The Augmented Intelligence Age
AI as a Creative Ally
By Lydia Daly, SVP, Audience and Marketplace Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence is here—and for many, confronting this reality comes with a fair bit of trepidation. How will AI “replace us” in the workplace? What will become of craft and artistry when machines are running the show? But as AI becomes an increasingly integral part of our work and everyday lives, we are beginning to see the immense opportunity that lies in the technology—not as a substitute for human creativity and ingenuity, but as a gateway to amplify and augment all that makes us, well, us.
Without oversight, an overreliance on AI presents potential downsides to both marketers and consumers. One risk is the homogenization of content—a sea of creative executions that blur together into dull, watered-down versions of an original conceit.
Algorithm-driven curation and creative generation can also have a flattening effect on culture, as examined at length in Kyle Chayka’s "Filterworld." If left unchecked, AI may result in a loss of personal taste, as we become increasingly dependent on it to tell us what’s happening in any cultural space. Audience experiences may also become limited, as AI’s use of historical, potentially biased data may prevent the challenging of norms and genesis of new thought and innovation.
Given all this, Artificial Intelligence may sound almost antagonistic to humanity. But, if looked at through a different lens, our deepening relationship with AI may lead us to realize that it isn’t a replacement for human thinking, but rather a way for us to do and be more, better, and with more ease. We are in the Age of Augmented Intelligence.
So, as marketers, how can we use the power of AI as a creative catalyst to augment our brands in new ways?
One: Assist consumers in getting the most out of their products and experiences, personalized to their needs. While this may seem like low-hanging fruit for AI, we’re still in the early stages of delivering reliable AI assistance in truly additive ways. Sephora’s "virtual artist" is one tool that does this well, relying on AI face detection to help its users experiment with hundreds of virtual beauty products and understand how to apply them more effectively.
Two: Help consumers express unique facets of themselves. People contain multitudes—and brands can leverage AI to help express their different dimensions in creative, new forms. Intuit recently launched a fun feature that does this, using generative AI to provide its users with a personal "aura" based on their spending and saving habits, helping them visualize their financial personas.
Three: Serve as a consultant to help bring creative ideas to life. Beyond personalization, AI can also offer fresh inspiration to fuel a consumer’s creative process. Take, for example, Wayfair’s Decorify app, a "shoppable AI interior designer" that empowers users with specific design guidance and recommendations based on their unique preferences—all for free.
Four: Connect with them in imaginative, new ways. AI can create new opportunities to surprise and delight, providing more moments of connection with consumers. Carvana brought the joy back to car rides by creating a "Joyride" for consumers on the first day they bought their car, sending them unique AI-generated videos to commemorate their purchase from Carvana. They highlighted more than 1.3 million car-buying journeys that were visualized in more than 45,000 hours of content.
Five: Expand their perspectives and appetite for experimentation. AI can recommend, blend and ideate alongside us, like in Google’s Food Mood recipe generator, which combines elements from different cuisines to generate completely new dishes.
Becoming a fully augmented brand requires a deep understanding of consumers and the ever-shifting world and culture in which they live. It also requires the ability to identify new, creative solutions to their evolving needs. AI can help with this (and already has), but it still requires a human touch. Nuanced, cultural intelligence isn’t easily passed down in the form of code or algorithm. We are the anomaly in a world of definitives and concrete answers because we understand and live the delicate balance of art and science—the singular, creative, human experience.