AI and marketing: To lean into or lean away?

Studies show that socially conscious consumers are willing to pay more for goods from brands that are committed to environmental sustainability. Would they do the same for products that are AI-free?

Gartner predicts that by 2027, 20% of brands will lean into differentiating themselves predicated on the absence of artificial intelligence in their business and products.

In other words, if consumers question the authenticity of marketing materials and ads containing AI-generated content, savvy CMOs could build marketing strategies around the absence of AI images or text.

That approach to AI and marketing wouldn’t come out of nowhere. In fact, Americans are now more concerned than excited about AI in their daily lives, a Pew Research Center survey found. And 72% of consumers are worried about AI-based content potentially spreading false or misleading information, according to Gartner. This mistrust will lead some to seek out AI-free brands, the firm believes.

“A subsection of brands will shun AI and prioritize more human positioning. This ‘acoustic’ concept will be leveraged to distance brands from perceptions of AI-powered businesses as impersonal and homogeneous,” said Emily Weiss, a senior researcher at Gartner.

AI and marketing stats

Sounding these kinds of alarm bells now might feel premature given that AI is still emerging in most marketing plans. But that’s changing faster than many people realize.

Consider these numbers:

• Roughly 80% of CMOs reportedly plan to boost spending on AI and data this year, up 57% from last year, an Accenture survey found.
• 31% of U.S. B2B marketers use AI for chatbots, coding, and design, according to a Sagefrog Marketing Group survey. Another 30% use AI for content and presentations.
• More than a third (35%) of CMOs use generative AI as part of their everyday toolkits, according to an annual survey by global digital network Dentsu Creative.

Nicole Leffer, an independent CMO AI advisor, says such stats prove the train has left the station for the adoption of AI in marketing and that trying to differentiate around not using it would be ill advised.

Leffer argues the significant cost and time savings that AI automation brings organizations – which some studies indicate could be more than 50% – means companies that avoid AI would eventually have to charge more than competitors who do use it. While some CMOs might take that path, she doesn’t believe the approach is sustainable.

“People are already adjusting to the idea of AI in their lives,” she says. While they might be willing to pay extra money for a product that’s green, protects the planet, and saves future generations, she doesn’t see consumers doing the same for AI-free products.

Setting AI guardrails in marketing

While experts say CMOs would be almost foolhardy to let AI opportunities pass them by, they advise establishing some general guardrails for AI-generated content, such as only using:

• Real human beings: While it’s been common marketing practice to leverage digitally created characters or avatars in content, AI presents some scary opportunities for creating deep fake images that are indistinguishable from the real thing. Marketers might want to consider avoiding that approach or being completely transparent if they do employ faux people.
• Real products: The blowback from misrepresenting how a product looks or acts by using AI could be significant. Regulators could even view it as false advertising. Be careful with this and have firm and transparent policies around it.
• Meticulous verification: AI can be incredible, but it does have issues, namely its tendency to fill in holes in its training by making stuff up. It’s similarly prone to bouts of plagiarism as well as race, gender, and political biases. As such, no marketing or advertising executive should include AI-generated content if it hasn’t been thoroughly checked by humans.

Treading the unknown

There will be growing pains as marketers experiment with AI and push the bounds of written, audio, photographic, and video content authenticity, Leffler says. It’s not yet known, for example, how consumers might react to a television commercial featuring AI-generated human beings or AI representations of products.

“There’s a huge difference between not using AI for specific applications like this that could be viewed as misrepresenting the reality of what you’re selling, versus not using AI to help with anything,” she says.

All that’s really known is that these AI technologies are emerging so fast it will be difficult to stop and consider their ethical implications in real time.

Still, it’s important that CMOs begin investing in AI today, if they aren’t already, because the technology is going to change their world.

“If you wait another year, you’re going to be seriously behind,” Leffler says. “The pace at which this is growing and changing is unlike anything else marketers have experienced, so do it now.”