My new column is live in The Drum:
In 2024, marketers made many bold AI predictions. Which ones came true?
Sam Scott returns to mark the homework of 2024 marketing predictions in his column, The Promotion Fix. It’s an annual tradition that holds charlatans and the misguided to account. This year, his eye turns to AI.
While AI hype is meant to impress investors, analysts, and journalists, consumers actually do not care whether a product uses a glorified computer program. The research shows us this time and time again.
Research published this month in Harvard Business Review stated that people do not want AI that seems too human. Furthermore, consumers are reportedly distrustful of advertising that bombards them with mentions of the technology. With that in mind, I looked at predictions made about 2024, specifically about AI in marketing, scoring each for accuracy.
In 2018, I looked at Deloitte, Forrester, Gartner, Scott Galloway, HubSpot and Salesforce. (Here are the results.) The following year, GroupM, Kantar, MoffettNathanson Research and the World Federation of Advertisers went under my microscope. (See who won.) In 2021, it was Future Today Institute, GWI (formerly GlobalWebIndex), McKinsey, and Zenith Media’s turn. (Look at the scores.) Then, I looked back at many of the predictions that were made as the coronavirus pandemic was starting. (The results might be surprising.)
It’s cathartic to separate the wheat from the chaff. And it’s particularly important at a time when AI has the power to change entire industries.