Marketing sector seen to benefit from AI

THE country's marketing industry must embrace innovations like artificial intelligence (AI), Philippine Marketing Association (PMA) officials said Saturday.

Guesting at the «Business and Politics» program hosted by The Manila Times Chairman and CEO Dante «Klink» Ang 2nd, PMA President Sy Bryan Lato and PMA Youth and Academe Chairman Leah Marie Ayeng said marketers must adopt AI.

«With AI, marketers are able to understand the usage or the attitude of online consumers without, you know, going through the data. It's creating a report for us instantaneously,» Lato said. «Technology is something that we cannot prevent. Change is constant, so we have to adapt.»

Ayeng, who is also the general manager at Prestige Quality Paper Products, said AI tools can make the work of marketers more efficient if properly used.

«Actually, it's the same as Google when we first introduced it. Especially in education, the academe is very adamant because it might probably replace the library, but it [has] made our students more efficient. They get to have more resources,» she said.

AI tools could become an integral component of metaverse marketing, a new-age marketing approach that offers immersive and interactive experiences to potential consumers in virtual worlds, the PMA executives said.

«The consumers are getting younger and younger… They are the ones who are native when it comes to the internet, so they're demanding more gamification when it comes to marketing strategies and applications,» Lato said.

He said the industry is «most likely» headed toward using AI more in some aspects of business operations while reiterating that it would not pose a threat to employment opportunities.

«If there are jobs that would be lost, definitely, there are new jobs like AI prompters, AI engineers, and so many [other] things. It keeps on evolving. I don't see it in the future that it would be self-reliant without human intervention,» Lato said.

Recently, GMA Integrated News drew heavy criticism online for introducing the country's first AI sportscasters at the opening of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) season, with many expressing concerns about its potential to replace human workers.