Taking the scary out of AI
As a Gen Xer I was lucky enough to grow-up in a time of economic growth, amazing dance music and before Google, social media and mobile phones with digital cameras were a thing. That means two things; (1) there isn’t much, if any, photographic evidence of me and my friends doing dumb stuff (phew!) and (2) my generation happily adapted to a world of tech and innovation and have seen Agencies take on many forms/structures and incorporate tech and data into their DNA. But as the pace of tech increases, data becomes ever more valuable, and AI enters our every-day workplace, Media Planners from all generations are asking themselves; what are the pros and cons of AI to Media Planning?
Firstly, we need to take the ‘scary’ out of “Artificial Intelligence” by saying AI isn’t coming for our jobs, it’s simply a development in computing that will help automate some simple repetitive tasks and augment more complex tasks that still require human skills, such as reviewing medical scans to aid doctors diagnosing of patients. For many, the term “AI” is as problematic as the thing itself. Intelligence, by its very nature, can’t be artificial so what we know as AI, is in fact algorithmic learning; it’s a computer, very quickly, Googling a topic and arranging the search results into a human-esque output. It can only reference, review and reconfigure what already exists, it can’t truly think for itself. At least not yet. Computers aren’t smarter than people, they’re just quicker, so maybe we should change the name from A.I. to A.L. (artificial learning). Free feel to discuss that one over the water-cooler, next time you’re in the office.
Back to the topic at hand, top of the list of benefits of A.I. must be Data Insights, as it is, and continues to be, the biggest win for Media Planners and Buyers. Whether it’s Audience Segmentation to gain detailed insights into audience demographics, regional preferences, and even cultural nuances or Behavioural Analysis to spot behaviours and trends to help tailor media plans more effectively, machine/AI and human-led data analysis helps to deliver and optimise highly targeted campaigns, often in real-time. We’ve already touched on the benefits of automation for routine tasks, but AI systems can also be designed to comply with local laws and regulations, such as GDPR. All of which can ultimately help planners to focus on strategic decisions and creative thinking to develop and evolve effective campaigns. And from a media-buying perspective AI can optimise media spend across various channels and help maximise ROI through analysing past campaign performance, to forecast and allocate budgets to channels that yield the best ROI. But ROI is a short-term objective that, as (human) experience tells us, isn’t always the best metric for long term success of brand. However, that’s a separate topic.
Challenges of introducing AI
So, what are the challenges of introducing AI to the media planning process? Well, implementing AI into any business requires ninja-level techie skills and incurs a cost for the tech and on-going maintenance and training. Not to mention the headache of integrating AI systems into existing and trusted media planning tools and processes. All of which could be a struggle for smaller agencies which could see them fall behind in the AI oil-rush. But these issues might pail into against the concerns about the biases of the outputs of these systems - (directly linked to the quality and accuracy of the data going in, and any inherent biases present in historic data,) - leading to sub-optimal planning decisions, or even inadvertent exclusion of some groups.
Throw in some worries around copy/intellectual property-rights, past decision-making being challenged, and a loss of nuanced understanding and intuition and creativity that only human planners can bring to the party, and you can see why there may be some reticence from some quarters.
AI offers significant advantages for media planning in the UK and around the world, including efficiency and targeting, so it is up to agencies and planners to be aware of potential shortfalls around data quality, etc, and overlay any data insights with human creativity and oversight. And before you ask, yes, I did use AI to help write this article because, like any good planner, I use the best tools at my disposal, review the output and then overlay my experience to craft something that (hopefully) inspires further thought. As for the original question of what the pros and cons of AI to media planners in the UK are, I’d say I remain open-minded but sceptical of all data and excited to see what insights (expected and unexpected) that we can gain from this emerging tech. And I look forward to even greater space for human creativity in the strategic process going forward.
