Cindy Richter: "AI creates roles that didn’t even exist before"
Lufthansa’s Head of Marketing on why AI is opening up a whole new field to think bigger – and what it takes to stay creative in the age of automation
Since December 2024, Cindy Richter has been Head of Marketing at Lufthansa. Before that, she served as Head of Campaigns & Partnerships, where she played a leading role in launching the Yes! communications platform and the new content ecosystem Lufthansa Insights. Cindy Richter is committed to the continuous use and further development of AI-tools as well as AI-based formats and services to drive the transformation of marketing. She is passionate about consistently expanding the Lufthansa brand as a platform and partner for cultural worlds such as fashion, art, and design.
How has AI changed your work and the work of your teams?
AI makes us faster, more efficient, and able to accomplish more. I believe AI opens up a whole new field for us to think bigger about marketing.
Do you have an example?
Research. AI will definitely help us here. In the past, we might have hired an agency to spend a week creating a competitive overview. Now we use AI and get a comprehensive picture ourselves – within hours. Still, we have to verify the results and combine different pieces of information to draw meaningful conclusions. But that’s definitely an area where AI supports us.
I also believe AI will help us create ad formats. If I have a master asset, I’ll be able to generate versions for all kinds of channels. That will definitely help us. And we already see at our content ecosystem Lufthansa Insights that by having different AIs communicate with each other, we can do things that used to be unthinkable. For example, we were able to bring our mascots, Lu and Cosmo, to life. Before, they were just static images. It would have been financially impossible to animate and voice them for our channels.
But what about more elaborate productions – photography, big video shoots? On LinkedIn you see people claiming, “This TV commercial was made entirely by AI.” Is this the future?
I don’t think this will fully replace real production – at least not for us, not today. For our big campaigns on TV or in cinemas, authenticity is crucial. With our focus on product – planes, seats – and crew-generated content, pure AI content isn’t the way forward right now. For smaller performance formats, we’ll explore it. We’re not quite there yet, but I see potential as AI keeps improving. If we set rules today, I’m sure we’ll revisit them in six months, because the results are getting so good.
Where we already use AI is in our big out-of-home project with Dirk Nowitzki on the west façade of Munich airport. For social media, we created AI-generated content around it – for example, bringing Dirk to life or animating his blanket. With real assets, you can create exciting moments for certain channels.
So when it comes to jobs, you’d say AI is just a new tool – something people need to learn – but the humans operating it still need to be creative.
Exactly. And maybe these roles didn’t even exist before. Someone who brings Dirk to life using AI tools has skills that weren’t needed in the past. I actually think AI will create entirely new jobs that we haven’t even thought of yet.
So all the doomsday talk about marketing – like when Mark Zuckerberg said, “We won’t need agencies anymore; everything will be automated” – you’re not buying that?
Not yet. But of course we look at the entire value chain and evaluate where AI can be used and how we, as clients, can benefit from the savings agencies achieve. That’s a completely legitimate approach.
You’ve already mentioned animation of static images. Do you have another example? Tell us about an AI application you’re experimenting with right now, and what you’ve learned.
I already mentioned Lu and Cosmo and the Dirk Nowitzki project. Turning static images into semi-animated social content is really exciting. There will be more of that, because we realize TV content can’t just be copied to social media. There’s huge potential for experimenting with different applications.
Another area is our AI-Story-Assistant, where we gather destination tips and content ideas from our employees. This way we empower them to become content creators for formats we can then distribute across the ecosystem. That’s definitely an area we’re exploring. Corporate communications is already using AI tools that assist with copywriting. It’s support for the teams – because the tasks keep multiplying and getting more complex.
And then there are background processes, not directly customer-facing, like research. I think there are many applications that will really help us in the process chain …
… the admin stuff – the alignment tasks, the annoying parts of the job. Filling out Excel sheets – AI can handle that, too …
… meeting notes …
… AI is often very good at that. And then maybe you actually free up more time for the fun stuff.
Exactly.
Can you share one or two things you and your team have learned using AI tools over the past few years. What’s new? What has to be done differently now?
I think a marketer’s skill set is shifting. You have to be much more open to technology than before. In the past, we developed a campaign, ran it, and that was it. Now there are so many more channels and needs – it’s much more complex. Interface management within the company has also become more complex. We’re no longer just talking to neighbouring departments but also to IT, IT procurement, even the works council. Five years ago, marketers didn’t deal with that.
So alongside creative work – focusing on whether what we do fits the brand and strengthens brand values – the overall scope of the job has become far more complex.
And one reason is AI and the more technical orientation of what you’re doing.
Exactly. And the new opportunities it brings. You have to constantly stay informed and test what AI can do, because every month new options emerge. And we don’t want to leave that expertise solely to outside contractors – we need those skills ourselves, so we can steer the work instead of just being told stories.
So you read up a lot, you keep educating yourself … do you have a favourite source, a tip – what do you look at?
I read trade journals and everything circulating online. Mostly, I talk a lot with colleagues in agencies, but also internally, people who’ve been working with AI for a long time. Our procurement team is also on it. That’s the next step: how can we roll out AI across the group? It’s no longer just about airline applications. When we purchase AI tools, it’s for the entire Lufthansa Group. That makes it more complex –we need white-label solutions that can be applied across the different airlines.
You already said everything is changing incredibly fast. But let’s try – where is this going? Not in ten years, because nobody knows that. But in three years, what will be very different, maybe even for your own job?
I think we’ll move even further away from “one production for all.” Content will become far more targeted and individualised. That creates complexity we can only manage with AI support.
But AI will also need to work in a way that always reinforces brand values. Balancing authenticity with efficient communication – so the audience feels individually addressed, not like they’re just talking to a chatbot, but still to a human being—that’s a huge challenge. From my perspective, in three to four years it will work very well. We’ll be able to use data much better and deliver contextually relevant topics customers actually need – at exactly the right time, in the right place, through the right medium. It will be much more fragmented than today.
At the moment, we have audience clusters. That’s already somewhat individualized, but nowhere near personalized. That’s going to be fascinating.
Meaning that if you fly to New York in three years, you’ll be addressed as Cindy Richter, receiving personalized content relevant to your specific trip and interests? That really would be amazing. To conclude: What’s a question about AI that you’d love to have answered?
For me, it’s really this: How can AI help us take creativity to the next level? I’d find that incredibly exciting.
Key Take Aways
AI enhances productivity, not replaces creativity. AI is taking over repetitive tasks – freeing marketers to focus on strategy, storytelling, and innovation.
New roles are emerging at the intersection of tech and creativity. Skills like animating static assets or managing AI-generated content ecosystems didn’t exist a few years ago. Now, they’re essential.
Personalization is the next frontier – but authenticity still matters. Richter sees a near future where AI enables hyper-targeted content at scale, without losing the human touch that keeps brands trustworthy.
Season 1: AI and the Labor Market | Episode 1: The Future of Work, In Progress | Episode 2: Carl Benedikt Frey: “Professionals are not prepared for the coming changes” | Episode 3: Jonas Andrulis: “Digitize the state! That’s the foundation we all stand on”