AI, or artificial intelligence, has been a buzzword in the tech world for the past few years. Just about every new device or service touts their latest and greatest cutting-edging AI technology to make your digital life a little bit simpler. It’s easier said than done, but more and more, we see examples of how companies and creatives use AI as more of a shortcut to success than an essential tool in their creative toolbox.
Take the Willy Wonka-inspired “Willy Wonka Experience: A Journey Beyond Imagination” in Glasgow, Scotland in February. Organizers used AI-generated images to promote the experience with the promise of luscious lollipop forests and flowing chocolate fountains. After adding a $45 price tag for entrance, would-be candy enthusiasts, much like Charlie Bucket in Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, received a sad dose of reality inside of a bare and sparsely-decorated warehouse, instead of an immaculate Everlasting Gobstopper. “The children got two jelly beans each,” said Stuart Sinclair, an attendee with his three children, to The New York Times. “And then they got a half a cup of lemonade.”
Instead of trying to cash in on the success of Timothée Chalamet’s Wonka, organizers, perhaps, could’ve enlisted the help of AI-driven marketing firms such as RAD AI to cater a social media campaign and brand awareness for their company (in a good way). RAD AI uses proprietary AI technology tools to build your brand through their in-house Persona Engine, find the best influencers who align with your audience and campaign goals, and provide services to help execute out-of-the-box social media campaigns. The difference is, instead of using AI to replace the creative process, RAD AI utilizes machine learning technology like any piece of digital software or hardware, as a tool to connect the creative process to the campaign objective prior to launch.
As the old adage goes, “an artist is only as good as his tools,” rings even truer in the 21st century with the advent of the internet and AI. Instead of slapping on an AI-generated image and calling it a day, creatives are turning to AI to, not just create something new and exciting, but also to direct their work to target audiences in a meaningful way
“It’s really hard to tell a constantly evolving brand story at the speed of social. You have to reinvent and re-excite your audience, sometimes multiple times a day,” says Nolan Carleton, RAD AI Advisor and SVP of Marketing & Communications at LIV Sotheby’s International Realty. “Using AI as extra team members is a great way to constantly iterate to handle the speed of storytelling. It’s about both who you want to speak to—and what messages they haven’t heard yet.”
The idea of having better information to guide content decisions seems to be catching on. RAD AI has over 7000 investors and some of the biggest brands in the world enrolled into their vision. This broad commercialization of the RAD AI suite if products bodes well for brands looking to adopt AI for their content creation needs, as opposed to the astonishingly bad uses of AI when it is implemented like a flat out replacement instead of a tool (like it could be used).
Take the proliferation of “AI newsrooms” across the media landscape, as of late. Media company Gannett pulled the plug on their partnership with LedeAI, an automated news-writing company, because their AI would keep inserting the hackneyed phrase “close encounter of the athletic kind” in articles covering high school sports, while Sports Illustrated was dinged for publishing AI-written articles with fake bylines and AI-generated headshots. However, The Arena Group, SI’s parent company, denies using AI.
Just like any piece of technology, when used and adopted the right way, AI can be used to support the creative process instead of replacing it altogether. Hopefully, in the future, creatives and executives will understand that machines can’t completely replicate human creativity and intuition, and RAD AI is making the case for a better implementation of this kind of tool. Otherwise, you’ll end up with “Willy Wonka Experience: A Journey Beyond Imagination,” an actual experience that didn’t even meet the standards of “pure imagination.”