More than perhaps any ad technology before it, generative AI has the potential to be a leveler of playing fields when it comes to what agencies can bring to bear for their clients.

“Selling a great idea requires a leap of faith on a lot of people’s parts. But when you have the strategy and the business context to back it up, that leap is easier to take,” said Margaret McGovern, executive creative director at Boathouse.

AI can index company narratives relative to strategy, opportunities, and threats, and create benchmarks to watch over time related to sentiment, intensity, and impressions. Ultimately these can be tied back to ROI and stakeholder value that move past typical marketing performance metrics or traditional brand metrics.

Marketers have a missed opportunity around what John Connors, founder and president of Boathouse, calls performance artificial intelligence (AI). It’s a focus that brands and agencies are missing out on. Generative gets all the attention, the shiny object but “it’s just a fancy bar trick.”

Test, learn, iterate and repeat

Daily active users on Meta’s new Twitter clone dropped by half last week, but brands are still eager to find success on the new platform.

By now we’re all overwhelmed by the ever-changing discussion of AI and its implications in our professional and personal lives. We ought to focus on what kind of opportunity AI creates for us, as communications and marketing professionals, and how we can advance the ball for clients.

Agencies and industry bodies are closely monitoring government regulation of AI tools. But if legislation takes too long, should adland move ahead with an AI ethics regime of its own design?