AI and marketing—why human creativity still leads in a tech-driven world

In today’s advertising landscape, artificial intelligence plays a significant role in driving efficiency and effectiveness, providing intelligence and automating complex processes. AI makes it possible to process and interrogate vast amounts of data and optimize workflows across the creative lifecycle. But as powerful as AI has become, it’s essential to remember that the real creative force is still human. AI may be able to optimize tasks, but it lacks the human capacity for the imagination and cultural understanding that bring ideas to life. A helpful analogy is Hubble’s Law, which states that galaxies are constantly moving away from Earth, and the farther apart they are, the faster they move away from each other. Like these galaxies, the advertising landscape has expanded dramatically over the years. Ad Age Tech Power List 2025 We’re looking for top digital innovators from agencies, brands, platforms, ad tech companies and tech startups Enter here As new platforms, devices and technologies emerge, marketers, both on the creative and media sides of the ecosystem, find themselves navigating a balance of AI and the human touch. AI may help us maximize value more efficiently and effectively, but it’s human creativity that remains at the heart of creative and media, providing a path for AI to assist and elevate the benchmark for success. You can manage only what you can measure AI powers creative and media teams, enabling them to efficiently collect and understand large-scale data, analyze content and make recommendations that fuel optimizations for better results. With AI, creative assets are continuously understood, more efficiently adapted for various formats across smartphones, CTV and linear, and optimized in each environment. In this expanding advertising universe, AI helps close gaps, bringing creative and media closer together to scale brand impact across numerous touchpoints. However, just as Hubble’s Law explains the movement of galaxies but doesn’t define their makeup, AI has limitations. AI can draw only from the data that models have been trained on. It cannot completely replace human ingenuity and the concept of original thought. What well-trained and scaled AI does is allow marketers to capitalize on the rich data and continuous flow of information created throughout the creative lifecycle, which has been near impossible to manage by humans alone. While AI handles processing the analysis, humans leverage the insights to make smarter creative and better advertising decisions. Without AI, it would be challenging to evaluate content and campaigns, making it hard to manage what you simply could not effectively and previously measure. Achieving resonance, relevance and results AI provides data-driven insights that highlight trends and actionable steps to improve ad relevance. By identifying which creative elements are performing well and offering recommendations, AI ensures brands resonate with key audiences. While AI serves as the main input, it’s the human element that transforms these insights into action. Kantar and WARC reported that effective ads generate more than four times as much profit, putting a spotlight on the need to put a larger emphasis on leveraging data to drive smarter, impactful creative. Without AI, marketers lack the data needed to fine-tune campaigns, adapt content and elevate creative, negatively impacting brand perception and outcomes. By combining AI’s precision with human creativity, brands can generate campaigns that achieve greater resonance, relevance and results. Driving greater inclusivity AI plays a vital role in improving representation in content by analyzing key diversity dimensions—such as age, gender expression, skin tone, body type and accessibility. These insights help brands evaluate whether their content accurately reflects audience diversity. While AI can highlight representation gaps, human intuition and analysis are needed to address them. Read Ad Age’s Best of 2024 stories here Diversity, equity and inclusion are not just about metrics—they are about fostering real, authentic connections with a wide range of audiences to drive outcomes from better engagement to sales. Authenticity is something that AI cannot achieve on its own. Another crucial area where AI provides support is in ensuring that content is accessible. Accessibility is no longer a "nice to have," with one in four people globally experiencing visual impairments. AI can help identify when content lacks features such as closed captions, audio descriptions, or alternative text, giving marketers the intelligence they need to modify creative to ensure that all audiences can be reached and that every ad impression counts. Humans are the real creative force Creative is often underestimated in its ability to be data-driven and drive consumer action, but creative intelligence is transforming that trend. From concept to execution, AI empowers marketers to make informed decisions with intelligence that protects brand integrity, reduces risks, and improves ROI. AI unlocks actionable data, but it’s human creativity that drives meaningful impact throughout the creative lifecycle. By embracing AI, marketers can harness both technology and human ingenuity to create campaigns that resonate in today’s fast-evolving advertising ecosystem. 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AI and marketing—why human creativity still leads in a tech-driven world

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