You don’t need me to tell you that the marketing world is obsessed with AI. It’s been the hot topic for the last two years, and AI-driven transformation has become an increasingly common KPI among clients. For a decade-old creative automation business like us, that’s clearly good news.
But it’s also a problem. The reality is, clients are often only asking for AI because they feel that they have to. There’s no real focus on the business problems they are having and the role AI can play in solving them. As a result, the way AI is being used is frequently gimmicky, directionless, and delivers little—if any—impact.
Our single most important job as an industry is to create value and drive businesses forward. So, it’s time for a strategic reset. We need to take a step back and bring the AI conversation back to what matters: business objectives. We need to stop hyperfocusing on the tech, and refocus on the problems we want to solve.
For anyone who has worked in marketing for a while, this might all sound a bit familiar. That’s because the current hype around AI is playing out almost exactly the same way as the rise of digital 10 to 15 years ago.
Back then, digital was the buzzword of the day. Every client wanted a viral video or a campaign microsite without any real thought into why—they just knew other brands were doing it. With all that distraction, it took years for businesses to get to grips with the tech and start delivering genuinely impactful digital campaigns.
Now, AI has become that same generic buzzword that clients are desperate to get involved with. And, like with digital, the excitement around AI is perfectly valid. It’s undoubtedly going to transform the way all of us operate in many different ways, and there will be enormous rewards to reap from that.
But this makes it even more important that we focus our efforts on learning how to use it effectively, rather than becoming distracted by the tools that are easily available (i.e. ChatGPT), but likely won’t transform your business.
Education is a major part of the problem. AI is complex, and despite the buzz around it, there exists a real lack of understanding about the tools available and how they can be used. For most people, generative AI (GenAI) and ChatGPT are all there is.
But AI is so much bigger than that. GenAI is powerful, yes, but so is machine learning and automation. Those latter two types of AI arguably have far more potential to solve problems and create value in the near term. With creative automation, for instance, brands can create thousands of iterations of marketing content at a fraction of the time and cost.
Demonstrating this gap between AI awareness and practical understanding, a recent survey of 11,000 consumers by Samsung found that while 90% are aware of AI, only 15% know how to use it to their advantage.
It’s a similar story in the business world. Research from the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) reveals more than a quarter of the world’s biggest brands have a low level of AI understanding and only use it in a sporadic, occasional fashion.
Because of this confusion, businesses are currently investing in AI products and applications that ultimately aren't going to deliver what they need. In a year or so, there’s going to be an awakening to that fact. Gartner expects at least 30% of projects that hinge on GenAI to be abandoned by executives by the end of 2025.
A mindset shift is needed. Tech should serve your business, not the other way around. And that shift starts with marketers being able to articulate the problem they are trying to solve.
It’s also critical to map out where AI can play a role for your brand and business, and where it absolutely cannot. The ethos of one brand we work with revolves around creating human moments of enjoyment, so using GenAI in consumer-facing work is a no go. Tech giants like Samsung and Apple aren’t going to trust ChatGPT to translate their carefully crafted product messages into 27 languages—but they can use automation to resize their press ads.
O2 is another good example—the brand is now using GenAI to create images of its brand character, Bubl, for use in mid- and lower-funnel activity only. AI won’t be creating O2’s hero content, but it does enable the brand to use Bubl in places that previously would have been prohibited by time and cost, like email newsletters or social posts. It’s about drawing those red lines and agreeing on your tolerances.
And finally, work with experts. There are very few businesses like ours who have worked for over a decade in this field, but there’s no substitution for experience. It’s that expertise and education that’s going to help you to start pulling the right AI levers to deliver the business outcomes you need.
Ask ChatGPT to define innovation, and it says: “Innovation is the process of developing and implementing new ideas, products, services, or methods that result in a significant improvement or create new value.”
That says it all. Introducing tech without a focus on value creation or business outcomes isn’t innovation, it’s a distraction. As marketers, we can do so much better than tech for tech’s sake.
With digital, we have reached a level of maturity. We now know how to use it effectively to create genuine impact. We can do the same with AI.
Remember: AI is a tool, not a solution. Don’t let the hype distract you from your goals.
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