Remember, tech needs marketing more than marketing needs tech

Today, marketers are in fear of technology, thinking AI will be the death of human creativity. But fear not, marketers: computers and algorithms will only mimic creativity, not replace it, and AI will bring about new, creative workstreams. At the end of the day, technology needs marketing more than marketing needs technology.

Marketing has been around a lot longer than you think. Its origins go back to Mesopotamia in 3200 BCE: someone put a mark on a coin, and that mark became a signal of reliability, and the first logos were created. And as technology evolved, so did marketing. From the print advertisement boom following the invention of the printing press in 1440; to radio, television, and Internet ads in the 20^th century; to connected TV and retail media in the last few decades, marketing business surged. Technology made it easier for marketers to connect with consumers, and the means of marketing improved too.

If advancing technology puts marketing in business, marketing makes technology possible in the first place. Tech spending is heating up in the name of AI innovation.

If 2023 was the year of efficiency in tech companies, with massive layoffs and cost cutbacks, I predicted 2024 would be the year of competition as tech companies battle to own the future of AI. The investment arms race in Silicon Valley suggests I was right. In the first two quarters of this year, Microsoft capital expenditures reached a total of $33bn driven by AI investments, Meta raised predictions for its 2024 spending bill twice to up to $40bn – it spent $8.5bn in the second quarter on AI computing infrastructure alone, and Google said it plans to spend at least $12bn on AI per quarter for the remainder of the year.

Who’s paying for all of this innovation? In most cases, advertising.

In the US alone, Meta, Google, and Amazon are estimated to take in a collective $322.82bn in ad revenue in 2024. Advertising makes the democratization of technology possible and funds most innovation in the world today. That includes – and will continue to include – AI tech innovation.

AI technology will enable creative marketing as all advertising becomes targeted advertising. Digital media now makes up 75% of all media, up from one-third of total media in 2020. Advertising will continue to get better and better at finding just the right consumer at just the right time in what I call the Uber economy.

Let’s take a step back.

We started off in the Ford economy with a singular choice in the market – Henry Ford made products affordable through standardization – you could have any color of a car as long as it was black. Then, we entered the Starbucks economy with 155 choices of something that was black. Personalization became possible: baristas could alter the size, milk, and flavor of drinks to make one unique to your tastes; you could curate your own playlists on iPods. Now, we are in the age of the Uber economy, the standard now being infinite personalized choices. You can request a ride from point A to point B, and Uber will generate a product that satisfies your custom-made specifications. Rather than drive a world of standardization, technology has driven a world of personalized differentiation.

AI-based targeting will only drive personalized differentiation further, making marketing more effective than ever.

Electronic billboards will identify and trace consumer behavior, firing up ads based on who you are likely to be. Bots will simulate human conversation, and their creation will vitalize an entire industry – what do these bots look like? What is their accent? What is the tone of their voice? What level of sophistication do they use when speaking? These bots – and soon, actual robots – will create whole new art forms and become the ultimate brand ambassadors for every brand; each brand will need the equivalent of a Disney movie of creativity as these bots become their front doors. They will be as individualized as the human race itself.

More broadly, in a world dominated by data, analysis and human creativity have become all the more valuable.

When I first started polling, I had a team of 63 people ranging from interviewers to samplers to keypunchers. Now, we can do surveys with three people, and surveys are readily accessible to everyone. Technology and AI will satisfy the simple cases, but they won’t eliminate creativity, interpretation, insight, and analysis – all of which marketing encompasses. Creativity will continue to thrive; it goes hand in hand with new technology as it always has since the invention of the coin.