Tech, AI and Creativity In 2023 And Beyond. By INNOCEAN Indonesia’s Chow Kok Keong
Librarians, translators, travel agents, taxi drivers, factory operators, car mechanics, and many other jobs have been or will be replaced by machines, robots, artificial intelligence in the near future, some as soon as in the next one year or two.
What about our jobs in the creative industry? This is obviously not a new question and I’ve been sharing my thoughts with some creative folks and clients in the past few years.
When AI continues to grow and contribute significantly to our creative industry with innovations such as AI generated artwork, every illustrator and photographer should be worried or at least should start acknowledging the fact that AI and technology are now offering ad agencies and clients an alternative way to executing their campaigns. It isn’t difficult to predict which jobs are at risk in the next few years in view of the acceleration of advancement of AI generated artwork platforms.
How about media? My son is in his 21st year and he works as a property agent. Instead of consulting his dad who is a creative at an international network, he buys his own ad space on Facebook with just a simple click on the platform. With Facebook’s AI analytics, he managed to reach the right target group precisely, oh well.. at least he hit 60% to 70% of his target correctly, he said. Hence, there is a high chance that AI will be able to do the same for all mainstream media in the near future.
Next, creative directors and strategic planners. Are their jobs going to disappear in the next few years? It doesn’t sound impossible as there are plenty of online platforms offering low cost strategic and creative campaign templates. These cost and time-efficient templates do attract marketers, especially the small and medium-sized enterprises. So, are we safe? Am I going to lose my job soon? Yes, we will if the campaign strategies and creative executions that we are offering to clients have no difference from the campaign templates offered by AI in those platforms.
Sounds terrible, isn’t it? Well, that depends on how we look at it. Being a creative who has been in the industry for almost three decades, I am still optimistic about it, well, for now at least.
Although technology moves faster than we imagine in the last decade and has changed the way we work and think for creative communications, there is one thing that it can’t replace – CREATIVITY. And that’s why I never stopped pushing myself and my team for fresh, out-of- the-box relevant ideas. Creativity is not limited to people like me in the creative department, but it should be applied to media, strategy, production and any other functions in a creative and marketing agency.
To be honest, when Brandberries invited me to write something about my predictions for the creative industry in 2023, I feel it is easier to predict which team will go into semi-final for the Qatar world cup (although I’m surprised Germany lost to Japan) than predicting what’s going to happen in 2023 and beyond. However, rather than predicting the future, why don’t we prepare for the future instead? Embrace creativity, respect originality, and keep pushing for something that is not solely relying on or limited by technology and AI.
Last but not least, hopefully no creative will share his or her TikTok dance contest idea with me anymore, ha ha ha!