Ghost in the Machine. What do we still need people for in marketing?

Will artificial intelligence replace humans or complement them?

For the 38th time, the Marketing Forum took to the stage at the Design Center Linz on October 13, 2022. High-caliber speakers from Austria and neighboring countries were invited, sharing with the audience their insights on the use of artificial intelligence.

Alongside bold predictions such as the one by Nick Sohnemann, which says that in 2030 smart glasses will replace our smartphones and the metaverse will “overlay” our real world, other speakers offered new—and also more reassuring—views on working together with machines in marketing. Foremost among them was Michael Katzlberger, who, as an enthusiastic AI supporter, has already done groundbreaking pioneering work in this field. His many practical examples showed everyone how it can be done.

For example, automatic image generation by AI could in the future save marketers not only time but possibly also the laborious task of clarifying copyright issues. Even today, intelligent programs can, through continuous learning, create images of people or cats that do not actually exist in reality. Don’t believe it? Then just take a look at www.thispersondoesnotexist.com or, cat lovers, at www.thiscatdoesnotexist.com.

However, that AI must also be subject to limits and that there will have to be laws for a “peaceful coexistence” is also confirmed by the already uncovered cases involving the use of so-called deepfakes. Only in recent months have various cases become known in which media content manipulated by artificial intelligence caused confusion.

Humans need their senses

Meanwhile, Florian Kaps, a champion of the analog, delivered a passionate plea not to immerse ourselves completely in a digital world. In 2008, he achieved almost worldwide fame with the purchase of the last Polaroid factory in the Netherlands. Thanks to him, film packs for the legendary instant cameras are still produced today. His presentation, which he accompanied in fitting style with transparencies on an overhead projector, ultimately made it clear to everyone present that humans still live primarily in the analog world and, in order to develop emotions, must also grasp it with all their senses. Of course, we can, should, and may make use of the available technology—but in the end, it is always a human being with feelings and emotions who makes decisions, not a machine.

What makes the Marketing Forum 2022 so worth reading is the breadth of perspectives. AI enthusiasm on the one hand, a passionate plea for the analog on the other—and in between an honest examination of what machines can do, what they cannot do, and what that means for marketing and communication.

Looking back from the year 2022, some predictions already read like descriptions of the present. Automatic image generation, deepfakes, the question of copyright for AI-generated content—all topics that were still being discussed back then and have already become part of everyday life today. syreta was there at the Marketing Forum—because this very interface between technology and humanity is what also shapes our own work.