You could boil all of this down to empathy. Which, I think, will be the difference between success and failure, as AI obliterates huge chunks of the industry and suddenly millions of people become irrelevant.
Humans are ultimately driven by emotion and feeling. AI can't understand that - neither can a lot of people. What the CMO unravelled there is exactly that. What Apple built their brand on was exactly that - they didn't sell a product, they sold a feeling. They made the iPod emotionally relevant. Competitors like Zune were vaporised and left in the dust as they failed to differentiate on features, even though their products were technically better.
It never ceases to amaze me how many businesses and brands can't understand this, and how many of them go wrong.
Check out The Four Stages of Competence. That was a concept I learned about in Kung Fu. Similar to what you're talking about with the Meijin, but I think it's more plain speaking and easier to relate to.
I normally dislike reading about AI because of the dystopic tone there usually is, but it was so pleasant to finally read someone differentiating between the kind of value AI brings versus the kind of value we as humans can
A wonderfully written article. I really like how you framed the challenge. However AI is brilliant at building up those patterns rapidly. I’m not convinced that if you fed this example and others like it to AI and asked it to reframe the consumer need in the same way drill bits got reframed to holes or hanging pictures for your spouse that couldn’t generate options.
What I doubt it can do is intuitively judge which one is right. When the CMO made their proclamation I’m sure they felt something and so did everyone else. A tingling on the back of the neck, a sense of completeness and satisfaction, a rising excitement at the possibilities it unlocks. I’m not convinced that recognition comes from patterns. I think it comes from empathy because we know the idea talks to us on a human level. It resonates with a core human need to relate our existence to something greater than ourselves. By feeling small, we briefly return to a child like state and absolve ourselves of all responsibility.
Then again I’m pretty sure we could map those states and feed into an AI to generate better options.
It’s seems the last bastion of human influence is going to be discernment. And that is something that takes a certain type of brain and a certain type of experience. Not all humans have it to the same degree.
So can AI help us quickly process the data needed to get to the solution? Yes. But we might lose the opportunity to immerse ourselves in it to “feel” the answer.
I don’t know about you but brand building is an emotional process for me. The frameworks are there to make the client feel secure. My heart is my guide to the answer.
After all this I’m still not sure what AI really means for brand strategy. If we could clients to appreciate the value of brand strategy more I would be happy.
Considering AI's capacity to rewrite marketing rules towards hyper-personalization and predictive analytics, will this technological shift ultimately empower or erode the agency and genuine choice of the individual consumer?
Hi! I have launched a newsletter on creative and innovative campaigns. The French version has 14,000 subscribers (CMOs and creatives) and I have just launched the English edition if you want to have a look: https://hellokomando.substack.com
Really appreciate the insights. I do diverge from your conclusion though. I believe that a thoughtfully structured agent - after doing 90% of the heavy research and synthesis lifting - can ask provocative questions about 'what if', designed to inspired divergent thinking. I also believe it can hypothesize future potentials; it's unprecedented time saving that frees us humans up to connect with each other at deeper levels. Thanks for the thinking!
Adrian - you are dissecting this hinge period beautifully and in both inspiring and instructional ways. Keep publishing and thank you for sharing.
'hinge period' - I like that
You could boil all of this down to empathy. Which, I think, will be the difference between success and failure, as AI obliterates huge chunks of the industry and suddenly millions of people become irrelevant.
Humans are ultimately driven by emotion and feeling. AI can't understand that - neither can a lot of people. What the CMO unravelled there is exactly that. What Apple built their brand on was exactly that - they didn't sell a product, they sold a feeling. They made the iPod emotionally relevant. Competitors like Zune were vaporised and left in the dust as they failed to differentiate on features, even though their products were technically better.
It never ceases to amaze me how many businesses and brands can't understand this, and how many of them go wrong.
Check out The Four Stages of Competence. That was a concept I learned about in Kung Fu. Similar to what you're talking about with the Meijin, but I think it's more plain speaking and easier to relate to.
This is incredibly insightful. Written like a true Meijin. Thank you!
Extremely well said, Adrian. Thanks for publishing.
Just amazing.
Great article. Thanks
Your insights are mind blowing. Thanks for them.
Love this @adrian
Such a great read, thanks for sharing!
I normally dislike reading about AI because of the dystopic tone there usually is, but it was so pleasant to finally read someone differentiating between the kind of value AI brings versus the kind of value we as humans can
A wonderfully written article. I really like how you framed the challenge. However AI is brilliant at building up those patterns rapidly. I’m not convinced that if you fed this example and others like it to AI and asked it to reframe the consumer need in the same way drill bits got reframed to holes or hanging pictures for your spouse that couldn’t generate options.
What I doubt it can do is intuitively judge which one is right. When the CMO made their proclamation I’m sure they felt something and so did everyone else. A tingling on the back of the neck, a sense of completeness and satisfaction, a rising excitement at the possibilities it unlocks. I’m not convinced that recognition comes from patterns. I think it comes from empathy because we know the idea talks to us on a human level. It resonates with a core human need to relate our existence to something greater than ourselves. By feeling small, we briefly return to a child like state and absolve ourselves of all responsibility.
Then again I’m pretty sure we could map those states and feed into an AI to generate better options.
It’s seems the last bastion of human influence is going to be discernment. And that is something that takes a certain type of brain and a certain type of experience. Not all humans have it to the same degree.
So can AI help us quickly process the data needed to get to the solution? Yes. But we might lose the opportunity to immerse ourselves in it to “feel” the answer.
I don’t know about you but brand building is an emotional process for me. The frameworks are there to make the client feel secure. My heart is my guide to the answer.
After all this I’m still not sure what AI really means for brand strategy. If we could clients to appreciate the value of brand strategy more I would be happy.
Very interesting article. Thankyou for sharing
Considering AI's capacity to rewrite marketing rules towards hyper-personalization and predictive analytics, will this technological shift ultimately empower or erode the agency and genuine choice of the individual consumer?
Hi! I have launched a newsletter on creative and innovative campaigns. The French version has 14,000 subscribers (CMOs and creatives) and I have just launched the English edition if you want to have a look: https://hellokomando.substack.com
Really appreciate the insights. I do diverge from your conclusion though. I believe that a thoughtfully structured agent - after doing 90% of the heavy research and synthesis lifting - can ask provocative questions about 'what if', designed to inspired divergent thinking. I also believe it can hypothesize future potentials; it's unprecedented time saving that frees us humans up to connect with each other at deeper levels. Thanks for the thinking!
Great piece. Thoughtful articulation of an idea that a lot of people feel but have difficulty putting into words.