What Does The Future Of AI In Media Look Like?

Everything that AI will do in the next 6 months will completely disrupt the media business...

Look - I own a “media” company, so this topic and my response to this raw and unfiltered because while many thought leaders will speculate… I’m living this sh*t daily.

The big picture view

Media companies aren’t going anywhere (well except for maybe legacy media like CNN, FOX, etc.) but the creative agencies, ad buying agencies, and marketing agency world is getting a huge overhaul.

The emphasis on why you are going to hire an agency instead of just prompting your way to the end result is because of the high level thinking and experience of the agency instead of the commodity that is production.

The next big chapter in media

A lot of “sacred cows” that my media team currently believes in, I firmly don’t align with. This is not because they aren’t thinking big enough, or aren’t adapting to the tools, but is because the old key performance indicators that they have known and loved for the last 20+ years is no longer the driving force behind successful content.

As we go into the next chapter of media, the biggest thing I am pushing with my media team is the AI isn’t going to do the thinking for you. Whether that is creative, strategic, placements, etc.. AI simply isn’t going to understand the arbitrage that is the current media landscape.

All the value in the world is going to land in the hands and wallets of the thinkers!

For example…

If you go to ESPN.com I promise that not a single one of you has ever clicked on a banner ad that is presented to you every time you go there.

Or take Reddit - while it’s a great platform, the media buying side is extremely low performance on conversions and purchases for brands. It’s not a good arbitrage of your dollars in exchange for purchases/leads/form fills.

This type of knowledge and critical thinking is what AI will not be able to replace because the information is not actionable - it’s not a commodity action.

If I was new into the workforce

I have two younger siblings (18 - recent HS grad & 17 - going into senior year) and my message to them has been the same for the last 10 years… get really good at problem solving and critical thinking - don’t memorize or worry about studying facts.

There is no need to have the encyclopedic knowledge anymore - I can look up anything, solve 99.999% of my math problems in a few seconds, and have AI code any piece of software for me in a couple hours.

What AI isn’t going to do is follow micro trends, think strategically, and know the humanistic ticks that all of us do on a daily basis.

So, if I were new into the workforce and I wanted to get into media, marketing, advertising, content, etc. - I would become a strategic thinking master. I would explore various avenues that challenged my ability to creatively problem solve in real time and understand human psychology at a fundamental level.

The good news is that none of that requires a college degree, and can save you a ton of money on an education that a machine will replace in the next 1-3 years.

Let me know your thoughts on this by dropping a comment below.