Marketing is one of the industries where AI can have the largest impact, according to a 2018 report from management consultancy McKinsey & Company.

Industry observers believe the technology can vastly improve ad placement, prediction accuracy and customer support. However, the increasing use of automation in the industry also raises questions about the future need for human creativity.

Satrio Subroto, a digital marketer from Jakarta, notes that while algorithms and analytics have long been used on the back end of social media platforms to get insight into user behavior and preferences, AI is increasingly employed for content creation.

Hence, business owners and self-employed marketers now have access to a wide variety of resources for improving their digital marketing campaigns.

“Generative AI, such as ChatGPT, helps the team create the required material for a website creation process, which typically involves complexities of interpreting text and descriptions provided by clients,” Satrio said, who has himself used AI for his work.

The famous chatbot released late last year can create written content quickly, in various genres and with precise instructions, for instance for search engine optimization (SEO).

Other AI-powered platforms generate voice-overs, create images or provide other services that can save business owners time and money.

Stay creative and relevant

However, Satrio emphasized the importance of human evaluation before AI-generated products are released to a client or the public. In the age of AI, marketers need to keep their creative juices flowing, he said, and that could involve incorporating AI into their work to maintain originality.

“In the end, honing your creative skills is crucial to boosting your personal growth and development. […] Inspiration might also come from other things in your environment, including movies or music,” Satrio said, noting that building one’s skills was important for humans not be fully replaced by AI.

Indonesian companies have begun to integrate virtual influencers in marketing campaigns. Never tired and ever young, these so-called meta-humans come with their own social media presence and can be customized to fit into any branding strategy.

Rise of the meta-humans

Jakarta-based start-up Genexyz creates such make-believe digital personas. Co-founder and CEO Belinda Luis believes that marketing departments will increasingly adopt them as technology advances.

Speaking to the Post last month, she highlighted the products’ advantages over conventional influencers, such as the ability to be in multiple places simultaneously.

Belinda noted the importance of giving meta-humans distinct personalities for consumers to identify with them, noting that her R&D team was exploring activities that resonated with specific target demographics.

"We pay attention to the nuances of our meta-human influencers, even going so far as to individually attach hair strands into their pores to give them a more human touch. Developing characters with their own backstories is another aspect we focus on to make them more relatable," said Belinda, claiming that having meta-humans around would make real influencers' jobs easier without eliminating the profession.

Another self-employed Jakarta based marketing professional, Ryan Kristo Muljono, added that marketers needed to learn additional skills, such as prompting (feeding AI platforms instructions) if they wanted to keep their jobs in the face of AI's disruption of the marketing business.

“Because AI cannot develop fresh content, marketers that want to remain relevant in the age of AI must be the ones who provide the data to compete with the data,” Ryan said, warning that “AI could take your position, for instance, if content writers can't diversify themselves.”

Angeline Clarissa, a co-founder of Surabaya-based creative firm ON-SITE, says taking full advantage of AI in the creative industries includes their use in marketing plans.

Using apps like ChatGPT helps her develop basic concepts for content, which the team can then build on.

“As a creator, I believe it's essential to stress the importance of human creativity,” Angeline added.

Human touch remains crucial

“To humanize your brand, you should conduct market research and interviews with potential customers,” Angeline said, “because [AI] is just a tool. You can't fully trust an idea being generated by a machine, because it doesn’t have the human touch crucial for any idea activation.”

Sunu Wibirama, an AI practitioner and lecturer at Gadjah Mada University, noted that people had to understand AI cues. If used properly, the technology could be used to decrease bias, including information bias.

"However, we must understand the technology of generative AI. If we are not careful, we may encounter problems leading to the wrong information," Sunu warned.

In the marketing industry, "repetitive tasks might be taken over by AI, such as online customer service, where standard operating procedures are nearly identical", Sunu concluded.