According to the company, 67% of marketing professionals view technology positively
The use of generative artificial intelligence (GenIA) has become increasingly common in the market and, according to a survey by Kantar, 67% of marketing professionals view the technology positively.
Meanwhile, the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) study showed that 45% of executives reported that they use AI to identify themes, domains, adjacencies and innovation technologies, but only 13% said they had noticed some impact from this implementation.
Now, in the new Connected Innovation report, Kantar is addressing the way in which innovation, if worked correctly, can add value to a brand.
“As marketers have more positive attitudes towards AI and are eager to provide better, more personalized products and services, we will see many experiencing its benefits,” said Juliana Honda, CX lead at Kantar.
According to the company’s pilot data, creative concepts and campaigns generated by AI may have poor responses when tested because the technology may lack understanding around a crucial consumer view, a human and nuanced view.
This can be explained by information given by Kantar which says that these campaigns usually resort to a strategy of adding more benefits because they believe that this is the best path to a successful creative and, therefore, although artificial intelligence is an important tool for professionals who work with innovation, some of their applications cannot replace the consumer’s vision.
The company also explains that AI can also be applied at the other end, when testing concepts, offering feedback generated by this technology to help brands have initial impressions about the possible results of their campaigns, but that this does not exclude the need in-depth exploratory research or consumer-based evaluation.
In short, the challenge is balancing machine insights with human interpretation to ensure that new concepts are appropriate for the brand through expert adjustments.
“Just because you can create something new using AI doesn’t mean you should. Brands seen as innovative do so with clear goals and long-term intent, not just to increase short-term sales. To emulate the success of these innovative brands, regardless creation, you must remain faithful to the essential qualities of your brand”, explained the executive.
In the study, Kantar also gathered three tips for improving a brand’s innovation process through AI. The first of them suggests that companies use technology as part of a “hybrid innovation” process, that is, using it as an assistant and, from that, encourage creative teams to combine human creativity with technology to create relevant ideas.
The second point asks that the market not forget the human experience since, although technology can predict what will become significant, it does not always understand the complexity of contexts and emotions.
According to Kantar, companies should use a variety of research techniques to truly understand what people value and how they are likely to respond to brand innovations with the aim of identifying what can help accelerate adoption of the innovation and What will be the main barriers?
Finally, the report also asks that companies not lose sight of the significant difference between technology and humans, reinforcing the need not to fall into the same thing. One of the biggest challenges when it comes to innovating is offering significant differences to consumers and, for this, it is essential to ensure that ideas generated from GenAI bring something new, relevant and different.
