'Copywriters will not lose jobs, AI will help them improve their work'

With the introduction of Gen AI and software like ChatGPT, Google Bard and others, there is an ongoing conversation about how AI is going to impact the creativity and efficiency of creators. At the unveiling event of e4mdentsu Digital Advertising Report 2024, experts came together to discuss the impact of AI on creativity. The discussion was on ‘Creativity in the Age of Gen-AI: Intelligence that Enables Imagination'

The panellists were Pierre de Greef, Chief Digital Marketing Officer - Pernod Ricard; Catherine Flynn, Director, Agency Development & Marketer Education, APAC- LinkedIn; Apoorva Maheshwari, Head of Marketing- Bestseller; Ram Suresh Akella, Executive Director Marketing- Maruti Suzuki India Limited; Rahul Dutta, Director – Marketing- Microsoft India. The session was Chaired by Amit Wadhwa, CEO- dentsu Creative India

Amit started the discussion mentioning that if someone had asked him about this topic two years back, he would not have believed, but now Gen AI is a reality and it is impacting creativity. He then asked the panel about the good and the bad thing about Gen AI?

Akella responded to the question by saying that although he is not an expert in this subject, often the developers of these technologies are surprised by what the technology can do. He said, “Going forward, there will be a lot of developments in all the sectors. When it comes to good or bad, there are efficiencies that the tool can build for businesses. We have also seen deep fakes and all the images that are not good. Regulating it should be critical in the future.”

Flynn shared that she is optimist about the future. She said, “Part of that optimism is driven by data which points to be AI being a massive boost to the economy and industries. It’s a disruption when it comes to creativity as the value chain is getting disrupted. Conversations around AI are on our dinner table. That’s just making me feel optimistic that people are upscaling and not letting fear hold them back. On the bad side, something we see coming through in the research we have been doing--AI has the potential to widen the gender gap that already exists in the world.”

With AI coming in we should be giving equal opportunities, she added.

Greef was asked how AI is impacting creativity. He said, “One is the learning process. We are at the beginning of the learning curve. The capability of personalization is amazing. AI is not passive, it’s active and it is a pull. We should also analyze the impact on the time to build a campaign, the cost of the urgency, and creativity… the impact is massive. The impact is not only on the consumer but also on the execution of the campaign.”

Maheshwari spoke about the adoption of AI in creativity. She said that although the conversation of AI has started in the last few years, the adoption has been faster. She said, “Marketers are one of the most creative people in any boardroom and AI has helped in various ways, whether it is to get insights to get a brief right or generation of options for campaigns for the agencies.”

The conversation then went on to AI being an initiator. Flynn spoke about how copywriters can use it in their ideation process and make something better. She said, “Copywriters will not lose their jobs but AI will help them to improve their work.”

Dutta spoke about AI use cases on how media companies are leveraging and optimizing their capabilities for a media campaign. “I have seen how they are using AI to ensure that they have the right kind of content strategy which is powered by dynamic content backed up with the media to ensure that they get different versions of the creative for different people at different times. so that they can get the right optimization of the money.”

The panel agreed that is an exciting space and there is a lot of space for experimentation. The conversation moved to ethics. Datta spoke about how ethics is an important part of the workplace he is at. He said, “If there is an incident that happened where there is a controversy or there a debate. We will be there with our customers to help them have that problem solved. Trust is a basic currency on which commerce works and all the big tech companies are working on that."

The panel concluded with predictions of 2025, Flynn said that the world is moving with an agenda where there will be less talking and more doing. Maheshwari said that 2025 will have us using AI very responsibly. Greef said that AI will bring value instead of destroying value. Dutta said that he would love to see AI being used as a co-pilot and solve problems.