AI has become integrated into the media and creative industries. It can create and produce content within seconds of asking and is now rapidly changing the advertising world.
An August report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau noted that while 71 per cent of Australian respondents now use general-purpose platforms like ChatGPT, 91 per cent “have yet to fully scale it across the media campaign lifecycle”.
This suggests we are still in the early days of the AI revolution.
Marcus Willis, the founder of Eight Clients, uses AI within his business and has witnessed significant benefits from using AI in advertising.
“AI has revolutionised performance marketing, making processes faster, more efficient, and more cost-effective,” he says.
“In the not-so-distant future, if a human is touching your performance marketing, you’re losing money.”
In spite of this, Willis does believe human creativity still has an emotional impact.
“We believe the more nuanced, long-term brand-building pieces will remain a space where human input thrives, while performance marketing continues to be enhanced by AI’s capabilities.”
Eight Clients uses AI for multiple aspects within its business, from research, all the way to content creation.
Yet, many advertising businesses, such as Trilogy, still believe in humans and original creativity to be at the forefront of operations.
Lisa Thom, Strategic Brand Manager at Trilogy, believes that AI shouldn’t be the basis of advertising.
“It just doesn’t sit well with us […] we don’t play in the AI space; we keep everything originally created by our team.”
“We don’t let anything leave the agency unless it’s been touched by a human.”
Trilogy does not deny its use of AI, however, transparency with its clients is imperative.
“Clients know that we utilise AI as a tool and an assistant, but it is certainly not guiding or leading the show.
“We have to be cautious about what we are using it for and what information we are plugging in and giving it to learn from.”
Thom is cautious yet optimistic about the future.
“I think it’s great that as an industry we [are] looking ahead,” she says.
“As long as we [remember] that [there are] humans behind all the systems, and we’re reaching humans, I think that we can all lead together as an agency and as an industry to make sure that we’re doing the right things.”
