AI is already changing ad creation. While the tech can create email and social campaigns, there are a number of risks associated with misinformation and brand safety. With generative AI, we can expect to see strong brands grow even stronger—if they can navigate copycats, quality assurance, and apprehensive consumers. Here are six predictions from experts at the “BrXnd: Marketing X AI” conference in New York City.
1. Generative AI will have advertising limitations
AI excels at creating customer emails, landing pages, search and social ads, and ebooks, according to Rob May, founder and CEO of Nova AI. Soon, it will add video ads to its repertoire.
But the tech isn’t as good at providing error-free outputs and sticking to a brand identity, said May. Generative AI allows others to easily create believable copycat ads mimicking recognizable brands, creating a brand safety issue. AI has machine speed and efficiency, but humans can’t actually check quality at machine scale.
2. Mass personalization is on the way
Generative AI will be able to adjust ads according to context and consumer identity—with some caveats. Checking quality and editing personalized ads on a large scale is pretty much impossible right now, which means these ads would have to go out without human review. And collecting consumer information necessary to create these ads is still a challenge due to AppTrackingTransparency, cookie deprecation, and regulatory challenges.
3. Brands will collaborate more than ever
AI can smash two brands together in really interesting ways, creating things like Coca-Cola Crocs. That’s good news for brands, but it also means they need to hone a strong identity. “Brand matters more in this world where these AI tools are making all the execution stuff and all the operational stuff easier and easier,” said May.
4. The new brand style guide will be machine readable
ChatGPT can’t understand and follow style guides the way they’re currently written. In the future, expect to see style guides with instructions that are specifically written for generative AI prompts. Think of this as the next generation of prompt engineering.
5. Brands will create their own AI models, trained on their own data
Expect to see more brands developing their own models, like Bloomberg’s BloombergGPT. “I think there will be a Koch foundation model and a Disney foundation model,” predicted May.
6. Young will people approach AI with apprehension
Young people aren’t totally invested in an AI-driven future. “The Gen Alphas that I’ve spoken to, they have really strong feelings about it,” said Jaime Robinson, co-founder and chief creative officer of agency Joan Creative. “They’re seeing a future coming where they’re either afraid of being replaced or they’re afraid of living in a cold world.”
This impression could change for younger employees if they think of AI as “a way to break the blank page” rather than as a replacement for creativity.
This was originally featured in the eMarketer Daily newsletter. For more marketing insights, statistics, and trends, subscribe here.
