#SMLive: How Generative AI redefines the role of humans in the A&M industry...

At SM Live 2023, industry experts share their take on the impact of generative AI in A&M industry, the role of creativity and the skillsets required to survive the change.

Generative AI has been shaking the advertising and marketing (A&M) industry as brands and agencies experiment with emerging AI tools and tech for their campaigns. 

Industry experts give insights into the shift in skillsets, what this means for creativity, and when brands should use AI to create effective campaigns.

Speakers

• Anupreet Singh Lamba Chief Revenue Officer at Gan.ai
• Preetham Venkky, Chief Digital Officer, DDB Mudra Group
• Sneha Beriwal, CMO at VAHDAM
• Vineet Shah, General Manager, Madison Digital

Larger role in Content Creation

AI, as an emerging technology, has scared people with its speeding developments. However, internet too was once considered a threat.

DDB Mudra Group’s Preetham Venkky draws parallels to the same saying, “Imagine the Internet, with it we converted every aspect of a human experience into that big thing. Generative AI is helping create context.”

With extensive data and information available within the walls of companies and agencies, Venkky believes that generative AI will help advertising agencies to turn the available context into content. 

VAHDAM’s Sneha Beriwal says that while AI is playing a good role in content creation, their team prefers to use it for content optimization and repurposing older content in innovative ways.

She continues, “When it comes to images, editing, packaging and formatting, AI is starting to make an impact. But can it really create fresh logos and designs? The answer to that is no, we keep trying our hands at it.”

Providing scalability

One of the challenges that the advertising world faces is the difficulty to reach and adapt to a wider audience. Anupreet Singh Lamba, Gan.ai mentions that AI is helping solve that challenge and improves scalability. 

Citing Zomato’s ‘Mann Kiya, Zomato Kiya’ ad where a deep fake of actor, Hrithik Roshan takes a hyper-localised approach and shares names of the local restaurants he ordered from, Lamba says, “Generative AI is not killing the idea of the video, it is scaling the communication so brands, agencies, and consumers love it.”

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This personalization of advertising campaigns has helped provide value to local vendors while keeping creativity in the hands of the brands and agencies. Lamba shares that brands and agencies should only integrate AI into their campaign if it will impact or add value to consumers' lives.

Skillsets to Keep Up with

The rapid rise of AI has brought in the excitement of testing it out amongst agencies which initially created a perception of loss in jobs. However, once they start figuring out the use cases of AI, jobs will be revamped. 

Vineet Shah of Madison Digital believes that traditional marketers who are not digitally evolved are dinosaurs at this age. 

Talking about a required skillset to survive the AI age, Shah says, “While tech is here to help scale it, it’s only 20-30% of the campaign; how you use it is where the marketer comes in. This is why, you need people to get constantly updated.”

DDB’s Preetham Venkky also believes understanding where and how to use AI is important. 

“The ability to question is the single most important skill as an individual, continue to expand your area of knowledge to ask theh right questions and make your prompts better.”

- Preetham Venkky

But updating skillsets isn’t just limited to the bottom of the pyramid. Sneha Beriwal, VADHAM, talking about her experience as a CMO, mentions that their role has changed more in the last three years than the last 10 years, due to the pandemic, evolution in tech, and the new workforce.

She highlights how CMOs need to reinvent themselves while remaining humble, staying updated and having the willingness to answer questions thrown at them. 

She further goes on to say that advertisers need to be thorough with the use of technology and concludes by saying, “Before you make big commitments and implement something, weigh the pros and cons, an AI tool may make your life easier, but make someone else's life difficult.”

This session ‘Impact of Generative AI on Advertising & Marketing’ was moderated by Abhinay Bhasin, Head of Product Marketing, ProfitWheel at the 7th edition of #SMLive, Social Samosa’s marquee virtual conference, organised on World Social Media Day.