Artificial Intelligence Marketing - Where does it lead?

Many people have heard the headline stories about how artificial intelligence is automating away jobs, reducing waste through improved forecast accuracy, and even predicting what a consumer will do next. Today, company's are looking at even more applications for AI including the age old question: "what will a consumer want tomorrow." The implication of this is that AI could be the engine that fuels future innovation for things like flavor variants in food, body styles of cars, or vacation destinations through optimized airplane routes. While this could be a huge benefit for company's competing for the next best product, this also could lead to a world where biased algorithms lead us into the future and have an eventual singular convergence point where everything and everyone is equalized.

The implications for this in digital marketing have yielded significant reward/advantage and company's are looking for more:

1. Customized messages
2. Automated marketing processes that save time and money
3. Reduced targeting errors
4. Increased touch points with high potential consumers
5. Improved conversion results

But what if every company employing digital marketing strategies had the same AI algorithms - does it lead us down a road of uniformity and eliminate the competitive advantage that used to be the brilliant digital marketer or premium ad agency? My personal opinion is that AI has many benefits but it cannot and will not be a predictor of future creative ideas. It can help spot growing trends before they appear or look at a trend that is bound to return, but to think AI can predict the next trend is saying human behavior follows a predictable path, when in reality so much of culture is informed by chance and random events. AI companies that claim they can help find the next creative idea are much further away than we think, and for now, company's will continue to hire creative agencies and brilliant marketers to build strategies the old fashion way.