What does the future of AI-powered marketing look like? A recent Bloomberg TV segment featuring WPP CTO Stephan Pretorius and Mastercard CMO Raja Rajamannar offers a compelling glimpse. Their discussion, exploring the possibilities through the lens of WPP Open, reveals how AI is empowering marketers to unlock new levels of innovation and efficiency.

The conversation, also available for playback on Bloomberg as part of the Quantum Marketing series, underscores a critical point: AI is not replacing human ingenuity; it's amplifying it. WPP Open provides our teams with access to the latest AI tools, enabling them to work smarter, faster and more creatively. It's about augmenting human capabilities.

The segment delves into the urgent need for transformation in the face of rapid technological advancements. As Stephan Pretorius notes, "Almost all of our large clients are grappling with what is the right transformation they need to go through that sets them up for a future that is more streamlined, more efficient, more automated. Ultimately because people are beginning to realise that if you don’t do that work now, you’re not going to be ready for AI. And so in an interesting way, it’s almost like the future is putting pressure on the present if you know what I mean." This sentiment is echoed by Raja Rajamannar, who acknowledges the feeling of obsolescence in the face of constant innovation, forcing a re-evaluation of strategic approaches: "Totally agree with you. I think everyone sees this complexity and everyone is trying to figure out what should be the best playbook for themselves. And every day you’re trying to think about it, you already feel you’re obsolete because three more things have been launched while you were sleeping. And that has to really force you to re-think your whole strategic approach."

A key takeaway from the discussion is the importance of combining AI technology with proprietary data and unique domain knowledge. Pretorius challenges the conventional wisdom that knowing who someone is the key to effective marketing, arguing that "the magic of AI in business happens when you combine AI technology, with proprietary data, with unique domain knowledge. And I think the biggest fallacy on the data side is that people have been telling marketers that if you know who someone is you can market to them better. And frankly that is not really true. Very often contextual data about where you are, what’s the weather like etc… are far more useful in terms of predicting behaviour than who you are." This highlights the need for a more nuanced and data-driven approach to understanding consumer behaviour.

The conversation also tackles the crucial question of AI's role in creativity. While many believe that AI cannot generate original creative content, Pretorius offers a more nuanced perspective: "It really depends on what you define as creativity. True innovation, truly new ideas… are actually quite rare." AI can play a valuable role in augmenting and enhancing human creativity, even if it cannot replace it.

The feature’s key takeaway? The future belongs to those who strategically blend AI with human ingenuity.

Learn more about how WPP Open can help you navigate this new era of marketing.