The new technologies can take human creativity to new heights.
Jorge Álvarez-Naveiro
I declare myself rational techno-optimist, because without ignoring the challenges in adopting new technologies, I see in them the key to sustainable, equitable and humane growth.
Rational techno-optimists believe, as part of our manifesto, that technology is, in essence, an extension of our humanity. An expression of our ingenuity and capacity for innovation.
A few months ago, some colleagues with this similar perspective founded IA Foro, a Think Tank focused on Marketing, Communication and Client experience to explore the impact of the AI in our profession specially in our daily activity but also with aim to create together the road map for this new era.
The World Economic Forum of this year was, unquestionably, the first Davos of the new era of IA, we could read discussions about its power to changing geopolitics, education as well as political and cultural situation. IA is the most transformational moment, not just in technology, but in culture and politics of all of our lifetimes. Also Pope Francis will take part next June in the upcoming G7 session on Artificial Intelligence. This is the first time in history that a pontiff will participate in the work of a G7.
Following the last Accenture Pulse of Change, in March 2024, it was conducted a survey to 2,800 C-suite executives across 18 countries of a variety of industries (Communications, Media, and Entertainment) and functions such as (Chief Marketing or Information Officers) exploring the issues and technology that are driving change, how leaders are responding and their perspectives on the future.
I found some relevant outputs to reinforce the relenvance of IA in the current moment.
1. More than three-quarters (78%) plan to slightly increase their technology investments as a percentage of revenue in 2024. Really important. We need to reinvest in technology.
Specifically, as attention shifted towards generative AI, 85% are focused on increasing gen AI investments and 60% of organizations are prioritizing investments in strengthening their digital core.
2. More than 8 in 10 (85%) organizations are confident that they will reach the expected return on investment (ROI) from their spending on generative AI in 2024.
3. 50% of C-suite leaders believe their organization will fully scale gen AI enterprise-wide in 6 to 12 months.
However, right now, organizations are scaling gen AI in select business areas either extensively (56 per cent) or in a limited way (nearly 30 per cent).
There is one opportunity for MKT and Comms professionals to lead this change. Learning and pushing in the organizations. Technology is here to stay, one more time. AI won't generally replace jobs but it will absolutely automate some tasks, given human creativity the opportunity to a new height.
Taking into consideration the assumptions, let me introduce one question: Are the new technology’s, mainly Artificial Intelligence, able to be evocative and creative in the same way that humans are?
No, I don’t think so, at least by the moment.
In fact, human creators are the genius behind what generative AI can do, and that’s something to be excited about and proud of.
Nowadays AI is assisting us, among others, in creating more personalized content, driving ad revenues and SEO rankings or helping us learn how to communicate better via chatbots.
Its already the responsible of some of the content we are consuming. Nearly 50 news websites are ‘AI-generated
According to Gartner, it is estimated that by 2025 at least 30% of news and digital video produced for mass consumption will be generated by AI and deep learning. The growing influence of this technology on media narrative and public perception is not a future event.
However, its function will still be that of a unique, useful tool rather than a replacement for human creativity.
In an increasingly digitized world, and considering our responsibility of taking care of the reputation of our brands, we are facing a huge amount of challenges and opportunities ahead to be better professionals, more creative, more productive and more efficiencies.
Protecting Corporate Reputation in the era of the deepfake for example. The same technology drives the creation of deepfakes also offers us tools to detect and combat this form of digital deception. The impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on this phenomenon is undeniable. The duality of artificial intelligence as a threat and key to combating deepfake represents a complex paradigm for reputation management and corporate communication.
As well as cyberattack, at corporate sector, boards and executive members must make reputational risk a strategic priority. Proactive professional training and education around deep fakes and narrative attacks are key.
On one hand, companies face the constant challenge of protecting their image from the spread of false content and its reputational impact. This challenge is compounded by the proliferation of this content on search engines and digital platforms, where its impact is quickly amplified before a mass audience can be taken before any corrective action can be taken. On the other hand, we must take advantage of the same technological tools to effectively identify and debunk manipulations that may arise.
According to the Digital News Report 2023, published by Reuters Institute, across all markets, more than half of users (56%) admit to being concerned about distinguishing what is true and what is false when it comes to online news. In Spain, the percentage of adults who use social networks as their main source of news is 50% (Statista) and 64% say they are concerned about misinformation. This scenario forces us to reflect on people's relationship with sources of information and the critical role that each of us plays in discerning truth in the digital age. The intersection of a high concern about disinformation and the prevalence of the use of social media as the main source of news, highlights the urgent need to strengthen citizens' digital skills, but this challenge does not only fall on individuals but also on all actors who must restore and maintain trust in the information ecosystem.
According to the World Economic Forum, disinformation and misinformation emerge as one of the most serious global risks. This problem has intensified due to rapid technological advancement, especially due to the advanced capabilities of generative artificial intelligence. Besides that, other adversarial capabilities, such as phishing, malware development, are also the biggest concern of business leaders regarding the impact of generative AI on cybersecurity.
The ability to create such compelling fake content challenges our perception of reality and undermines the trust that is so hard to build. The future of AI in digital reputation management is not only a technological challenge, but also an ethical and social issue that requires a joint response. Companies, social platforms, media and regulatory bodies must collaborate to develop agile management processes in the face of disinformation. Build together the strategy in a stakeholder management approach .
Of course, It’s true that there are ethical issues to be discussed and overcome, but there is no denying that AI can broaden the scope of what humans believe is possible and lead us to new creative heights that we cannot even imagine yet.
Jorge Álvarez-Naveiro is Head of Brand, Marketing, Communications (BMC) & Alliances in Antolin, Spain.
Article published as part of Global Alliance Technology and PR Month 2024.
Any thoughts or opinions expressed are that of the authors and not of Global Alliance.