Text|A Zhi
Editor|Wang Xiaokun
Source|Chinese Minmin University & Miaozhen School of Marketing
Creativity, as a basic skill in the advertising and marketing industry, has been considered to be difficult to replace by artificial intelligence in the past, but with the advent of the era of intelligence, there is currently no consistent conclusion on whether the role of AI in promoting iteration or replacing vocational skills is currently unanimous.
From the perspective of advertising and marketing careers, the latest research shows that 11 (a total of 19) positions, including graphic design, editing, media placement, project management, etc., have an AI substitutability of more than 50%.
Tracing back to the level of talent training, including 12 (22 in total) advertising and marketing related majors such as business administration, digital media art, and e-commerce, AI substitution is more than 50%.
At the level of specific occupational skills and ranks, AI has a high probability of replacing "cognitive ability" and low-level employees, but occupational soft skills and managers cannot be replaced.
The above conclusions come from the latest paper "Iteration or Substitution of Vocational Skills?" by researchers from the University of Chinese and Miaozhen School of Marketing Science. Research on the Dual Evaluation System of AI Substitution in the Advertising and Marketing Industry (published in Modern Advertising, a core journal of Chinese journalism and communication, Issue 10, 2023, hereinafter referred to as "Research").
Through the dual evaluation system of experts (60 people, 55% college teachers and 45% marketing practitioners) and artificial intelligence (ChatGPT), the study systematically evaluates and quantifies the "substitution of artificial intelligence for professional skills in the advertising and marketing industry".
ChatGPT evaluation process dialogue example, source paper
Editing is the most "dangerous", marketing planning is temporarily safe
The evaluation results show that among the 19 occupations related to the advertising and marketing industry, the highest average evaluation of AI fungibility is editor, reaching 79%, AI can replace the skills of the position in the automatic generation of text content, intelligent recommendation and grammar correction, and the creative expression and optimization part is currently irreplaceable. At present, the two occupations with a relatively low proportion of AI fungibility are creative design and marketing planning, because imagination and creativity need to be led by people, while AI is currently more assisted in assisting in auxiliary design and optimization solutions.
Image source paper
Specific to the level of vocational skills, AI substitution of cognitive abilities is stronger, such as rapid tabulation, statistical analysis, reading materials, etc., and the substitutability of soft abilities is relatively low, such as the ability to communicate and influence others, upward management, peer collaboration, etc.
If divided by the level of positions in the marketing industry, the AI fungibility of ordinary employees is 54%, because their work content is more basic, cognitive ability accounts for a higher proportion of work, and the more senior managers are less fungible, AI currently does not have leadership, decision-making, team management and other capabilities.
Of course, in actual work, brand managers believe that the probability of replacement may not be completely reduced from low to high in line with the position level, because some decision-makers also have another view: compared with the two ends of executive employees and senior managers, middle managers may be replaced first.
Image source paper
Finally, at the level of training marketing talents, among the 22 advertising and marketing-related majors, experts and ChatGPT unanimously recognized that more than 50% of the fungibility majors include recording art, animation, e-commerce, painting, photography, visual communication design, digital media art, fine arts, journalism, history, business administration, drama, film and television art design.
Image source paper
The flattening of the organizational structure will affect the international division of labor in marketing
"There is indeed a high level of AI substitution in advertising and marketing-related professions." The research team pointed out that "generative AI replaces the previous models of multiple professional fields with an intelligent model, which also poses an alternative threat to advertising and marketing-related technology companies."
However, having "soft skills" has always been more advantageous, whether in the past or in the future workplace facing the reshaping of AI, creative problem-solving skills, management skills, communication skills and social communication skills are still unique to people - at least until AI has autonomous awareness.
In addition to the "substitution crisis", of course, there are also good aspects, and the great development of technology has promoted social progress without exception from the perspective of the long historical cycle. The research team believes that artificial intelligence will bring about a big explosion of marketing productivity, which is manifested in three aspects:
• Artificial intelligence has driven a sharp drop in production costs, which will directly drive a huge explosion of marketing productivity.
• The development of artificial intelligence can promote a flatter organizational structure. Through the sharing of information and knowledge, the improvement of automation, intelligent management and decision-making, etc., the internal hierarchy of the organization is reduced, the flexibility and efficiency of the organization are improved, so as to better adapt to changes in the market and changes in demand.
• The flattening of the organizational structure will also affect the international division of labor in marketing, and the cultural diversity and cost advantage of overseas marketing teams will be replaced. For example, there are already overseas marketing teams using AI to assist their work, and the research team believes that "this will lead to more and more marketing-related positions concentrated in brand owners rather than agencies." The past practice of hiring marketing teams in India and Eastern Europe to save costs will be reversed, which may to some extent bring about the reverse globalization of the marketing industry."