AI clearly plays an important role in modern marketing, and it is really good at what it’s good at: resizing masses of artwork, trawling websites to build audience personas, giving advice on where to divert ad spend for maximum impact and drawing on data to generate thought-starters.
But that’s its “comfort zone”. And this is the point at which the human element becomes important, because though AI is good at collating and presenting data, it isn’t at determining how it applies to the lived human experience. It’s the essential humanity that makes good marketing successful. The people who are building a campaign idea can pick and choose which data to use to speak to the brand audience and really chisel away at the messaging that will be most meaningful — and the most human.
Marketing speaks to the human behind the data point, therefore we need a diverse set of humans in a room together to refine the idea to where it gets the message across.
AI isn’t yet “good at” diversity, particularly in the way we need it to be in a market such as South Africa. At present AI delivers a very “developed-country”, and perhaps Western-biased, data set, because that’s what it’s trained on. AI isn’t able to tap into the lived experience of an individual with certain beliefs, experiences and cultural quirks and know where the emotional fingerholds are on the climb to provoking a reaction that builds a personal relationship with a brand.
Indeed, the more AI becomes prevalent, the more important it becomes that, rather than “stealing” marketers’ jobs, we need to increase the role humanity plays in delivering messages and experiences that are singularly human. AI is our sidekick — it may not always be the case, but it is right now — and it’s why I caution against the laziness of simply handing over to a client what AI has churned out.
the people who are building a campaign idea can pick and choose which data to use to speak to the brand audience
It's difficult to predict how AI will develop and how much humanity a dataset collation tool can achieve.
We’re certainly able to do more work, and do it more accurately than ever before. And I think that this also means there’s going to be plenty more clutter in the future. We’ve been talking about “cutting through the clutter” for decades, but the exponential rise in the use of AI is going to deliver a corresponding exponential rise in the quantity of content out there.
Marketers are already not just competing with other brands but also with musicians, short-video producers and influencers for space on people’s timelines and in their hearts and minds. As with any good campaign, those who can attract and hold people’s attention the best and longest are the ones who are going to win at the brand-building and relationship game.
As things stand, an AI-generated idea might grab attention because the technology allows almost anyone to build a campaign that looks like a million bucks by investing no more than a bit of time and the right prompts. But the veneer will quickly be sloughed off if there’s none of the humanity behind it that builds a connection beyond the initial impression.
Those who want to forge a genuine connection, purpose, experience and humanity are still leading, and AI isn’t there yet.
Jacques Du Bruyn is the co-CEO at Flume Digital Marketing.
The big take-out: Marketers who want to forge a genuine connection, purpose, experience and humanity still lead —– and AI isn’t there yet.
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