“The genie is out of the bottle. I fear that AI may replace humans altogether” -Stephen Hawking Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the intelligence displayed by machines as a result of digital information and algorithms. It has been continuously evolving with the evolution in technology and the Human race has made it so. Since its creation in 1950s, AI has grown up to be one of the most powerful tools of the modern world which is not only efficient and helpful but can also result into an irreversible damage of the human race. The invention has been based on the assumption that the processes of human thought can be mechanized. And with the advances in research and computer software-hardware, this has been possible at some levels. AI has been taught too well and has been working efficiently for many different purposes. AI has been changing how businesses work. A single AI is capable of doing the job of 500 humans and without error making it easy to be replaced for humans in many industries. In his latest interview with WIRED, Hawking said that the world will be soon unemployed as the artificial intelligence is taking over the middle class jobs. He warned that AI will soon become super intelligent — potentially enough so that it could replace humankind. Many researchers have predicted that humanity will soon reach a “technological singularity” which is defined by the Oxford dictionary as “A hypothetical moment in time when artificial intelligence and other technologies have become so advanced that humanity undergoes a dramatic and irreversible change.”

However, Apple’s Siri or Google’s Cortana are the minimal type of “intelligence” or merely voice recognition Enabled Digital Assistants. There still lies a great difference in a voice enabled assistant and artificial intelligence, the one like IBM’s Watson. AI, unlike the voice enabled digital assistants, has an incredible potential to simplify, accelerate and improve many aspects of businesses and our lives. Although AI is a step towards a more technologically secure future of the mankind, it still needs to be monitored closely to understand its self-perpetuating evolution. It is possible that the AI may develop its own language and become more powerful than the human brain. There is a need to proceed with caution and always maintain some means of disabling it or shutting it down.

Advertising is a field which has long been obsessed with human behavior. It makes use of the most complex human emotions to market any category of products in the best possible way. It requires a lot of creative thinking that is unique for every brand and product. It is true that brands still need human creatives to handle strategy and come up with ideas. But AI can handle all the manual work that is time consuming and prone to error. With the help of computers that can ingest and process massive quantities of data, extract patterns and information at a rate faster than humans, AI has a potential to completely take over the advertising by taking briefs from clients and setting up a process of work with little or no human presence.

AI has the potential to document choices of every individual every time he/she is shopping at a mall or getting food delivered from a particular place. All of this information is stored in the system of an AI and it may make suggestions every time the person is out shopping or ordering food.  It provides a personalized experience to every customer as it can transform a vast amount of complex data into information and perform personal analysis of consumers and buyers in the market. This gives the AI equipped agencies an edge over others as they exactly know where to invest, what sells and what to deliver to the clients. But obviously, AI needs to be tailored according to every client’s needs and the specifics of the desired output. Along with inputs like the location data from mobile phones, credit card transaction data and local information like the news and weather, AI is all set to deliver an exclusive advertising experience to every user. The day isn’t far when AI will dominate the advertising sector completely. The advertising industry has been rapidly adopting this technology and making use of the oceans of information we, as consumers provide openly, to their benefit and can anyone really blame them? Maybe not.