AI is being utilized in various mainstream businesses, and the field of marketing and advertising is no exception. AI is being used as a Swiss army knife in various processes involved in marketing and advertising, right from ideation to the final execution.

Hariom Seth, Founder of Tagglabs spoke to India today.in and commented "There are concerns about job displacement by AI but the reality is the current tools are good enough to only compliment the humans that use them. So let's dive into how AI is being leveraged to transform the advertising and marketing industry".

1. Content production: While traditional ways of content creation are still relevant in today's time. Several AI tools are used by creative individuals in the industry to streamline their creative processes. AI is not here to replace human creativity but to enhance it. Many use natural language processing tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Co-pilot to generate multiple ideas for a campaign. There are also AI image generation tools like Midjourney, Microsoft's Bing image generator, and Pika. art. AI-generated voiceovers are also used in several video ads. Eleven Labs is one such tool that has a large library of voice styles to choose from. Another fantastic platform is runwayML which lets creatives edit videos, add motion to still images, and generate lip sync AI videos on a browser-based app.

Although there is a constant tussle between creatives in the industry regarding the superiority between handcrafted V/s AI-generated content. The fact is that AI-generated content is slowly becoming mainstream and new joiners who are comfortable using these tools for their creative processes are appreciated in the industry, especially in companies that focus on new media advertising.

2. Automation: "Several processes in advertising and marketing can be automated and various AI tools make it happen through data-driven decision making. E.g. programmatic automation tools such as Adobe Advertising, MediaMath, and SmartyAds enable real-time bidding and placement of ads targeting very specific audiences. Several tools can schedule and track campaigns while also providing marketers with valuable insights. Most marketers now have to learn to analyze the data collected and customise campaigns according to the requirements. Therefore staying up to date about these AI automation tools is key" Says Seth.

3. Personalisation: Various campaigns have used AI-generated art and deepfake technologies to create viral advertisements. For example the famous Shah Rukh Khan DairyMilk ad where people were sent customised ads featuring their local shop's name based on the pincode. Similarly the Royal Stag ICC Men's World Cup AI ad used deepfake technology to let the user upload their selfies and voice samples to feature in ads along with their favourite cricket stars. In such cases only one video was shot as the base video and later deepfake was used to generate various personalised versions of the same. Therefore, more emphasis is being laid on finding and applying AI tools to cleverly generate personalised ads for better effectiveness. Advertisers are now expected to not just think creatively but also update themselves on the latest technological developments and intelligently use them in their work flow.