All Intelligent Life

I would be the first to admit that when it comes to the technology this is a topic I know little about I suppose that thereamp8217s the potential for AI to rule the world to take our jobs and to cast us all into outer darkness but thereamp8217s also the potential for me to run a marathonNeither seem very likely to meIamp8217m no expert in how the technology works In that I like to think Iamp8217m aligned with 90 of the ad industry 80 of the media industry and 99 of online commentatorsI also know very little and even thatamp8217s an exaggeration about how broadcast signals are transmitted and received how streaming actually works and how selfdrive hybrid cars operate I use all of these things quite satisfactorilyI can see the great potential in AI but then I witness most days how the reality fails to live up to the promise I still get letters addressed to quotThe Occupierquot I still spend hours filling out forms in duplicate and I still get frustrated explaining the same thing over and over again to different departments of the same supplierSurely in a world ruled by big data and our AIdriven ability to harness it the endexecution should be a little betterEven in our own little world and only this week the ANA reported on the waste generated by programmatic buys focusing in on the creeping insidiousness of madeforadvertising sites or MFAsThe ANA found that 15 of participantsamp8217 budgets and 21 of impressions are accounted for by MFAs And that the average advertiser campaign ran on 44000 sites I donamp8217t believe there are 44000 sites that add unique reach or any valuable frequency against any target marketAnd remember amp8211 these are ANA advertisers so they are the more sophisticated end of the marketMaybe the ANA will revise its rather confusing and variable position on ad fraud whilst theyamp8217re at it To remind youquotJuniper Research estimates that 68bn will be lost to ad fraud this year 68bn may be at the low end The ANA in the US has quoted 120bn although they promptly quotdisappearedquot that figure when it started to attract attentionNick Manningamp8217s The Media Leader column makes the point that the ANA work mirrors the principal findings of ISBAamp8217s 2020 report into much the same thingProgress is it seems slow possibly because the agency experts guiding their clients through this morass whilst avoiding the worst pitfalls are too busy thinking up the latest way to make money from the mess that is online mediaMy point is if AI is allembracing and smart why is the reality often so rubbish How come we are still wasting millions billions of our clientsamp8217 money by buying ads that reach an audience of botsIs AI a great threat to jobs Will we enter a world within which all ads are written by ChatGPT or the next generation equivalent Will all media plans and buys be automated with budgets spent untouched by human handIt suits some people in particular those with systems to sell to talk up the benefits that come from automation And it suits our trade press to amplify the apocalyptic message amp8211 the end of the industry is news after allI see AI technology as a fuel to tools a brilliant way for us to do our jobs betterTake the creating of an ad campaign Someone has a genius idea in all likelihood sparked by a brilliant planner analyzing all kinds of data and considering all sorts of insightsIamp8217ve worked with many great planners You know how good they are when they say something to which your reaction is quotYes of course Thatamp8217s obviousquot whilst at the same time acknowledging that you as a mere mortal would never in a million years have thought of thatThe marriage between data and creativity is helped hugely by an ability to analyze loads of stuff very quicklyThatamp8217s where the genius spark starts Itamp8217s not in itself the genius sparkI was encouraged to read this today in the Wall Street Journal in which Omnicom discuss their new AI tool and thanks to Kristin Engard for the postquotOmnicom frames the move as a way to get smarter answers in less time with more workers being able to use deeper data analysis a virtual assistant to help ad agency employees with tasks across the advertising process such as compiling audience insights and building media plansquotThese things are tools They help us do a better job in multiple ways But theyamp8217re not the job at least not yetI wish more of us would use them to do a better job because right now weamp8217re screwing things up pretty badlyPosted at MediaVillage through the Thought Leadership selfpublishing platformClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillageorgMyersBizNet

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All Intelligent Life

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Brian Jacobs

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