Why Humanity Still Matters in the Age of AI Marketing
I was invited to be part of a panel on the first episode of CNBC Africa’s Marketing Media Money show and we had a fascinating conversation about the role of AI in marketing. Yes, AI again… But the conversation went in an interesting direction when I was asked about what role AI plays in building campaigns.
It’s obvious that AI plays an important role in modern marketing, and it is really good at what it’s good at. It’s great at doing things like 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 that’s the point at which the human element becomes important, because AI is good at collating and presenting data, but not determining how it applies to the lived human experience. It’s the essential humanity that makes good marketing successful – and that is the point where the people 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 – most human.
Marketing speaks to the human behind the data point – and that’s where we need a diverse set of humans in a room together to refine the idea to the point 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 like South Africa. AI currently delivers a very ‘first world’ 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 – rather than ‘stealing’ marketers’ jobs – it becomes ever-more important that we need to increase the role that humanity plays in delivering messages and experiences that are singularly human. AI is our sidekick – and that may not always be the case, but that’s where we are right now – and it’s why I caution against laziness in simply handing over what AI has churned out, to a client.
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, more accurately than ever before and I think that also means that 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 – we’re competing 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, with the investment of no more than a bit of time and the right prompts, but the veneer will slough off quickly if there’s none of the humanity behind it that builds a connection beyond the initial impression.
For those who want to forge a genuine connection, purpose, experience and humanity still lead – and AI isn’t there yet.
