, because I actually feel the same way about myself, which is, you know, you know, gosh, like I really don’t have like the same creative chop set.

[00:20:44] Michael Ditter: You know, some of our amazing kind of partners that work with us every day, uh, at Diageo, do they, they really inspire me. But what I can do now is I can provide a level of clarity and direction on the brand.

[00:20:58] Tessa Burg: Mm-hmm.

[00:20:59] Michael Ditter: Um, that. Will make sense to that creative in a, in a way that I previously perhaps couldn’t.

[00:21:05] Michael Ditter: I can kind of give them kinda like the download from my head. One, one of the, the key things I try to teach and kind of impart in my capability sessions that I do, um, both at an enterprise level and, and one-on-one is using voice to text. I, I use kind of, you know, voice mode all the time and, and part of the reason why I use voice mode.

[00:21:30] Michael Ditter: I can talk much faster than I can type first, but second, it allows me to just provide so much more context. ’cause I, you know, I like most humans, like, I would get lazy if I’m typing, like, and I’d be structuring what I’m trying to type in my head. But when I’m doing voice to text, I can, I can just freeform given all of the context for, for instance, as a, uh, brand manager.

[00:21:56] Michael Ditter: Everything that was in my head about the social campaign for Bullet that we’re kind of thinking through. And you’re right, there still is an incredibly important role for, uh, designers. Um, but now we can work in a much more dynamic way where they can get kind of. Uh, a set of instructions that are so much, uh, more dialed in are clear.

[00:22:22] Michael Ditter: Uh, I might’ve even kind of brought some of those instructions to life so I could kind of see, ’cause I’m human and I, you know, I can write something, but then if I see it, it’s like, ah, that’s not it. So I might’ve kinda like, you know, used Gen AI to bring it to life. Um, and then for that creative person, they, they can kind of like run with that so much faster.

[00:22:39] Michael Ditter: I think the, maybe the point that I would kind of underline throughout this is. In this new world, you know, it’s it’s agency and style, right? That’s really going to cut through it. It’s, um,

[00:22:57] Tessa Burg: mm-hmm.

[00:22:58] Michael Ditter: Have I kind of used, um, you know, my kind of, you know, uniquely kind of human traits, um, to kind of, you know, put my mark on that, uh, in a way that’s kind of relevant for brand, my business context, et cetera, et cetera.

[00:23:14] Michael Ditter: Um. Then style, right. Uh, you know, have I kind of taken that, that very kind of like unique, uh, skillset that I have in this case as a creative and, uh, applied it to kind of really uplevel what I do And, and in the world that we live in today, we can kind of do things, um, you know, 10x uh, to what kind of, we used to be able to.

[00:23:36] Tessa Burg: Yeah. And underneath that style that really differentiates is the tech itself. And you mentioned earlier about the processes. You start with value. Where can we create the most value? You’re bringing people to the equation. What are the capabilities? What are the skill sets of the people? What are the unlocks?

[00:23:52] Tessa Burg: Because we wanna deliver this value. But when we look at the tech, and one thing unique about Diageo is you said it’s an amazing place because it had all the available tools there. What is your personal philosophy on. What your licensing is, tools versus what you choose to build to uniquely represent or power that style of the different di Diageo brands?

[00:24:17] Michael Ditter: Yeah. Well, so first of all, Diageo is an amazing place because it’s a place where. If you have a great idea grounded in, um, a real kind of consumer truth or insight, um, you can build it. So it is the type of place where, uh, you know, great ideas come true and you can build. Anything I’m, I’m affectionately referred to as a boomerang here, uh, which means this is my second time at the company.

[00:24:53] Michael Ditter: Um, I used to run strategy, uh, for us. Um, and, uh, you know, me coming back obviously is, is a testament to kind of that point about what a great, a great place it is. So it, it’s, it’s more than just kind of having, um, some of the tech infrastructure. It is, uh, a place where, um, you know. Great ideas are promoted and move forward.

[00:25:15] Michael Ditter: Uh, it’s a place where, uh, you have, uh, really just phenomenal, uh, colleagues. Uh, and, um, I would say a very kind of like, uh, open, flat, uh, structure, uh, that allows you to kinda move with, with quite a bit of speed. Then it’s also kind of set in a world class location, right? We’re kind of at three world trade, uh, center, uh, right in the heart of, uh, lower Manhattan.

[00:25:44] Michael Ditter: And so we have kind of like all of these things kind of in place, not to mention the, uh, amazing portfolio of iconic brands. Not just kind of like one big trademark, but you know, dozens of, um, world class trademarks kind of in its portfolio. So it’s all of those things. And then we kind of have the, the tech, uh, in place as well.

[00:26:03] Michael Ditter: Um, so much of how I’ve looked at how do we apply those, those two things, kinda like agency and style to kind of like that ecosystem is um, back to what I said before, which is, you know, it never was about kind of the tech, it was about kind of building the capability. The people, uh, to actually apply those things, agency and style as an example, uh, to how they, they use the, the tech to unlock value.

[00:26:39] Tessa Burg: And do you feel like a lot of that tech you built and is proprietary and has been engineered internally? Or is it a combination of license, including licensing, different foundational models, maybe licensing a few different specific platforms and then. Having some proprietary elements along the way.

[00:26:59] Michael Ditter: We, we’ve, we’ve tried, and I personally have tried quite a few, uh, different things in this space.

[00:27:04] Michael Ditter: So, uh, we’ve tried custom builds, so you’re probably familiar with the term RAG. I’ll, I’ll just kind of describe what it is. It’s, it stands for Retrieval Augmented Generation. It’s where, uh, you can take. A model that you could get through an API an application programming interface. You can kind of train the model on your own data using kind of this RAG technique and kind of implement it alongside, uh, your knowledge base.

[00:27:31] Michael Ditter: So we’ve, we’ve tried some custom build work. We’ve, uh, worked with, uh, some of the leading frontier labs and kind of implemented their enterprise solutions. Um, it’s. It’s been a mix of both. And I know, so, so you’re asking, you know, how do you make the decision, uh, build or buy? How do you kind of think about kind of the universe of the different, uh, tools and solutions that are out there?

[00:27:59] Michael Ditter: I start with the capability, um, like yes, I, I, I think about that and, and I am, uh, very kind of tuned into the landscape. But, but we still are. So early in this journey where what is going to separate winners from losers? What is really going to bring kind of distinctive competitive advantage, I think, to organizations isn’t.

[00:28:29] Michael Ditter: Uh, yes, Mike, you made the right choice on kind of putting, uh, you know, Claude for enterprise in. I, I personally love Claude. We don’t use that as an enterprise tool, but I personally love it. Um, I, I don’t think kind of like winners and losers are gonna be picked on that. I think winners and losers right now in the world that we live in today, um, are gonna be picked on, especially kind of leaders in this space.

[00:28:55] Michael Ditter: On how they were able to kind of meet the people within their organization where they were with empathy, as I said, up front in the context that’s relevant for them and their, their work, and. Build the spark in them, get them inspired, um, uh, build, um, the routines in them, the, the new kind of ways of working between them and agencies, um, them and, uh, your in-house content team, them and them and your social team, them and their, their, uh, commercial counterparts.

[00:29:28] Michael Ditter: Um, and so. Now with all that said, like, yes, I, I take kind of like the tools and tech we put in very seriously and kind of look at it with kind of like, um, utmost care. But the most important thing I think to start is, uh, whether or not against the backdrop of any decision you might have made about putting that tech in, what have you done from a capability perspective?

[00:29:54] Michael Ditter: ’cause that’s really what’s going to differentiate the winners and losers in this space.

[00:29:59] Tessa Burg: Yeah, no, I. Totally agree. And I just heard a podcast, um, from the Y Combinator podcast and there was a leader from Cursor on there talking about how he has a goal for all the designers to become an engineer. And I was very excited about that because to your point.

[00:30:21] Tessa Burg: I think that the sooner we can get to what might this experience, what might this solution look like? It provides clarity and we aren’t assigning different, like different definitions to the same words. We’re actually co-creating, co-innovating in a shared space with a shared visual, and it becomes iterative.

[00:30:41] Tessa Burg: As you’ve started with capability and thinking about this experience and value unlock first, have. You said earlier, like roles are starting to blend. Has this changed the way you’re organized or do you see it starting to change, like the organizational structure of the business overall as that blending continues, as people develop new and different skill sets, and as you integrate AI?

[00:31:07] Tessa Burg: Not, you know, I think, again, there’s just been so much emphasis on automate this, automate that, but you’re talking about integration as that continues throughout the org.

[00:31:19] Michael Ditter: It 100% has, as we think about what the organization continues to look like, how teams are put together, what the right mix of skills, uh, certainly all of this that we’ve, we’ve talked about will, um, come into and kind of inform how we think about, uh, the future of the organization to put us down this path.

[00:31:47] Michael Ditter: I’ve been doing these things called marketing AI capability days. Um, because in order for I think an organization to kind of really be ready for an organizational change, a rewiring, you have to actually be working the work in the future kind of way that you kind of envision working in. And so. Uh, we’ve done day long sessions for about, uh, a little over 200 of our marketers here in the business.

[00:32:18] Michael Ditter: And one of the really interesting insights, just kind of right out the gate is, um. For those people who we’ve, and we, we brought ’em in in person. It was kind of hands-on training, right? Where we’re kind of walking around, we’re bringing kind of real life Diageo marketing workflows related to insights planning, uh, content generation, um, into the room, real life data sets to practice with.

[00:32:43] Michael Ditter: One of the really interesting insights, uh, is, uh, for. Those colleagues who were trained that way, uh, we’re seeing that their weekly use of generative AI is at about 90%, meaning kind of when you’ve gone through this training program, um, you are coming back to it, uh, and kinda using it. At least nine 90% of the cohort is coming back and, and using it.

[00:33:08] Michael Ditter: Um, so a, a big part of. I think leaning into the future and being ready for kind of the evolving kind of organization, the, the, the AI enabled marketing organization of the future is taking people along with you on that journey, building kind of the skills, uh, for them to kind of practice these new workflows.

[00:33:35] Michael Ditter: Um, and then once you’ve done that, you’re ready to say, huh. Okay. Um. I think there is a, um, brand new set of roles that, uh, we need to put in place that, um, is a, call it like a technologist, um, but or a creative technologist who’s kind of sitting kind of in between. And this is a real example sitting in between kind of, you know, brand marketers and the creatives that we were talking about before that are creating kind of on the gen AI platforms.

[00:34:06] Michael Ditter: And it’s not until you, you know. Again, like, you know, build the capability and then start working the work where you’re like, okay, yes, here, here’s kind of the the type of role or skill that I need. Here’s what I would do, where it would sit, kind of where it would fit in.

[00:34:25] Tessa Burg: I love that. And I know one thing that came up for us, and I’m curious if this was a concern any of the marketers expressed.

[00:34:33] Tessa Burg: I love that you brought them in person because I feel like. When there’s that emotional connection, it’s so much easier to have challenging conversations and to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. But something that was a concern is data privacy, protecting the brand. A lot of people who were new to Gen AI weren’t sure if they would be able to spot if there was hallucination or a bias.

[00:35:00] Tessa Burg: They also wanted to make sure that the right. Verification layer or approvals were in place. How do you, what kind of guardrails do you have in place then? How do you operationalize that across such a large team?

[00:35:12] Michael Ditter: Yeah, so all or many of the things that you just mentioned are kind of things that we, we have in place and in fact, we, uh, start our capability sessions with a focused 30 to 45 minute session.

[00:35:27] Michael Ditter: On these things, recognizing bias, recognizing hallucinations, the do’s and don’ts. We have very specific rules at Diageo in terms of, um, what we, uh, are comfortable with and kind of not comfortable with as it relates to kind of gen AI, uh, creation. Very specific rules about kind of what to put in our enterprise platforms.

[00:35:50] Michael Ditter: And our enterprise platforms are kind of secure, kind of within Diageo’s environment. Um. But still, we, we take data privacy. We take, um, how we show up in front of consumers, um, very seriously and spend a lot of time kind of with our people on these types of topics. In addition to having. Team site, SharePoint site, you know, all of the other kind of collateral that a business puts in place to kind of support something like this.

[00:36:24] Michael Ditter: Um, it is how kind of we, we start our sessions and then we reinforce it. If we kind of spent the morning talking about hallucination and bias, we’ll show you kind of real examples in a Diageo context of kind of creating a brand plan for Smirnoff where it hallucinates so that you kind of learn how to kind of identify and kind of work through these types of topics.

[00:36:47] Tessa Burg: I love it. We are actually at time, but I, before we end the conversation, I wanted to recap ’cause you’ve given a very nice playbook for 2026 and I like what you said at the beginning conversation, starting with what is the hardest thing. You’re working on right now, what’s the biggest challenge you can solve?

[00:37:05] Tessa Burg: And then backing into where can you create that value in a defensible manner? And then think about the tech last. But first, it’s about your agency, your creative problem, solving against those really big unlocks for what’s possible. I also really like that you give. Your staff and your marketing teams at Diageo, the freedom to try skills they haven’t tried, and the freedom to fail and learn and be iterative, and that itself is a skill in itself.

[00:37:37] Tessa Burg: And so I think for our listeners, recognizing that, you know, when we go, when we move into integration, I like saying the word integration as opposed to automation. I think automation is, is threatening. It doesn’t have that creative unlock in it and certainly doesn’t talk a lot about. Value where integration is coming together.

[00:37:56] Tessa Burg: Collaboration, defensible position, and being open to new roles, knowing you’re gonna have to learn some new skills and that this is all possible in a responsible, um, manner. And where you can protect your brands and protect your data and your consumers ultimately. So before we stop, Michael, do you have anything to add?

[00:38:19] Tessa Burg: Anything else that you would you think marketers should think about as they start their journeys in 2026?

[00:38:25] Michael Ditter: Yeah, as you’re thinking about 2026, the future is definitely capability led, not tool led as, uh, we talked about, and I think you’re right, Tessa, that integration is the key word here. And as you think about how you apply that.

[00:38:42] Michael Ditter: It’s not just integrating kind of within your teams. Just remember you’re, you have a diverse group of stakeholders and so you’re, you’re helping bring along agencies or in our case even distributors. Uh, we, we have kind of a very, uh, large group of stakeholders that, uh, allow us to kind of bring our brands to life in this, uh, this world that we live in, in the most dynamic way.

[00:39:04] Michael Ditter: And so integration is not just about what you do in your four walls, but how you engage kind of the entire. Group of stakeholders, um, to kind of bring everyone along with you on the journey.

[00:39:17] Tessa Burg: Yeah, it’s that whole value chain, and that is also a big part of your brands, you know, because what your brands stand for, what they mean has different audiences as well.

[00:39:28] Michael Ditter: 100%.

[00:39:29] Tessa Burg: Michael, thank you so much. This was an awesome, awesome conversation. Very glad that you made the time to share your insight with us and your learnings. And if people have questions directly for you, where can they find you?

[00:39:43] Michael Ditter: Uh, you could get me on X, you could get me on LinkedIn, uh, or drop me an email at [email protected].

[00:39:51] Tessa Burg: Perfect. And for listeners who wanna hear more episodes of Leader Generation, you can find them at our website modop.com/podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. Just search Leader Generation. And until next time, Michael, we’ll definitely have a follow-up conversation. Maybe going to 2027 because we’re gonna have more big unlocks.

[00:40:11] Tessa Burg: Uh, thanks again for joining us.

[00:40:12] Michael Ditter: Thanks, Tessa. Happy 2026.