An internal Dentsu group called AI Connective is leading the strategy behind these developments. The objective of the group, which is made up of client-facing teams, engineering teams and solutions teams across the company, is to decide how best to deploy AI internally as well as externally via market-ready products, a spokesperson confirmed.
The partnership “allows us to rapidly integrate GenAI across our products, driving faster and smarter omnichannel marketing for clients,” said Dominic Shine, Dentsu’s group chief Information Officer, in a press statement.
Indeed, Dentsu is just the latest advertising company to dive headfirst into AI. Omnicom, WPP, Huge and MNTN have announced their own efforts in recent months, which mostly hinge on new capabilities offered by generative AI models.
Opinion: AI isn’t coming for our jobs
There is reason to believe, however, that the speed at which advertisers are racing toward AI is only perpetuating the risks posed by the technology. These concerns, potentiated by the slow crawl of regulation, include copyright infringement and data privacy non-compliance, as well as social problems such as excessive job replacement and the spreading of misinformation.
Even the idea that runaway AI could soon endanger humanity itself is gaining momentum. This week, Stanford University’s Existential Risks Initiative published a report warning that runaway AI could be one of this century’s most severe threats to human existence.
Dentsu’s deal with Microsoft expands a pre-existing relationship between the two companies, which last year produced a metaverse space for the purpose of Web3 experimentation. Microsoft is also a client of Carat, one of Dentu’s agencies.
