Aurora has identified AI, along with climate change, as one of the two most important forces humankind will have to face in the foreseeable future, and since 2023 the magazine has steadily increased its coverage of the topic. In fact, AI, its potential and impact is now part of Aurora’s regular coverage.

AI has opened gateways to better efficiencies and innovation across the entire spectrum of human existence – health, education, manufacturing, agriculture – even climate change – and of course advertising and marketing. In every aspect of our lives, AI will find an application that will improve a status quo, whatever it may be.

As AI continues its ascendancy and becomes a ubiquitous part of our everyday lives; the challenge for the marketing and advertising industry is to deploy it across its internal systems and its external delivery mechanisms. For brands in particular, the impact of AI will be massive, as organisations learn to embed AI across the entirety of their customer experience journey, from their product innovation capabilities, distribution and retail networks to consumer communication. Whether in Pakistan or globally, we are still in the nascent days of experimentation and understanding how it works.

A recent poll in Aurora of Pakistan’s top agency and corporate heads, indicated that the industry is set to be an enthusiastic adopter, although many believe that AI falls short (for now) in its capacity to spark the essential human connections that create effective marketing. There is also the question that functioning on a data-based predictive model, AI does not have the capacity for original thought – again, at least so far. For many marketing and advertising practitioners, the challenges that come with AI are of the same order as those posed by digitisation in its early years. They are not altogether wrong – and one could argue that just as digitisation was the product of technological advancement, so is AI.

However, the differences are cause for serious concern. AI has inherent dangers that digitisation does not. What we are experiencing in terms of AI capability are just rudimentary manifestations. New, more powerful versions of ChatGPT-4 and Anthropic Claude will soon be unveiled and the race to keep improving their range and capability has no limits. Listen to what Sam Altman or Dario Amodei are saying and it is clear that AI will change the future, and the notion that AI will always need the genius of human intervention is not that solid. The benefits of AI as it develops are immense, but so are its dangers. Ultimately, it will become a question of trade-offs. It is a conversation the marketing and advertising profession need to be part of.

From Aurora’s archives

INTERVIEWS
Javed Jafri, Media, Data and Digital Lead, Unilever Pakistan

PROFILES
Fronting Pakistan’s Tech Transformation: Badar Khushnood, co-Founder, Bramerz and Fishry.com.

ARTICLES
The Human Radiance of Good Design – Mariam Hussain.

Urdu, Identity and AI – Zeerak Ahmed.

Welcome to the Age of CreAItivity – Ali Rez.