AI agents want to take over marketing but humans must stay in charge

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Will artificial intelligence (AI) agents take over the marketing functions of an enterprise? Will conducting market research, unearthing consumer insights (and new product ideas), making pricing decisions and developing evocative advertising campaigns be taken over by AI agents? In my career, one of the most successful advertising campaigns I was part of was the ‘dishum dishum’ campaign for Pepsodent toothpaste. I remember the various stages of developing that campaign.

For several years, the key thought that drove Pepsodent’s advertising campaigns was that they should always have some new news about the brand. So, the latest findings of the company’s research and development (R&D) team were almost always projected in the brand’s ad campaigns. Those days, I had just begun understanding the human brain’s functioning.

Even my early readings on the brain convinced me that this vital organ is an energy-optimizing machine and not interested in processing new knowledge. Armed with this newfound learning from brain sciences, I presented a new advertising strategy for Pepsodent. It was a single-slide presentation.

Since the core position taken by Pepsodent in the market had been as a germ-fighter for a long time, I suggested that we focus on strengthening this positioning and not be distracted by fresh news. I recall the marketing head’s reaction to my suggestion of changing our focus away from new news. He crumbled the printout of my presentation and asked me, “Do you think by moving away from our past practices, we will achieve the market share gain we are looking for?" He got up in apparent anger, threw the crumbled paper on the table and left the room.