"From the Power to Create to the Power to Define Meaning: How Generative AI is Transforming the Advertising Industry"

The boundary between advertising companies and technology firms is rapidly blurring.

Data analysis, customer management, generative AI, marketing automation, software development. The current advertising business cannot be sustained by merely creating copy and visuals and placing them on TV or the internet.

It is required to understand the business challenges faced by customers and to build systems that lead to business growth by combining technology, creativity, data, and human resources.

Does this change weaken the creativity of the advertising industry, or does it expand the value that advertising companies can offer?

Guga Ketzer, who leads the Brazilian advertising company Suno United Creators, appeared on UOL's program "Mídia e Marketing" to discuss advertising, organizations, and human resources in the era of generative AI.

What emerges from his remarks is not a simple dichotomy of "AI or humans."

The question is not whether to adopt technology, but what to use the capabilities and time gained through technology for.

The era of selling the same service to all customers is over

Ketzer views advertising companies as service enterprises.

However, he believes that not all customers should be offered the same package. Different companies require different services.

Some companies may need advanced marketing systems utilizing data. For others, a large-scale campaign centered on television might be effective. Yet another company may need an experience design that connects apps, stores, e-commerce, social media, and customer service into one.

In other words, the value of an advertising company lies not in selling pre-prepared products but in its ability to adapt its organization and capabilities to the challenges of its customers.

This represents a significant shift for traditional advertising companies.

Departments such as planning, production, media, data, and system development cannot address complex challenges if they operate independently. It is necessary to gather the required experts for each project and create an environment where people speaking different languages can collaborate.

The competitiveness of an advertising company is no longer measured solely by whether it has talented copywriters or filmmakers.

It is about identifying the unique problems of each customer, forming the optimal team, and combining technology and expression. This itself has become a creative capability.

Advertising is a technology industry and simultaneously a "people industry"

The advertising industry has incorporated much more technology than before.

Yet, Ketzer emphasizes that advertising is an industry built by people.

This stance is symbolized by Suno's response when they lost a major client, Santander.

Typically, losing a major client would make reducing personnel costs a management issue. Experienced employees, who command high salaries, are often the target for short-term cost reductions.

However, Suno decided to retain its core personnel within the organization.

If the value of an advertising company is created by the experience, knowledge, relationships, and judgment of its employees, losing excellent personnel would mean relinquishing future competitiveness.

The work of advertising is not something completed by a single genius working alone.

It is born from the accumulation of judgments by many people, including strategists, copywriters, designers, filmmakers, data analysts, engineers, salespeople, and producers.

Since results are created by the collective, human resources are not just costs. They are the very foundation of the business, including the human relationships and collaborative experiences accumulated within the organization.

The organizational philosophy embodied in "Suno = Sun"

The name Suno means "sun" in Esperanto.

Ketzer emphasizes aligning people with different personalities and expertise around a common purpose, much like the sun binds different planets into one orbit.

Here, "aligning" does not mean making everyone think the same way.

It means creating an organization that can move toward the same goal while maintaining different backgrounds, values, and expertise.

With the spread of generative AI, everyone can now use similar tools. Therefore, the difference lies in who gathers in the organization, what discussions take place, and what values are prioritized in making decisions.

Even if the same AI is used, the results will not be the same between a team where everyone has similar experiences and a team where people with different cultures and expertise engage in discussions.

The more technology becomes standardized, the more organizational differences become a competitive advantage.

Ketzer's concept of the sun is linked to organizational design in the AI era.

Creativity is not just the "technique of making beautiful advertisements"

Generative AI has significantly increased the speed of creating images, videos, text, and audio.

There are now more situations where multiple prototypes can be created in a short time, which previously took several days. Production costs have decreased, allowing small businesses and individuals to challenge advanced expressions.

Looking only at these changes, it might seem that the value of human creators' production skills is declining.

However, the creativity Ketzer speaks of does not merely mean the skill of making advertisements look beautiful.

Creativity also involves viewing problems from different angles, discovering issues that even the customer cannot articulate, and presenting ideas different from existing options.

AI excels at generating a large number of ideas according to given conditions.

But what should be asked in the first place? Which idea suits the brand? What impression will that expression give to society? Which ideas should not be used now?

Such judgments require human experience, values, and responsibility.

As the number of producible ideas increases, the ability to choose becomes more important than the ability to create.

The ability to select one from a hundred ideas, explain the reason for the choice, and convince stakeholders is likely to become more valuable than the ability to generate a hundred ideas.

"The combination of AI and talented humans is unbeatable"

Ketzer expresses a desire to work with people who, despite feeling anxious about losing their jobs to AI, have confidence in their talents.

Underlying this is the belief that the combination of AI and talented humans produces a power that cannot be realized by either alone.

AI excels at organizing vast amounts of information, discovering patterns, expanding ideas, and automating tasks.

On the other hand, humans can interpret ambiguous situations, understand others' emotions, make ethical judgments, and take responsibility for outcomes.

It is not humans themselves who are likely to lose value in the AI era.

It is the way of working that involves repeating predetermined tasks without considering the purpose or context.

Conversely, those who can use AI to streamline research and initial production and direct the gained time towards dialogue with customers, strategy, verification, and improvement can create greater value than before.

The important thing is not to fill the time created by AI with even more tasks.

It is to direct it towards judgments and thoughts that only humans can make.

Marketing personnel will be needed in software development

Ketzer sees the role of marketing and communication specialists as understanding humans.

This ability is not only used in advertising production.

When companies develop apps or online services, it is not enough to create something that works technically. It is necessary to consider where users get confused, what they feel anxious about, what words they can understand, and what steps they can continue to take.

Excellent software is not just software with many functions.

It is software that the necessary people can use the necessary functions without hesitation and with confidence.

Its design requires not only data analysis but also observation, conversation, and an understanding of culture and emotions.

Future marketing personnel may shift from being people who create advertisements to those who translate human behavior and desires into technology.

This does not mean that programmers will become unnecessary. It means the necessity for technologists and human understanding specialists to collaborate from the early stages of development will increase.

The proximity of advertising companies to technology does not necessarily mean the loss of creativity.

If the ability to understand humans is applied to the design of products and services, the scope in which advertising companies can demonstrate creativity will actually expand.

The disappearance of "jobs to gain experience" for young people

Among the issues Ketzer pointed out, the entry of young people into the market is particularly serious.

Until now, newcomers have gained experience by handling relatively limited tasks such as information gathering, organizing materials, simple image creation, drafting text, and data entry.

However, these tasks are easily replaceable by generative AI.

While this is efficiency for companies, it could mean the loss of learning opportunities for young people.

If companies only hire experienced individuals and leave tasks for newcomers to AI, there will be a shortage of experienced individuals in a few years.

Closing the entry point to the industry weakens the industry's own human resource base in the long term.

Therefore, what is taught to young people must also change.

If AI drafts text, young people must be taught how to evaluate and revise drafts. If AI gathers information, they need to develop the ability to question the reliability of information, compare it, and decide which information to adopt.

It is necessary to teach not only operational methods but also judgment criteria, problem setting, dialogue with customers, leadership, and responsibility for results.

Newcomer training will likely shift from a method of sequentially experiencing simple tasks to one where they participate in actual judgments at an early stage.

The "expectations," "caution," and "employment anxiety" visible on social media

Since the program was recently released, direct reactions to the program itself on social media are still limited within the scope that can be confirmed through public searches.

On the other hand, by looking at AI-related posts published by Brazilian advertising, marketing, and education professionals, one can see that discussions overlapping with Ketzer's statements are actively taking place.

Broadly speaking, three reactions can be seen.

1. Voices welcoming the combination of AI and humans

The first is a reaction that evaluates AI not as a competitor to humans but as a tool to extend human capabilities.

In public posts, opinions are expressed that it is important to combine not only humans with AI but also rare talents, different experiences, curiosity, humor, and critical perspectives.

Comments on the posts also show voices evaluating that learning AI does not lead to a loss of creativity but rather expands the options for ideas and production.

This reaction is close to Ketzer's idea of the "combination of AI and talented humans."

Simply introducing AI does not make an organization creative.

The results change depending on who uses it, what experiences they have, what questions they ask, and what judgment criteria they have.

2. Caution against the homogenization of advertising

The second is a concern that AI might make advertising and brand expressions similar.

If multiple companies use the same tools and give similar instructions, there is a possibility that a large number of advertisements that are efficient and well-organized but not memorable will be created.

Posts by Brazilian advertising professionals show a caution against the loss of Brazilian culture, music, humor, emotion, and storytelling in advertising, even while evaluating the productivity of AI.

Comments also reflect the sentiment that AI should be used to speed up the production process, but the uniqueness of brands and regions should not be left to machines.

Another post points out that without cultural knowledge, observation, experience, and criticism, the result is likely to be "something seen somewhere."

As AI becomes more widespread, the conditions for excellent advertising shift from production techniques to human experience and cultural understanding.

Now that anyone can create, the judgment of what not to create and what to protect becomes important.

3. Anxiety about narrowing entry points for young people

The third is anxiety about the reduction of opportunities for newcomers and young people to gain experience.

On social media, the automation of tasks previously handled by interns and young employees, such as research, organization, summarization, and drafting, raises concerns about the loss of initial experience opportunities.

Reactions to the posts also express doubts about how future skilled workers will be trained if AI takes over basic tasks.

Young people were not just learning simple tasks.

Through work, they acquired priorities, customer intentions, internal procedures, handling failures, and quality standards.

If the process is removed and young people are expected to have advanced judgment skills from the start, companies will be demanding experienced capabilities from those without experience.

To balance AI efficiency and human resource development, companies must intentionally design learning opportunities.

The meaning behind the statement "Looking to the East"

Ketzer states that to understand AI and the future of the world, it is necessary to look not only at Western discussions centered on the United States but also to the East.

This statement is not merely about comparing which country's technology is advanced.

It can be seen as a proposal to re-examine the success models and values we unconsciously accept from a different perspective.

When talking about advertising and technology, many companies refer to the same platforms, the same executives, and the same success stories. As a result, imaginations about the future tend to be similar.

Creativity is also the ability to distance oneself from