Artificial intelligence isn’t coming for your job. But it is coming for your bad habits. For months, the headlines have screamed that AI will wipe out creative industries. The reality? It’s not the end of marketing. It’s the end of average marketing.
With instant creation tools, hyper-personalisation and real-time optimisation, AI has made it impossible to hide behind bland, functional campaigns.
If your big idea is just another template, AI can crank it out faster, cheaper, and at terrifying scale. And consumers can tell.
It may seem a daunting threat, but in fact, it could be freedom.
Less grunt work, more guts
The magic of AI isn’t in replacing marketers, it’s in stripping out the tedious stuff. Automating asset versions, resizing for different platforms, and crunching data. The kind of work that eats up your time and saps your energy.
What’s left? The work that actually matters: strategy, storytelling, and being culturally daring. The bold leaps and decisions that belong to you alone.
For too long, efficiency has been the holy grail. But AI makes efficiency a commodity. If everyone can optimise, then bravery becomes the only differentiator. The brands that dare to provoke and create experiences that feel unmistakably human are the ones that will win.
From shortcuts to accountability
AI also makes corner-cutting easier to spot. Consumers are savvy. They know when they’re being served something soulless, even if it looks polished. In a world of infinite machine-made content, sameness is terminal.
That means mediocrity is no longer safe. The middle of the road has collapsed. AI is raising the floor, but it’s also raising the stakes.
With more choice, make sure you’re chosen
It’s not just brands that use AI. Consumers do, too. Bots can sift the internet for the perfect product, and agents can run social interactions on your behalf. For Gen Z and beyond, that won’t feel futuristic, and it’ll become the norm faster than you think.
This means your brand can’t only be findable. It has to be chosen from a line up. Bots will recommend what’s already culturally resonant, emotionally loaded, or socially relevant. AI can process the transaction, but it can’t manufacture the meaning that earns a place in the shortlist. That’s still on us.
That’s where creativity proves its worth. Everything else? Automate it.
Back your own bravery
AI isn’t a job-killer. It’s a lie detector. It exposes lazy thinking and rewards boldness. It forces marketers to stop hiding behind process and face the only question that matters: is this work extraordinary, or is it forgettable?
If it’s the latter, AI will do it better.
But if it’s the former – AI becomes an amplifier. It makes great work louder, sharper and harder to ignore.
AI isn’t here to replace us. It’s here to make us braver. And in an industry that too often plays it safe, maybe it’s exactly what we need.
Django Weisz Blanchetta is co-founder and chief executive of SuperHeroes
