AI could be the best thing to happen to the marketing industry – or the worst
Stephen Hawking said, “The rise of powerful AI will be either the best, or the worst, thing ever to happen to humanity. We do not yet know which.” I am no Stephen Hawking, but I was asked recently whether I thought AI would fundamentally change branding. To the surprise of many people I said, “no.” However, I went on to say that I thought it would fundamentally change the future of marketing.
I draw a clear distinction between marketing and branding. For me, marketing is about understanding customers’ needs and answering them profitably. It’s about how and where you go to market. Branding, on the other hand, is about having a vision, a purpose, and converting people to that purpose, profitably. It is about who you are and what you want to stand for.
When I put “AI and branding” into Google, I got an AI answer suggesting that it will affect personalization, automation, creative content, brand identity and augmented reality (AR). In most, if not all of these areas, AI should improve marketing efficiency – but it does not fundamentally change the nature of brands. They aren’t brand changes: they are changes to the way brands are marketed.
One demonstration of this is a quick review of leading ‘AI-created’ brands, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), OpenAI, DeepMind, Microsoft, Nvidia, Coherent, Zoho Corporation and Vectra AI. These are either new divisions of existing brands or B2B brands; they are not the consumer-facing brands like Amazon, Uber, ASOS or eBay that the internet helped create.
Not all of the changes will necessarily benefit marketers. In agency circles, one of the big predictions widely being made for 2025 is ‘the Marketing Defund,’ a reduction in marketing budgets to fund substantial investment in technology. “In 2025, we’re going to see companies pivot away from traditional marketing spending towards a model that prioritizes advanced technology and a clear return on investment,” says Mellissah Smith, founder of the AI marketing strategy platform, Robotic Marketer. “The focus will be on doing more with less – using AI to automate tasks, streamline roles and shift budgets toward areas where impact can be tracked and maximized. It’s a bold move, but it will separate the leaders from the laggards in marketing innovation.”
I’m struck by two questions. The first involves the tension between personalization and mass production. How will brands, particularly fast-moving consumer goods, be truly personalized while still consistently delivering the same core experience? Part of the appeal of McDonalds or Coca Cola, say, is that you know exactly what you will get, wherever you are in the world. The brands are underpinned by mass production, providing both consistency and economies of scale. The best become units of social currency with widely known associations. What is the role of AI here, other than marketing efficiency?
My other niggle is the paradox of choice. I think of Daniel Kahneman and his colleagues, or Barry Schwartz in his book The Paradox of Choice – Why More Is Less. They suggest that having too many choices leads not to benefits for the consumer but to negative consequences, such as indecision, anxiety, and buyer’s remorse. Indeed, there is now a “voluntary simplicity” movement whose core idea is that we have too many choices and too little time to do what is really important. Will AI exacerbate this problem?
AI is coming. But for better or worse? We’ll find out soon.
Giles Lury is a freelance brand consultant
