AI: The Death of Marketing As We Know It?
Why are any of us here?
Existentialism was probably not what you were expecting in a blog post on a Monday morning, eh? After all, this IS meant to be a post about AI and marketing. But if you stop and think about that question for one moment, you may see where this is headed.
If you answered “to make money”, this post isn’t for you. For the rest, anyone with a passing knowledge of the concept of self-actualization will understand that achieving one’s full potential should be what we are all striving for. Heck, even my own religion, Judaism, has a phrase - which is also the cornerstone of why I started my new business - called “Tikkun Olam,” which translates to “repair the world”. The idea is that the world is broken and it’s up to all of us in our time here to fix it.
So that’s great Dave…what about AI and marketing? Okay, okay. Here we go. Ahem:
“AI will ultimately lead to the end of marketing as we know it.”
There, I said it. What’s worse, by adopting it ourselves, we will have no one to blame. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Really, Dave? Isn’t that a bit harsh?
Let me explain. First, AI probably has a legitimate place in marketing. Use of AI in marketing automation makes the mundane tasks much simpler, more efficient and reduces human error (I could argue it tips the scales even farther in the direction of an overreliance on data, but for purposes of this post let’s say it has a place). Marketing automation is the “white hat” of AI. Conversely, the “black hat” that will lead to my above foreboding comment is using AI as a creative tool. Believe me, I understand the attraction of typing a few words into an AI tool and seeing a letter or an article pop-out, or seeing the tool create a piece of artwork, but stop for a moment and think about what that means. Creativity is the pinnacle of human achievement, and by using AI we are ceding the most incredible thing about what makes us “us” to a machine. Why? Is there anything left we won’t do in the name of productivity?
AI is not just a tool, like a paint brush. It is both the artist AND the paint brush, the writer AND the pen – and if you’re reading this and arguing “no it’s not” because you typed some keywords in first, we can probably at least agree the automation of the creative process within AI is not that far off. By handing over the creative process to AI, we are once again diminishing quality at the expense of quantity and efficiency, something we’ve seen in marketing over the last few decades as resources are spread even thinner with 1:1 marketing. The greatest irony? AI isn’t really even “creativity”, as it relies on plagiarizing and merging the talents of the truly creative into a more watered down result that still lacks a human touch.
"Creativity is seeing what others see and thinking what no one else ever thought." - Albert Einstein
So WHY are we using AI? Well, it’s a shiny object, to be sure. But mostly because it’s a shortcut, and true creativity is HARD WORK. The pressure to perform is so cutthroat in this industry that everyone is always seeking an edge. Sure, maybe the output is of a lesser quality, but it’s just So. Damn. Efficient. maybe the client will buy it anyway and it will allow us to get more projects done and make a little more money. Until clients start using it themselves, of course. See where this is going? Once the acceptable level of quality drops further, the entire marketing process could simply be a series of automated optimization steps utilizing an AI tool, displacing virtually our entire industry. Worse than THAT, we’re also limiting our own self-actualization in the process. If creativity is the peak of human achievement, and we hand that over to AI, what is our purpose?
So what are we to do? Well, as with anything, AI is driven by capitalism. I have made a conscious decision to not use AI for any creative purpose. I realize that makes me “analog” in a digital world, but maybe more people will agree and choose the same path. We need to begin to consciously choose to protect things that are meaningful to us, and creativity is one of those things for me.
Happy Monday.