AI Is Game-Changing, but It Doesn’t Change Every Game

If I were to ask you about the top three industry topics and trends right now, what would spring to mind first? I’d bet that most answers would touch on tech capabilities like automation, personalisation, and AI. 

These topics have been top of the agenda for a number of years now, holding the promise of faster, more efficient processes and creative collaboration, generative AI and basic translation capabilities. The outputs of AI so far have been impressive, sure. But have they been as game changing as we imagined them to be? Will they turn the advertising industry completely on its head?

Well, I guess that depends on what you’re looking for. 

In terms of automation, process, and creative collaboration the opportunity presented by AI is undoubtably set to change workflows as we know them, saving time and allowing creatives to do more of what we want them to do: be free to create.  

However, and maybe it’s my English Literature degree talking, but I see one clear major issue in the ‘everyday’ use of AI in a working environment, and I don’t think it’s spoken about enough, if at all. 

The key thing AI can’t do is to determine how each individual interprets information. 

Take a book club, for example. The main joy of discussion is the debate; the different interpretations of the very same text. The diversity of thought. The person that shares a point that is so left field yet somehow makes total sense. A conclusion that you yourself would never have drawn but can acknowledge its validity in context of the text. People’s interpretation is and will always be vastly different, based off a million factors be it their mood, their background, their past and present experiences; the list goes on. 

So, you may be able to get AI to write in a million different styles and give you summaries of the article or white paper you didn’t have time to read, there’s no doubt it is capable, but what is the result of this? If we cut out the process of reading and digesting information - pitch briefs, white papers, articles, etc. – then what happens to our diversity of thought and interpretation? When the ‘key takeaways’ are the same for everyone, the interpretive aspect of reading, the side that can result in vastly different perspectives, are taken away?

Essentially, it’s about striking that balance. AI is here to stay, and rightly so! But instead of running in full steam ahead, sometimes it may be best to pause. Just because we can use AI for more and more of our day-to-day tasks doesn’t mean we always should. After all, it’s the people and business who interact most thoughtfully and strategically with AI who will come out on top.

We want to achieve disruption, not monotony. AI can give us results, faster and quicker than ever before. It will change what we have come to know about processes in the advertising world: automation, personalisation, translation. We’ll likely get to a point where it can talk and write just like us, but I for one (watch me eat my words in a few years' time!) can’t see a way in which AI can offer us the art of interpretation, the different ways each human navigates and interprets words.

A basic summary? Yes. The summary you, specifically, would have written and the conclusions you would have come to yourself? I'm not so sure. 

So, the next time you come to drop a file into ChatGPT for a summary because time is scarce, take a moment to think – what will set you apart from others?

What will allow you to think differently and generate more creative and robust outputs? After all, we should give ourselves some credit; there may just be some things humans still do best.