Marketers must learn to wield AI like an extension of their own cunning

Rather surprisingly, I recently found myself listening to Bon Jovi’s greatest hits from 1986. What a joyful celebration of cowboy Americana, so different from the studied insouciance of the playground bully who is today upending the world order that has achieved so much good. Not so much the strangled cry of a hollowed-out Rust Belt, more the angry bellow of America-first nationalism. We’re definitely living on a prayer, that is fast turning into an economic nightmare.

However, a marketing column today wouldn’t be a marketing column at all without putting aside global economic turmoil (perhaps the single biggest factor in business success) and instead focusing on issues much closer to home: artificial intelligence.

AI – the deus ex machina of modern marketing, swooping in with promises of limitless efficiency, omnipotent personalisation, and the eerie ability to write product descriptions that sound suspiciously like they were ghostwritten by a caffeinated intern.

The CMO, once the keeper of brand storytelling, the architect of digital engagement, the grand visionary of consumer sentiment, now finds themself caught between two opposing forces: the seductive allure of AI-driven automation and the primal fear that, soon enough, their job will be outsourced to an algorithm with a better grasp of sentiment analysis than they ever managed after three decades in the business.

For years, marketing has been the last refuge of human eccentricity in business. The one department where a strategically placed swear word could win awards and where insight was drawn from gut feelings rather than spreadsheets.

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But now, the robots have arrived. They don’t need gut feelings. They have data. They don’t need creative epiphanies. They have predictive modelling. They don’t need three-hour brainstorming sessions over mediocre pastries and tepid coffee. They have machine learning—millions of calculations executed in the time it takes the average marketing executive to clear their inbox.

Take AI-driven content creation. Once, ad copy was a craft. A witty turn of phrase, a clever juxtaposition, a slogan that wormed its way into the cultural lexicon. AI, however, cares little for wit. It optimises. It predicts. It churns out social media captions with the cold efficiency of a Victorian mill owner watching his workforce toil. ‘Unlock your potential’, ‘Experience greatness’, ‘Discover the future’ – all phrases so generically inspiring they might as well be printed on motivational posters in HR offices. Never would AI have the wit, cultural nuance, or facile humour to write ‘Vidi, Vici, Veni’ as the headline for a Viagra poster.

The better marketers among us must become maestros, conducting this great symphony of automation without losing sight of the intangible, irrational, downright peculiar elements that make brands memorable.

Then there’s customer personalisation. AI promises to make advertising more relevant than ever before, tracking user behaviour with such unnerving precision that you can’t help but suspect your smartphone knows more about your deepest desires than your therapist. The algorithms are no longer content with crude demographic targeting. Nope, they want emotions, micro-moments, subconscious inclinations. The unsuspecting modern marketer is being reduced to an interpreter of machine-driven consumer psychoanalysis. More commonly known as drivel. The great ad men of yore once dictated what consumers wanted; now, AI is able to inform the marketer that they – by which we mean a statistically significant percentage of users – actually want biodegradable toothbrushes and oat milk subscriptions. How depressing.

And let us not forget AI’s role in influencer marketing – no longer the realm of humans with suspiciously symmetrical faces promoting protein powders. No, AI-generated influencers now exist, blissfully free of scandal, human error, or unfortunate tweets from 2013. They pose, they smile, they engage – without ever needing toilet breaks or contract negotiations. Real influencers might still be clinging onto relevance, but one senses the digital tide is turning against them.

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What does this all mean for marketing practice?

Well, for one thing, it means the better marketers among us must become maestros, conducting this great symphony of automation without losing sight of the intangible, irrational, downright peculiar elements that make brands memorable. AI can optimise, but it cannot evoke nostalgia, rebellion, or absurdist humour. It can generate content, but it cannot write a headline so sharp it leaves a permanent indentation on the collective consciousness. It can personalise, but it cannot create a cult following. Russian-sounding Meerkat, anyone?

For me, marketing and brand building have always been about persuasion, and persuasion is more art than arithmetic. Creating an emotional connection is more magic than maths. So, the modern marketer must learn to wield AI like an extension of their own cunning. Knowing when to embrace its infinite wisdom and when to slam the brakes before they find themselves entirely replaced by a chatbot with a cheeky attitude.

The machines are here. But marketing, thankfully, is still human. For now.