Machines learning human ideating: How LLM is changing the advertising landscape

With Artificial Intelligence becoming de rigueur for all manner of enterprises, businesses, projects, public works, and personal endeavors, Large Language Models or LLMs, and the chatbots that are built on them, have become essential tools in any company’s technology arsenal. LLMs are computer algorithms that process natural language inputs so as to predict the next word based on what they’ve already seen.

While Microsoft’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard may have dominated the ‘AI wars’ conversation, the fact is that organisations ranging from Meta to LinkedIn to SalesForce to The Trade Desk and beyond are launching their own generative AIs and chatbots, built on LLM technology, to do everything from writing resumes to formulating business plans to creating pitches.

As Amit Nandwani, NCD, Cheil India, points out, one of the most significant impacts of LLMs is their ability to, “generate human-like content, faster and more precise than ever before. And with the emergence of these Generative AI tools, the landscape for copywriters is bound to change.”

Siddharth Bhansali, Founder, Noesis.tech and CTO, Zoo Media, agrees that the use of LLMs in media and advertising has seen a significant uptick, saying, “With companies such as Linkedin, Meta, and Salesforce also launching generative AI tools for ad copy, the landscape is quickly shifting. However, I firmly believe that these AI tools should be seen as allies rather than replacements in the creative process.”

LLMs are particularly adept at scaling and standardizing the creative process. They can be trained on effective ad copy and then generate similar content, maintaining continuity and consistency even when team members change. The automation provided by LLMs helps free up human talent to focus on more strategic and creative tasks.

Mitesh Kothari, Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer, White Rivers Media notes, “With the availability and access to vast amounts of data, the technology can efficiently analyse consumer behaviours and preferences. This helps us create tailored content for personalised and targeted messaging to improve the effectiveness of campaigns.”

Agreeing that  LLMs can have a significant impact on marketing and advertising by automating content generation, improving personalization, and providing data-driven insights, Arvind Jayaprakash, Senior Vice President – Technology, Glance, says, "At Glance, we utilise LLM to generate engaging content for our users. The current content creation at moderation process has significant LLM involvement. Major part of the images and text that the users see on Glance smart lock screen are either wholly generated or enhanced by LLMs. We also have internal tools based on the currently available LLMs which help the editors at Glance moderate the content efficiently."

Aakriti Bhargava, CEO and Co-founder, Wizikey, points out that AI models are trained on vast amounts of existing data, which can introduce biases or limitations. “Humans provide the expertise, creativity, and contextual understanding necessary to navigate these challenges. In the marketing & advertising domain, human involvement now focuses more on strategic decision-making, evaluating the generated options, and aligning them with brand values and marketing objectives and infusing it with their unique style, brand voice, and messaging nuances. They can also make sure the generated output complies with legal and regulatory guidelines, ensuring transparency and ethical advertising practices.”

So with seemingly endless possibilities, LLM may well succeed in changing the face of the advertising industry significantly in the times to come.  “However, human creativity is unmatchable and for maintaining the brand voice and authenticity, a symbiotic relationship between AI and humans should be the way forward,” says Kothari.

Nandwani adds, “We need to embrace the technology and use it to our advantage by automating day-to-day content creation tasks. This will allow us to spend more time on cracking big campaigns that require fresh, insightful thinking, and build an emotional connect with the audience. Something that LLMs can’t do… at least at this point in time.”

Experts agree that human involvement will not be diminished or impacted but will require it to evolve at a fast pace. Human touch remains critical for strategic decision-making, creative contribution, contextual awareness, connection development, and addressing ethical concerns. The effective use of LLM technology should aim to supplement rather than replace human capabilities, resulting in more efficient and informed campaigns.

Himanshu Arora, Co-Founder of Social Panga, observes that by utilizing these tools, brands will be able to merge technology and enhance the creativity quotient. “We will see an increase in communication efficacy, content development, and data analysis. LLM technology has the possibility of bringing in impactful campaigns, which will provide brands and marketers with a better ROI.”

However, there's a cautionary note to this - while these models can provide vast quantities of output, overreliance on them could lead to the commodification and over-generalization of ad copy. Over time, the copy could become so generic or noticeably AI-generated that it loses its impact on audiences. As of now however, the pros definitely seem to outweigh the cons.

“According to me, the impact is definitely positive. LLM technology has massively reduced time on the mundane, aiding in developing regular content in a faster manner,” says Rohit Varma, Founder, narrative, adding, “However, human involvement will remain vital for understanding briefs, checking the quality of the output and producing content that stands out from the crowd. After all, we need our dose of witticism.”