In my view, this relationship is very close these days – I would even say essential. Marketing thrives on connecting and creating ideas, narratives, brand image and products, as well as identifying opportunities, and AI multiplies the number of solutions and the speed at which we can reach them.
I don’t believe AI will replace the work of marketing professionals; I see it more as a powerful new tool that simplifies and improves almost any task or action we might undertake in our work.
AI helps me explore approaches, visualise concepts much more easily, iterate more quickly and bring ideas to fruition that, without it, might take a long time to take shape. I see it as a tool that accelerates the experimental side of marketing, something that is essential in today’s climate.
What benefits does it offer?
The most important aspects are speed, the ability to test and refine ideas at no cost, and the versatility to achieve multiple outcomes. Thanks to AI, I can develop more versions of an idea, test the messages I want to convey, create different visual approaches, and generate potential creative directions with astonishing agility.
These tools (because there are many of them) also help teams that don’t have a strong marketing, design or production structure. I often say it’s like having twenty interns specialising in twenty different areas whom you can ask to do whatever you want, but of course, you have to know exactly what you’re asking for, you have to take the time to teach them and correct them and, above all, closely supervise the work they do for you.
For example, I find it incredibly useful for organising my thoughts, for visualising concepts that aren’t entirely clear to me, and for preparing creative approaches that later serve as a starting point for me to build on. The various AIs help me work more efficiently on a day-to-day basis and, interestingly, they help me overcome my fear of taking on new challenges, as I feel I have professionals by my side who will help me with them (and that’s exactly the case).
What practical applications does it have?
It has many; as far as I can tell, I’d say infinite. In that sense, the possible applications I know and use range from creating campaigns, the copy for them, claims or elaborate content structures. It also helps me generate visual assets, scripts, proposals for short videos, presentations or content versions adapted for different channels.
In turn, it helps me to personalise messages, to review and summarise complex information, to prepare commercial proposals, or to streamline the groundwork for any communication initiative. It has a very practical use as a first point of contact when faced with a challenge or an idea I want to develop: it helps me to unblock ideas, create initial drafts, explore multiple paths (many of which I would never have reached on my own) and save time on a multitude of tasks that add no value and which, previously, took up a lot of my time.
What challenges does this relationship face?
Doing something very quickly does not mean the work is well done or that it is correct.
The main challenge is not to accept or take whatever the AI offers you at face value if you lack judgement. In other words, if you are an expert in a particular field, you will be able to obtain AI results that give you peace of mind, because you will be able to review, modify and improve them. But if you have no idea about the subject, you’re very likely to make huge mistakes when using these tools; it can even be counterproductive.
There are also other types of challenges or aspects to bear in mind, such as originality, ethics, copyright, accuracy and the risk that everything starts to look too similar. In marketing, this is an important and sensitive issue, because a brand needs its own personality. AI can be a great help, but without a human touch behind it—a well-trained team with sound judgement, experience and talent—the result will clearly show that lack of human insight and touch.
How do creative AI and human creativity interact?
These are two elements that, when combined, multiply the results.
To give an example: if an artist like Rosalía uses AI to create, she might achieve something even better, bolder, more elaborate and more powerful than if she did it on her own. But, of course, we’re talking about a creative genius.
To take the opposite example: if I am the owner of a brand and want to save myself the cost of hiring a good graphic designer to launch a bus shelter campaign across Madrid, I can design a striking poster in three minutes with the help of AI. That said, I can assure you the result will still be mediocre, because if I’m not a designer I won’t have the necessary judgement and my approach will likely even be counterproductive or, at best, a waste of money.
However, if that same task is undertaken by the designer I was planning to hire, the result is elevated. I’ll be able to get a proper campaign: competitive, visually powerful and, above all, effective for the message we want to convey—not just pretty or eye-catching.
I don’t see these as two competing ‘creativities’; it’s more a conversation between the two, working together towards a result (which will undoubtedly benefit us).
Human creativity will be what defines aspects such as the starting point, the tone, the intention, the sensitivity and the criteria. AI can suggest ideas, open up multiple possibilities, speed up processes or even surprise us, but the vision remains the one we provide, the one we choose, the one we refine.
I use AI to heighten my own intuition, to explore multiple options when faced with a challenge or a project I want to undertake, and to be able to bring an idea I have in my head to fruition in a short space of time. The key to all this remains knowing the what, the why and the for whom of what you want to convey. Without that, AI is of little use to you.
