Why AI can’t replace creative intent in marketing

AI doesn’t belong in advertising communications. It won’t take my job or yours. At first, I was among those who imagined AI agents would replace us in a few years. So, I tested AI’s creativity and execution to see if it could replace me. If you’re scared, read on: I have hope for you. For six months, I tested the enterprise versions of ChatGPT and Copilot to project a presence for clients, posting and reacting for them on social media. Initially, I was impressed. A few sentences of social copy that would take me hours of deep concentration appeared in seconds. After a few weeks, though, the allure wore off. I noticed formulaic, repetitive patterns in its outputs. That’s when my real research began. Also read: How TikTok search is changing the way Gen Z discovers brands As a marketing professional, I need to know if AI can recreate my ability. AI proponents say that outputs depend on how you craft your prompts. The more detail you include, the more AI will take those inputs to create your desired output. To test its scope of creativity, I started with simple, direct prompts such as “Suggest social copy for LinkedIn using this link.” AI suggested four types of copy: thought-provoking and reflective, bold and challenging, conversational and relatable or short and snappy. And they all sounded the same regardless of subject, article length or construction. I expected as much from a robot. Then I asked AI to help me develop creative assets for social posts. After all, it’s purported to create digital art as finely as an experienced artist. I asked it to create a corporate marketing social asset to promote a blog post on LinkedIn. The result was zany and contained misspellings. The same thing happened every time AI tried to create branded art. It turns out imperfections are a clear sign that AI generated the creative design. If you’ve ever watched “The Substance” starring Demi Moore, AI-generated images are like Monstro Elisasue, the product of countless iterations of the original. More Gen Z Voices: If AI can’t create branded art or emulate a narrative voice, then where does it belong in the advertising space? While excelling at research, organizing and processing existing information, AI can’t distinguish intent because it lacks interpretation. That’s why it simply repackages sentence structures in past writing or builds an amalgamation of styles onto original artwork. Intent requires empathy, which comes from human intuition and perception. The most important things we do as marketers are about intent—identifying, influencing and capitalizing on it. Great advertising communication springs from nuances in human understanding to evoke a desired response. Advertising lives in the why Advertising runs on intent, not information. We’re an idea and imagination business for moving people to do something—take an action, buy a product, support a cause. Persuasion starts with human connection to a feeling or a thought. It’s not enough to speak like a human; we need to understand our audiences on an emotional level. For instance, when I write in a CEO’s voice to respond to a comment or question, I not only need to sound like a CEO, I have to think like one. To do so, I need to understand and process the intent of a question or response so that if I see point A I know to go to point B. AI won’t know to go to point B without instruction. Collaboration is personal, not programmatic Increasingly, creativity is a team sport, especially in advertising. Our collective imagination builds on an idea from multiple perspectives that float in each mind’s context. It’s fast, original and unlimited. AI is a copycat, scouring its database with relevant existing ideas to mold multiple thoughts into one. There’s nothing original about using multiple people’s work this way; it’s tantamount to plagiarism. People aren’t copy-and-paste Day to day, much of what we do as advertisers is informed by our communication with each other internally. Each type of creative work we do is interpersonal. We can create a piece of copy or design an ad that we think would work well with the client, but if they don’t agree with the work, we have to adjust and adopt a new angle. There’s nothing standard about the dance because it turns on acknowledging, interpreting and managing feelings. AI is not equipped to navigate these relationships. Training technology isn’t the point As a creative person, it doesn’t make sense for me to spend days training a program that’s 10 miles off to get a half-mile closer when what I need is original thought. For example, ghostwriting requires me to fully comprehend how a client thinks and makes connections, recognize preferences in word choice and create appropriate transitions in logic, flow and signature. My effort for clients is better invested in deepening human connections that provide genuine inspiration. Success depends on how effectively I communicate, not how fast I produce words. Imagination, not information, generates great creative and brands. In the end, the “AI” we need is amplified imagination, to create more remarkable communications from nothing. And much like AI’s origins, that inherently comes from us. Don’t miss: Ad Age 2025 Small Agency Awards—last chance to enter

Why AI can’t replace creative intent in marketing

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