"It's easy for AI to come up with something novel just randomly. But it's very hard to come up with something that is novel and unexpected and useful." - John Smith, manager of Multimedia and Vision at IBM Research

Platforms such as Googles Smart Display and Dynamic Search and Facebooks Dynamic Creatives enable brands to automate the process of tailoring ads for different audiences and to do so at a highly granular level. In theory, this enables us to improve engagement and conversion by getting the right message to the right person at the right time.

But AI cannot be truly creative in the sense of using imagination to develop truly original ideas and make something. AI systems are limited by the original datasets humans give them to learn from. So, the question shouldnt be technology or creativity, but rather how AI can help creatives to meet their goals.

Getting it right isnt as simple as testing various combinations of assets to achieve the highest relevance for each person and to ensure the best results for the campaign goal. Its not just about putting together the right images and copy to address the needs of the user, but also about ensuring that the ad the person sees is interesting and emotionally engaging. Thats where human creativity comes in.

So where do brands, agencies and marketing teams go from here?

1. Start thinking about AI as an assistant for the creative team rather than a potential replacement for human insight and emotional intelligence. AI is invaluable and cost-effective for the rapid gathering of data and testing of different creative combinations, freeing up time for human creatives to dream up original thoughts and build emotionally engaging creative assets. Creatives and marketers will need to rapidly upskill to keep ahead of the tech advancements.

2. Marketers still need their creative agencies, perhaps more than ever. They should find ways to bridge the gaps between creative agencies and data & analytics teams and agencies. This will help them use data to drive better creative, while leveraging human strengths around cultural nuances, understanding human motivation, and original thinking.

3. Creative teams will need to move beyond the one killer concept or the one big idea towards developing multiple concepts that can be tested across various audience segments. The good news is that we can now try numerous ideas cheaply and rapidly without focus groups or surveys. This enables creatives to quickly create engaging assets and messages answering to different stages of the customer journey, and different consumer behaviours, demographics, interests and so forth.

4. Its time for media owners and digital media agencies to work more closely with creative agencies. A good media strategist will be able to offer a lot more value upfront when creatives are brainstorming rather than at the end. The role is no longer simply to select the best channels and propose the most suitable ad units, but also to help creatives to understand the potential of various channels and machine learning.

To close, here are some practical tips for AI-enabled creativity:

Excerpt from:

Artificial intelligence should be used to augment human creativity - not replace it - Bizcommunity.com