Slaves to the Machine

As many of you are aware, I’m certainly not one to be described as an ‘academic’. Having always had a knack for the right way to go, ‘gut feel’ has been a really important part of my own journey in both business and life in general.

In the marketing industry, there has been an increasing amount of discussion about Artificial Intelligence (or AI as it’s known). Just like it’s sounds, it’s pretty much a computer that uses data to make decisions. The more data it has, the better decisions it can make.

While science has been dealing with AI for a long time now, its reach to automation within the marketing industry is fairly new (past 3-5 year) and has been most prevalent in the media segment of the industry.

Again, I’m going to stress that I am not an academic but the power of Artificial Intelligence is a somewhat scary notion. I’ve always attributed human emotion as the key and most significant difference between a human and a machine. But, with enough data, could a machine have this same ability? Is ‘gut feel’ anything more than an inherent intelligence that draws from our subconscious?

I don’t want to get too deep in a blog, but AI is a serious notion and one that is exponential in its growth. Many scientists predict that it will exceed our general level of human intelligence as soon as 2040 – that’s really soon!

This provides incredible opportunities to do many great things – cure disease or solve complex world hunger and poverty issues – but how will it affect the way you interact with your clients and customers?

Marketing has always sought to exploit the latest and greatest to gain the edge. I have no doubt that AI will be no different. It’s as exciting as it is scary to be honest but I have to admit that I still ask the question, “will it replace my gut feel?”

At this stage, I firmly believe ‘no’. But I have to say that in the next 25yrs, I may have to review my answer.

I am sure much debate will rise from this technology. With so much power and potential, there will be many that fear it and even more who wish to control it.

It’s worth taking the time to find out more about AI. It really is the future technology that isn’t that far into the future.

But until there’s a machine that has as much gut feel as me…I’ll keep on working on the balance of data and feel, to continue creating the emotionally intelligent marketing for our clients.