How Brands, Agencies and Platforms are rewriting the playbook with AI for scale? 3 Experts answer your burning question.

“AI is definitely a hot topic at the moment.”

These were the opening words of Mikhail Hanney in the panel  with Clare Dobson and Matthew Bradley. This was one of the fresh, insightful conversations of the Primetag event “AI: Hype or Reality? The future of Creator Marketing,” an exclusive event for handpicked guests and industry leaders.

Question 1: Where do you think you've seen AI deliver the most sort of tangible efficiencies?

Mikhail: It's a lot in terms of creating assets at scale and optimization. I think what's really interesting now is being able to break language barriers. I think that with localization you've got an ability to not only create content in different languages but in the same tone of voice as the original person. I think that that’s really exciting as someone who loves languages. (At the same time) it's a bit terrifying though because I think it'll stop people learning languages.

Clare: Because I work on global clients, I see quite a lot of what's coming over from APAC (Asia-Pacific) and what we're seeing there is digital versions of influencers for Tik Tok shop. It means that they never sleep. The efficiency they're able to find means that they're able to drive a lot more revenue for themselves as well as the brands that they're working with. It's a lot more kind of accepted over there if it's a virtual version of an influencer. The audience doesn't mind, they're still purchasing.

Matthew: I manage a professional badminton player from Denmark and the thing that I really struggle with is preserving her creative aspect without asking her to translate every time. We're trying to figure out a way to create two or three assets across different languages. We're still a little bit behind on how we collaborate with those brands or agencies in other countries, but that's a really big area that I'm trying to focus on. How can I speed up this process internally because I manage 15 athletes, which is a lot. For me that's a really big focal point and I think something where we can improve and hopefully win as well.

Question 2: Where do you think AI fails and isn’t replacing humans yet?

Mikhail: We are still finding that in some western languages when you start to get a little bit more nuanced, you do start to lose both the accuracy and the authenticity of what's coming through. That colloquialism and that ability to tap into zeitgeist, things like slang, but also when you're working with brands where there's specific claims that you need to, you know, have accuracy on? Sometimes it's hard for a native speaker to be able to translate that. I'm sure if you give it three months, everything will be flawless.

Clare: The negative side of [digital, always-on influencers] is that you can lose the boundaries, it’s easy to oversaturate the audience with the need to just drive as much revenue as possible. How do we find an effective balance that doesn't feel so much in your face? I think we’re seeing that a lot on Tik Tok shop live streams: oversaturation from a commercial perspective.

Question 3: How can technology be used to increase productivity while retaining your authenticity?

Mikhail: Authenticity is a really interesting topic and it seems to be the buzzword that's coming alongside AI at the moment. We’re having a lot of conversations about it and I think we're not necessarily achieving authenticity with the influencer marketing that we're doing at the moment. Humans aren't getting authenticity right. I think that in some instances there's AI that is achieving authenticity more because actually it's getting what people want, it's learning from what people want, and big brands are struggling to learn as quickly as AI can. This is where hopefully there [will be jobs in the future like] chief authenticity officer for AI. People that are there making sure that [content] is connecting with people.

Clare: I came across this video the other day, where they had taken the image of an influencer and created a version of her answering a podcast and used it as an advert. It wasn't her but if you watch it, it looks like her. She reported it and Meta said “no, it doesn't go against our guidelines.” So we're developing these tools but not really thinking about the repercussions for actual human influencers.

Matthew: Working with athletes they do bring authenticity but more importantly credibility as well. Athletes I manage do have quite hardcore fans, who want to know what boots they are wearing, what nutrition products they have, what car they drive.

Mikhail: I think credibility is a really good word because I think if a virtual influencer is selling a computer to me and it's rattling off the RAM or something, okay fine, facts are facts. But then if it's a virtual influencer that's recommending skin care for me and they don't have skin that's problematic.

Final Question: What does this mean to the consumer?

Mikhael: Nintendo's been under fire recently. They're refusing that they have used AI to generate the billboards in the new Mario Kart game. People are passionate about it in the gaming community, they care about the jobs in that industry. But there's a lot of instances now where there are certain places where people want things to be real and authentic and others that don't.

Clare: Coca-Cola was a great example. The Christmas ad, did you see the blow up on LinkedIn, everyone being like "What have you done?" If you go on social? No one cared. Everybody in the industry is saying “look at the inconsistency”and I was like “no one cares”. They’re not going to stop selling coke, are they?

Meet this panel!

Clare Dobson is the Global Platform & Influencer Lead at Wavemaker WPPMedia. Someone who knows a lot about the actual state of influencer marketing - and even more about its future.

Mikhail Hanney is a Managing Director at Pulse Advertising. They make advertising meaningful by giving people a sense of belonging.

Matthew Bradley is the founder of TAG Management, a female-focused athlete agency representing England rugby players, cricketers and Olympians.