As the era of AI is here, do marketers need to take a step back?

AI has emerged as a prominent buzzword within marketing circles and agencies, garnering significant attention in headlines. Many ad agencies have started investing in AI, like WPP and Publicis.

According to GroupM projections, by 2027, around 90% of digital ad campaigns will be influenced by AI. Publicis intends to change its positioning and fully harness the power of AI to become an “industry-first AI Intelligent System company.”

Capgemini Research Institute’s latest report, ‘GenAI and the evolving role of marketing: A CMO's Playbook’, revealed that half of organisations have already set aside specific budgets, and almost half (47%) have allocated teams for the implementation of generative AI in marketing.

 With so many strides taken towards embracing AI alongside human creativity, there also comes the fear of losing jobs. In the not-so-distant past, major tech and tech-first companies such as Google, Paytm, Duolingo, and InMobi, amongst others, have dealt with significant layoffs in their ad-sales and marketing teams, citing AI-induced cost restructuring.

Human creativity, though an abstract concept, might be perceived as something edging towards 'replaceable’ by AI. Or is the perception just another ‘AI can do it all’ misconception?

In a panel discussion at ad:tech 2024 titled, ‘Gen AI and the new age of human creativity,’ Richa Khera, Global Marketing Director at Schneider Electric expressed that, though AI is fast catching up with plenty of opportunities, including its abilities to generate content that can not be humanly captured; human intervention is quintessential to understand distinctive brand voice and have content that differs from the competitors.

Moderating the discussion, Akash Deep Batra, Executive Director and Head of Marketing, DBS Bank noted that human intervention will always be the 'soft elements’ that help connect brands with consumers.

Addressing a world where all content, all marketing, all advertising would be significantly done by Gen AI; Ben John, CTO at Xandr, Microsoft Company, opined that AI should not be pedestalised as an autopilot but must be used to assist, like a co-pilot.

“When people's muscle memory can only do so much, AI’s mission is to do a much better job and enable humans to fast forward and do much better things,” he added.

John said that the current content consumption scenario has its set of opportunities and challenges. The latter includes content explosion and perception of content.

Batra noted that hyper-personalisation of content to suit audiences is on the rise now and is a sore spot for content creators rather than marketers, as getting the content ‘right’ is a challenge.

 “When we talk about personalisation and privacy, the line is getting quite thin, and the chances of us crossing the line are becoming a challenge from a regulatory standpoint,” John added, talking about Microsoft’s OmniAssist.

John also believes that with AI being a relatively new concept on the scene, with its rising use comes the responsibility of the company to self-regulate AI in the absence of a set of regulations. Apart from the cost of using AI, he added that another challenge of AI is the standardisation of outputs across different avenues.

Delving into the intricacies of how creativity could be data-driven by AI, Khera remarked that using AI for content is just the tip of the iceberg, and she cited use cases including customer support while adding that there’s a certain rising synergy between technology and the existing functions. 

“Content is just a very small part of the overall pie. The media market is just a small part of the overall picture,” she added. 

Bharat Khatri, Chief Digital Officer, APAC, Omnicom Media Group, remarked that there is a lot that GenAI has in terms of connecting all the dots and eventually solving the bigger picture for the brand, not just the smaller picture in the cycle of growth. He added that, when it comes to AI, there are two things on the front: productivity and creativity.

 From a marketing perspective, there are a few major players in the ecosystem. Consumers, advertisers, content creators, and service providers. Post-COVID-19, the consumption scenario changed with the rise in consumption of content on screens.

 He believes that through digital consumption, users are looking for personalised sessions, and advertisers are looking for that.

 “How you solve this connected ecosystem in an efficient way so that everybody gets the best out of it is the productivity concept,” he added.

He further reiterated how content creators are able to create relevant content in a much, much faster way through AI. Advertisers are getting value for money as they show the relevant ads at the right time and on the right device.

 “People are pushing to see how they can have a consumer engagement that is cost effective, with much better reach and the value of overall interest,” he added. 

Gen AI can also be leveraged to deliver high-end storytelling to change consumer behaviour and create ‘efficiency conversations.’ 

When asked about one skill marketers need to learn to thrive in the era of GenAI, Khera commented that simplicity is the way to go, while Khatri talked about test marketing and having an AI-dedicated taskforce. John suggested getting content and data organised. According to him, the AI journey will be only as good as the level of data and content.

 The panel discussion concluded that marketers need to keep understanding the customer, their journey, assisting the customer to finish a task, and adapting to make sure that the focus is on leveraging AI to do more and do better.

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