The Impact of AI and The Future of Marketing

Written by Romario Kosasih | Graphics by Yusak Prahadi

Artificial Intelligence won’t steal your job, yet, someone using it will. That was one of the conclusions of the latest Content Conversations event in Singapore, produced by The Content Marketing Association Asia and sponsored by Click2View. We heard from Yvonne Januschka, Vice President of Shutterstock APAC, and Joshua Wong, CEO of Hypotenuse AI, discussing generative AI’s impact on marketing, moderated by our CEO, Simon Kearney.

Will Generative AI Take Our Jobs?

As the capabilities of AI tools expand, ranging from generating blog articles to illustrations, many wonder, will an AI replace my job? Such a question is particularly pressing for those working in the creative field. “We are at a transitional moment, like when the record player first existed, people thought it would destroy live music, but it didn’t,” said Yvonne. Ultimately, AI is a tool to speed up the process and generate ideas, but you still need creative discourse with other people, not just machines.

“The saying ‘AI will not take your job, but someone using AI will’ is true,” Joshua said. He added that at the end of the day, how effective your AI-generated ideas are will largely depend on the prompt you input. People are still required to fact check as AI is prone to hallucinations, where it generates something that isn’t true.

“I would imagine being familiar with AI tools will soon be a requirement in the workforce, especially in the creative field, as these tools are rapidly evolving. ChatGPT didn’t exist two years ago, but today you have to adapt to it or be left behind, so being adaptable and curious in this space is crucial,” Joshua said. 

The Benefits of Generative AI

Have you ever run out of ideas and just stared at a blank page when you were supposed to come up with some copy? This is where generative AI can be beneficial. “It helps us get started instead of getting stuck. It gives the user ideas, and by doing so, they can generate content faster,” said Joshua. 

A similar sentiment was shared by Yvonne, who explained that these tools can help users (agencies or individuals) keep up with the volume required to stay competitive in their field. “There are always new channels and ways to engage with people, so these tools can help.”

Simon shared a transcribing scenario where AI can help journalists do their jobs quicker. “Such tools seemed improbable not long ago, but they’re here now.”

The Downsides of AI

As with any other transformative technology, generative AI’s benefits also come with several downsides. One of which is bias. “If you search the term ‘a wealthy man’, you’re more likely to find a white male as the subject,” explained Yvonne. She admitted that minimising such biases is a challenge which is why Shutterstock relies on approximately two million contributors from 100 countries to build a diverse data set.

Another approach is to use another AI model to check whether an existing platform’s output is biased. “At Hypotenuse, we built another AI model to check whether the AI we’re generating (with) is biased or has copyright infringement issues, which are still debated on the regulatory level, but I’m sure that we all can agree that we don’t want to take away one’s creative rights and he/she must be compensated fairly,” said Joshua.

Additionally, generative AI can be used to spread fake news and videos. An example would be the deepfake of Volodymyr Zelenskyy asking the Ukrainian military to surrender to Russia. Joshua explained that although tools are being developed to detect these, it’s still a cat-and-mouse game.

As time passes, generative AI will evolve and become more sophisticated, blurring the lines between what’s real and what’s AI-generated. Therefore, it’s a collective effort to ensure that the development of such a technology doesn’t get out of hand, where humans become obsolete and are replaced by machines or deep fake videos, resulting in massive repercussions to our way of life. After all, the good and bad of generative AI are here to stay and will impact us all. It just depends on how we use it.

Read more from Click2View:

1. How do you achieve perfect readability? It’s not as hard as you think…
2. AI Content Creation: The July 2023 Update
3. How Do You Write with ChatGPT?
4. AI Powered People

Sign up to our newsletter for a weekly update on the latest content marketing news. Don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel too!
Click2View is Southeast Asia’s premiere full-service independent B2B content marketing agency servicing clients like Microsoft, Google, Visa, Prudential, and the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.