AI Marketing. The demise of creativity?

These days, we cannot take a step without stumbling upon articles, posts and videos on AI. 

Honestly, as I was contemplating writing this article, I felt: do I also want to be a part of the conversation where we talk about how AI took over things we thought it couldn't take over? (Yes, I am looking at you, AI fruit reels).

In the field of marketing, adjectives such as 'creativity' and 'innovative' constantly float, but what people feel really excited about is 'originality' or, more importantly, human originality, where prompts are not a part. When I see advertisements that are seriously not a result of human imagination, it feels like the virus has spread. Not to discount its worth, but AI in the field of creativity is not always exclusive. It is like a paradox. Creativity is a byproduct of thoughts and imagination, but when a prompt takes over, ideas take a back seat. 

I could say without a doubt that a campaign idea born in a room where soul, psyche and cerebrum played a role is much more artistic. Sure, one can definitely detect a sense of resentment here and I have no qualms admitting otherwise. One can call me a 'Luddite' but when you think of it, were they wrong in protesting against the machinery that took over their livelihoods? I think not. One might even never know; as I am typing this, I might definitely be more progressive towards the thought of AI taking over marketing completely, just like how IBM had stated in its Training Manual in 1997 that, "A computer can never be held accountable, therefore a computer must never make a management decision." That sure did age like milk, didn't it?

An excerpt from the IBM Training Manual, 1997

As per Google Trends, every 4 times someone researched 'Organic Marketing',  66 people delved into 'AI Marketing.' What could possibly be the reason? Is it that despite their best effort, they could not fathom a single original thought, or they sought this software for "inspiration"? Their answer could be anything or even something more profound. Not to be a judgmental judge, but these are the antics we put up with; then what of the future?

Think about it: what would have been the state of Pepsi if they sought out AI to help create a Super Bowl campaign? Definitely not as iconic as the Cindy Crawford one. It takes a lot of pop-culture knowledge to understand why the scandal-ridden company Astronomer had to hire Gwyneth Paltrow as their temporary spokesperson post their executives were caught in a Coldplay concert. It takes neurons to come up with something intriguing like these campaigns, not nodes.

Cindy Crawford in the iconic Pepsi commercial

Now, AI being a part of our lives is inevitable no matter how much we restrict it. Even if we remove traces of it in our personal lives, we are still looped around it in the outside world. Apps like Google and YouTube deemed it as one of its primary features. This integration surely made it seem that no matter how much we resist, it will find us one way or the other.

A boon of this approach of marketing is cost-cuts. Big conglomerates such as Amazon, Domino's Pizza have been leveraging this tool to create videos which are clearly not humanmade. It is a clear indication that job layoffs are still in the cards. Although, it puts itself under a microscope that companies that breath unimaginable dollars per day couldn't set aside a simple marketing budget to employ humans to create ads that could do much better (I say this with conviction). This is definitely a glimpse of what marketing could be in the future. A remarkable campaign that could result in humans rotating the screws of their brain, or a simple fingers work where they only have to click 'generate.'

Although, what does it say for the future of marketing? One of the core fundamentals of marketing is creativity and it is parallel to originality. Afterall, duplicity can't necessarily be creative. Can it?