Artificial Intelligence has taken over every industry, be it linear, non linear, physical, non-physical, intellectual or creative. AI is being adopted rapidly and effectively. There has been so much hype around AI in just the past few months that it has become the talk of every town. Thus, it should be of no surprise that the who’s who of the advertising and marketing industry had nothing but AI to talk about at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Prasoon Joshi, chairman APAC and CEO & CCO McCann Worldgroup India caught up with Storyboard18’s Delshad Irani to talk about, you guessed it, AI and the effects it has had and will have on the A&M industry.
People are effectively divided into two sections when it comes to AI. Let’s call the first section the hype cycle. These people are excited about what AI brings to the table and cannot wait to incorporate AI into their lives because of the incredible achievements it has accomplished. Second is the fear cycle. AI brings solid potential to transform more or less every single industry that it ends up being used in. What this has done, is that it has managed to cause fear in some people who don’t fully understand the capabilities of AI. For one, what if AI ends up replacing jobs? Where will these people go? Secondly, while AI makes life easier, how does it actually do it? The lack of understanding too causes fear.
Joshi believes that it isn’t actually fear that people have. It is probably anxiety. Moreover, for him, there is neither hype nor anxiety but anticipation. He says, “AI isn’t about impacting one industry or the other, it is about impacting the fundamental way of working.” Very similar to what the internet did. The way a child would argue about memorising historical dates, when everything is easily accessible on the internet.
Furthermore, Joshi added that the tactile sense of belonging is essentially missing. In a season on AI in music conducted by Will.i.am, he said that you could write two lines of a poem and ask AI to create a song based on something like it. This is what Joshi pointed out. He said, “The feeling of completing a task, the sense of belonging, the satisfaction is what will be in jeopardy.” For example, as a journalist, when you write an article, you see a little bit of yourself reflected in it. The article is a creation of your own. There is a creative satisfaction to that.
Overall, AI is the inevitable future, But, from what we’ve heard from Prasoon Joshi and many stalwarts alike, AI, though self-sufficient, will need human intelligence to provide a base for creativity. AI will make processes more streamlined and easier but the human touch will be just as important as it is today if not more.