Artificial intelligence is poised to change the way we think about art, advertising and branding. Here are three ways AI will impact advertising.

3 Ways AI Powered Art Will Impact Advertising | Union

3 Ways AI-Powered Art Will Impact Advertising

DALL-E 2, Midjourney, Disco Diffusion. The new crop of emerging technologies have names that sound like the title of a science fiction novel – or the second coming of Silicon Valley. The power of artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly making waves across the art realm. Not only do creative technologists have some fun new phrases to throw around like “Multimodal AI” and “neural networks,” but AI is on its way to heavily impacting the work we do in the marketing, advertising and agency world. 
While I won’t pretend to understand everything that goes into it, the general concept is simple. The beauty of the technology is that it combines the inputs of multiple sources to generate complex imagery. Many of these new platforms take a text input such as “Van Gogh Astronaut Drinking Lemonade” and then, through the power of AI, they generate an image. The AI is able to understand the context of the prompt’s content and artistic style preferences. And it does so with astonishing results.
Before all the art directors reading this put in their two weeks notice or clients slash their Q4 budgets to rely on AI instead of actual creatives for content generation, we have to see this AI-driven advertising revolution for what it is. This is a new tool in the creative process. The way we generate ideas has always been collaborative. It’s always been about bringing together teams with diverse skill sets, knowledge and experiences to find unexpected solutions. 
Here’s another way to say it: It’s always been about combining inputs from multiple sources to generate complex outputs. Sound familiar?
AI is quickly finding its seat at the table. But it’s becoming a member of the team, not a replacement for team members themselves. AI tools still require a creative spark. A brilliant team of strategists and creatives to direct its impressive power. 
So what does AI-driven advertising look like? What role will generative AI art play in our work at agencies over the next year?

Creative teams will leverage AI art platforms to more rapidly generate ideas. By entering prompts and organizing mood boards, teams can generate more inspiration for campaigns.

(1) Idea generation

Creating spec work for new business pitches can be a significant agency expense. If AI tools can generate imagery close enough to convey an idea, this will help teams execute projects with more speed and less expense.

(2) New business pitches

Illustration or generating <a href="https://union.co/services/branded-content/3d">3D assets</a> often requires specialized skills or software. Leveraging AI tools to create base assets that designers can then composite into their final artwork will expand what they’re capable of creating on their own.
While some agencies have begun developing and training their own artificially intelligent systems to assist in <a href="https://union.co/services/performance-media/campaign-creative-concepting">creative client work</a>, the day we can generate brilliant ads at the push of a button still appears far off. That said, technology is advancing at a meteoric pace and may surprise us all with the rise of AI-powered advertising. But for its many impressive capabilities, I still predict clients will ask the AI to make the logo bigger.

(3) Expanded capabilities

Union is a creative &amp; performance marketing agency that creates omni-channel campaigns, unleashing creativity on a data-driven world, helping brands produce memorable, measurable and repeatable results. Obsessed with data-driven performance, we believe every marketing dollar should be viewed as an investment. Our clients expect a meaningful return and we prove the ROI of our work with quantifiable data.