Open AI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Bard, Elon Musk’s Twitter threads; all these content generating platforms turned newsmakers are the new wild frontiers of the digital landscape. With billions being poured into developing AI capabilities, all avenues are seemingly open.

From local to national governments, multinational corporate titans to small but feisty start-ups, college applicants to stock traders, one and all are diverting their attention and resources towards Artificial Intelligence, and how it can help them perform more efficiently and effectively. And the advertising media industry, always at the forefront of technological revolutions, is far from behind.

In the opinion of Heeru Dingra, Chief Business Officer, Dentsu Creative India, with the ongoing advancements in AI technology, its integration into the advertising and marketing sectors will only continue to grow, bringing significant benefits to both businesses and consumers.

Some of the key areas, she believes, will be affected include Personalised Advertising, Predictive Advertising, Content Marketing, Conversational Marketing, and Enhanced Creativity.

With AI, advertisers can create unique experiences for each customer based on their behaviour, preferences, and demographic information, with prime examples being the Cadbury Shahrukh Ad or Heinz AI Ketchup.

On Target

According to Dingra, this will grow manifold as AI-powered personalization significantly impacts the effectiveness and efficiency of campaigns, at scale, driving higher levels of engagement, higher conversion rates, increased brand loyalty, and more positive customer experience.

“Historically, AI was used for lower funnel performance optimization tasks. Now, marketers and agencies would try to embed the technology throughout more phases of the funnel process with improved targeting, personalization and the ability to optimize advertising campaigns in real-time,” says Dingra, adding that this will allow companies to quickly and efficiently adjust their advertising strategies to reach the right people with the right message, at the right time.

Pranav Agarwal, Co-founder of Sociowash, points out that today's users rely significantly on the internet to make their purchasing decisions, giving advertisers enormous power to sway consumers' choices, even as AI will help reduce the amount of time and resources marketers spend while enhancing the effectiveness of their customer-oriented campaigns.

“It will inevitably exist in all digital spheres because of its potential for streamlining answers and giving users valuable content and services. In addition to this, chatbots will produce genuine real-time responses that address the user's concerns,” he says.

Manish Solanki, COO and Co-founder, TheSmallBigIdea, points out that AI allows collection and collation of significant consumer data, which can help marketers to discern patterns and allow you to go hyperlocal with relevant personalized messages.

“All the old-school ways of delivering, calculating, and analyzing a successful campaign will be needed to let go and those who adapt will see a lot more growth than those who are rigid and take time to deploy the technology on a day-to-day basis,” says Angad Singh Manchanda, CEO and Co-founder, Chimp&z Inc, adding, “Using ChatGPT or similar modules for advertising campaigns will be a norm and you’ll start seeing them very soon.”

Creativity on Tap

In fact, Rohan Mehta, CEO, Kinnect, says some of the best use cases of AI across media tech stacks are in the field of copywriting, conceptualizing, video editing and also thought starters in certain areas. “This will definitely impact humans, especially when it comes to thinking fast. It can be a potent tool to speed up productivity. The most successful brands will be those that embrace AI, but it won't replace human creativity; rather, it will help in productivity,” he says.

Dhingra also believes that AI has great potential to augment creativity by providing new techniques to explore and express ideas, while also allowing for more effective testing and optimization of creative concepts.

“However, there is a potential risk of repetition and a decline in creativity due to oversimplification of technical capabilities and a lack of original artistic input. Thus, there will be a need for human expertise in areas such as strategy, messaging, and storytelling,” she cautions, saying the integration of AI and human expertise will spur the industry to expand the boundaries of creativity and drive continuous innovation.

That being said, Agarwal believes it will not replace the human element, nor take away jobs, but instead help creative heads increase their own efficiency and give them leverage of time to follow more creative pursuits.

Solanki agrees, saying “AI enhances our creative strategies by supplementing our ideas with data-driven insights, allowing us to optimize our campaigns for maximum impact. However, apart from effective data analysis, the creative process also involves a blend of human intuition and imagination.”

“AI is being portrayed as this all powerful solution to all our creative problems, but it is not capable of genuine creative thoughts, which is where the brilliance of creative wizards comes into play, thinking of insights and nuances from real human experiences,” says Agarwal, concluding, “AI is definitely going to play a massive role in the future, as ML is already doing today, in the backdrop, intensively, making lives of us marketers easier, and we are looking forward to the future this holds.”