Industry conferences and networking events are a lot like buses. You spend ages waiting for the right one, and suddenly two shows up. On the same day, at the same time, our behavioural science, creative, and digital marketing experts attended two AI-focused events:
- Some of us hopped on the train to the Big Smoke for AI in Agencies by Agencywise
- The rest kept it local, heading over to University of Birmingham’s Edgbaston campus for their annual meeting on the future of AI.
The digital landscape is changing quicker than TikTok trends do, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) is no different. It’s revolutionising the way we interact with technology, and how we work. Before the robot uprising takes place, it’s important we take time to understand its implications, and how we can use it to our advantage. AI in Agencies shed light on the challenges faced in content creation to the immense potential it holds.
Unlocking the power of AI in content creation
AI influencer Heather Murray handed it over to an AI-created humanlike to introduce her session. Whilst its social cues aren’t winning anyone over in bars just yet, it showed just how far the technology has come — and just how creative we can get with it.
Murray highlighted the importance of following the right people, consuming the right content, and harnessing the right tools for anyone wading in AI waters. Using transcription tools like Sybill can greatly enhance your productivity and elevate your understanding, offering body language and conversation analysis. Trust us, we’ve tried it — it’ll even tell you when someone’s not paying attention or acting totally distracted by the dog outside.
However, she also raises concerns about the quality of AI-generated content. Whilst it’s essential to understand that AI is a powerful tool, it’s not immune to limitations when it comes to content creation, listing the following as key challenges:
- Perplexity
- Burstiness
- Bad Data
- Plagiarism
- Bias
It’s worth considering that AI is trained on human data, so it’s trained on human biases. Rubbish in, rubbish out.
Creative resilience, irregular answers, and the human element
Storians co-founder reminded us that AI cannot replace the unique creativity humans possess. In a talk that argued for IA (irregular answers) over AI, Garry suggested that the latter simply isn’t capable of recreating the creative advertising solutions human thinking brings to the table. Combining creativity with IA is key to solving complex everyday problems, which AI can’t fully replicate — yet!
Underscoring the importance of striking balances between AI, IA, and human creativity, Garry warned that whilst AI can assist in automating tasks, it shouldn’t stifle our curiosity, wonder, and independent thinking. We should continue to nurture and value our creative instincts. In other words, don’t let the robots do the fun stuff for us — we’re not ready for a monochrome world just yet right?
AI’s impact on business and society
Throughout the day, it became clear that AI’s influence extends beyond content creation. Northell’s Ryan Short emphasised the need for clear business cases when implementing AI projects. Without well-defined focuses on business goals, AI projects fail to deliver the desired results.
Interestingly, this session revealed that the perception of AI varies across the world. In comparison to the Western world, Eastern areas like Asia and the Middle East have a more positive attitude towards AI, driven by trust in their countries and companies adapting and retraining them.
Ultimately, Ryan suggested encouraging shifts in attitudes towards AI within organisations will pave the way for successful implementations.
Collaboration, ethics, and the future of AI
Unlike our numbers on the lottery, collaboration kept coming up throughout the day. There was an emphasis on both teamwork within organisations and involving customers being essential for success with AI.
The concept of creating a culture of curiosity, trust and ownership to foster innovation and stay ahead of your competitors factored throughout, however it did raise concerns for ethical considerations. Addressing biases and ensuring ethical AI practices are obviously essential for responsible adoption of AI within your working practices, as it should serve only as a tool for positive change and growth.
AI’s role in our businesses and in our society continues to evolve. Whilst it’s an invaluable tool for taking away all those time-consuming tasks, we must remember that human creativity and critical thinking are irreplaceable. We can’t lose our jobs to machines, we think too freely for that, just like Sims.