Stepping into the Unknown
Aurora has identified AI, along with climate change, as one of thetwo most important forces humankind will have to face in theforeseeable future, and since 2023 the magazine has steadilyincreased its coverage of the topic. In fact, AI, its potential andimpact is now part of Aurora’s regular coverage.
AI has opened gateways to better efficiencies and innovation across theentire spectrum of human existence – health, education, manufacturing,agriculture – even climate change – and of course advertising andmarketing. In every aspect of our lives, AI will find an application that willimprove a status quo, whatever it may be.
As AI continues its ascendancy and becomes a ubiquitous part of oureveryday lives; the challenge for the marketing and advertisingindustry is to deploy it across its internal systems and its external deliverymechanisms. For brands in particular, the impact of AI will be massive,as organisations learn to embed AI across the entirety of their customerexperience journey, from their product innovation capabilities, distributionand retail networks to consumer communication. Whether in Pakistan orglobally, we are still in the nascent days of experimentation andunderstanding 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, althoughmany believe that AI falls short (for now) in its capacity to spark theessential human connections that create effective marketing. There isalso the question that functioning on a data-based predictive model, AIdoes not have the capacity for original thought – again, at least so far. Formany marketing and advertising practitioners, the challenges that comewith AI are of the same order as those posed by digitisation in its earlyyears. They are not altogether wrong – and one could argue that just asdigitisation was the product of technological advancement, so is AI.
However, the differences are cause for serious concern. AI has inherentdangers that digitisation does not. What we are experiencing in terms ofAI capability are just rudimentary manifestations. New, more powerfulversions of ChatGPT-4 and Anthropic Claude will soon be unveiled andthe race to keep improving their range and capability has no limits. Listento what Sam Altman or Dario Amodei are saying and it is clear that AI willchange the future, and the notion that AI will always need the genius ofhuman intervention is not that solid. The benefits of AI as it develops areimmense, but so are its dangers. Ultimately, it will become a question oftrade-offs. It is a conversation the marketing and advertising professionneed to be part of.
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