Marketing & AI: Change is now

Guest article in New Business

14. February 2023
4 min reading time
Innovation

AI has dominated all social media channels and news portals at the latest since public access to Chat GPT. Especially those in marketing and agencies. Here is a first outlook for the future.

By: Mirco Wüstholz, Co-Founder & Managing Director, Von Helden und Gestalten

New AI-based tools are emerging every day, enabling new efficiencies and speed, especially in the marketing space. Fascinating images can be generated by fast text input, voice recordings can be created from text files, videos can be retouched, code can be written, etc. The web is flooded with solutions and there is a real gold rush atmosphere. Tapping into the open APIs allows easy entry into niche solutions and creation of specific use cases worldwide. Much is still in a kind of beta phase, but some is already so good as to completely replace standard solutions. The creative output of the tools should also not be underestimated. The immense treasure trove of data, coupled with intelligent human operation, can create something unprecedented.

"The question of which evolutionary level AI can climb in creative processes at all remains (still) open. However, the results are already simply good and can serve as a first basis."

Mirco Wüstholz
Co-Founder & Managing Director

AI offers unique opportunities for the industry

Chat GPT, in particular, changes processes at breakneck speed. It's amazing how research tasks, basic work, and even initial plans are spit out with surprising precision. The proposals are still not up to the quality we had hoped for, are sometimes faulty and occasionally contain incorrect information. The question of which evolutionary stage AI can climb in creative processes remains (still) open. However, the results are already simply good and can serve as an initial basis. What used to be laboriously researched now sits with the first prompting. This can accelerate internal processes and ideally relieve the already tense personnel search.

Opportunities for all professionals who break with AI-generated looks

As an agency owner, I'm already thinking about where we're headed: the industry has already been under massive price pressure in recent years, and AI solutions will further intensify this pressure. In the future, creative work will presumably be expected at the push of a button, and it will become more difficult to experience appreciation for creative services: logo, image creation, website, text and campaign process - everything at the push of a button. In my opinion, it is important to position oneself clearly here and to emphasize the quality of man-made creative work. After all, corporate websites will look better overall, and campaigns in 2023 will certainly be flooded with AI-based looks. But this alone will no longer differentiate them. And this is certainly the great opportunity for professional service providers who consciously break the AI-generated mainstream.

And yes: AI also poses a threat of danger

If you broaden the perspective a bit more, you have to worry about the issue of fake news and fake pictures. The control of fake news and the response option of bots are also frightening. If AIs become so good that no human can separate fake from reality, the current tense situation in the world will certainly become even more difficult. Who is right and who is wrong? Which "live image" is reality, which is artificial? The topic of copyright will also be exciting: Even if there should be stricter laws and rules, the speed and flood of images will, in my view, no longer be legally traceable. This poses a huge challenge for the judiciary and will probably require a globally uniform regulation.

Conclusion: If you want to continue to be successful in the next few years, you have to change

The changes in our industry and the way we work are not a vision of the future. They are here, they are happening now, and they are happening rapidly. If you want to continue to be successful in the next few years, you have to change, use the possibilities wisely, rethink processes and reduce the workload of employees. And create scenarios in which people consciously use AI for their own benefit - including all the weak points. We must be among those who master the tool and not among those who are mastered by tools.