I think therefore I am…? An exploration of artificial intelligence (AI) marketing practitioner perceptions and practices Thimothy Edward Bant Breen http://hdl.handle.net/10803/668994 Rgtre. Fund. Generalitat de Catalunya núm. 472 (28-02-90) ADVERTIMENT. L'accés als continguts d'aquesta tesi doctoral i la seva utilització ha de respectar els drets de la persona autora. Pot ser utilitzada per a consulta o estudi personal, així com en activitats o materials d'investigació i docència en els termes establerts a l'art. 32 del Text Refós de la Llei de Propietat Intelꞏlectual (RDL 1/1996). Per altres utilitzacions es requereix l'autorització prèvia i expressa de la persona autora. En qualsevol cas, en la utilització dels seus continguts caldrà indicar de forma clara el nom i cognoms de la persona autora i el títol de la tesi doctoral. 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In any case, when using its content, full name of the author and title of the thesis must be clearly indicated. Reproduction or other forms of for profit use or public communication from outside TDX service is not allowed. Presentation of its content in a window or frame external to TDX (framing) is not authorized either. These rights affect both the content of the thesis and its abstracts and indexes. C. Claravall, 1-3 | 08022 Barcelona | Tel. 93 602 22 00 | Fax 93 602 22 49 | [email protected] | www.url.edu I Think Therefore I am…? Abstract Abstract "I think, therefore I am...? An exploration of artificial intelligence (AI) marketing perceptions and practices", Bant Breen, Ph.D. thesis supervised by Pere Masip Masip, from Blanquerna School of Communications and International Relations, 2019. This thesis explores perceptions of artificial intelligence (AI) by the advertising industry and contrasts those perceptions with the state of AI marketing development today. The advertising industry is an interesting focal point for a discussion regarding AI because it is one of the emblematic creatively focused industries, and creative is often viewed as an area where machines can only copy or support and not ideate. Artificial intelligence (AI) is the intelligence exhibited by machines. In computer science, an ideal "intelligent" machine is a flexible rational agent that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chance of success at an arbitrary goal (Russell and Norvig, 2003). AI technology developments are changing society. Some are small improvements like Google's AI enhancements in its’ Gmail product that makes it easier and faster to respond to messages. Others are on-going shifts like Tesla's version iterations to autonomous vehicle software. And even others such as Echo, Amazon's voice-activated personal assistant for your home, begin to make AI-enabled machines part of daily life. In the media space, Facebook's Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg offers chat-bots in their instant messaging platform that speak to consumers for brands. I Think Therefore I am…? Abstract In the advertising and marketing world, artificial intelligence is starting to be more than a science fiction topic or a nifty copy strategy. Creatives, media executives, and AdTech entrepreneurs are actively exploring AI. In 2016, the advertising firm McCann announced that their Japanese youth division titled McCann Millennials had built and was using an AI creative director (Doland, 2016). In contrast to the movement towards AI, several legendary ad creators remain firmly committed to the idea of the individual creative human being staying solely at the center of the media and marketing creative process. In recent years, legendary ad executive Sir John Hegarty, defended the critical role humans play to reason and curate and ultimately create great marketing (Arthur, 2016). The primary research for the thesis is a survey of key stakeholders in the advertising and marketing world on the topic of artificial intelligence. After fielding the questionnaire, a smaller set of respondents participated in follow-up interviews to expand their opinions on various areas of the survey. This thesis explores the topic of artificial intelligence in marketing and the perception of AI by marketers. The results show an industry cautiously interested in AI and its potential, but woefully unaware and unprepared for the challenges this technological leap-forward presents. The majority of participants in the study highlighted their limited understanding of AI. Out of the 440 respondents, the vast majority of the data fell in the lowest quartile, being in the 3/3.5 range out of 10. When asked how creative AI can be, I Think Therefore I am…? Abstract participants consistently responded negatively, with an average of 3.0 on a scale of 1 to 10 in terms of how creative AI can become. When asked what jobs AI can replace, roles that received the highest number of mentions for "cannot be replaced by AI" were mostly creative, strategic or leadership. An astounding 82% of respondents said their companies did not offer training in AI. This thesis wrestles with the luddite and progressive perspectives of AI in marketing and the machine-learning breakthroughs that challenge the role of the marketing department and advertising industry. I Think Therefore I am…? Dedication Dedication To my wife Carmen, thank you for your love and, as a fellow author, empathy through the process of envisioning and writing this thesis. & To Alejandro and Nico, my clever and creative sons who will be part of the generation that fully embraces artificial intelligence in their lives and work. I Think Therefore I am…? Acknowledgement Acknowledgement Five years ago, Dean Carbonell invited me to guest lecture at Blanquerna. At the time, I had no idea that someday I would be completing a thesis at this esteemed institution. I am grateful for the opportunity to learn, work, and collaborate with the talented faculty and student body of this university. I would be remiss not to give special acknowledgment to Dr. Pere Masip Masip, who guided me through the arduous process of a doctorate and provided wisdom and counsel throughout. Also, thanks go to Dean Josep Maria Carbonell, who introduced me to Blanquerna and inspired, mentored and challenged me along the way. All research projects require hours of work on data processing, list management, and analysis. Thanks go to my Qnary colleagues Ranjitha Arulmani and Marc Reichel for generously assisting me in the survey data management as well as the email campaign to survey respondents. Also, I am grateful for the sage, analytic counsel of my professional marketing research colleague Sarah Ivey. Lastly, I also want to thank author Jim Sterne for taking the time to speak with me and also to share his book with me. I want to thank my father Dr. T.H. Breen who taught me to value and respect the world of education, research, and scholarship. And to my late grandfather Dr. George Breen who wrote some of the seminal books about marketing research and taught me how to understand and interpret customer data. Wow, to think what he would have thought of the emerging world of AI… I Think Therefore I am…? Contents Table of Contents Introduction...……………………………………………………………………………….....11 0.1 AI Changes Everything………………………………………………………………....11 0.2 Thesis Methodology, Objective & Structure…………...……………………………..20 0.3 Chapter Overview…………………………………………………………………….....28 0.4 Summary………………………………………………………………………………....30 Chapter 1. Methodology of the Thesis Research……………………………………….....32 1.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………………………....32 1.2 Objectives of the Research and Areas of Inquiry…….…...………………………....33 1.3 Survey Question Types…………….…………………………………………………...37 1.4 Detailed Overview of Fieldwork……………….…………………………………….....39 1.5 Detailed Overview of Respondents………….………………………………………...40 Chapter 2. Overview of the Thesis Survey Research Results…………………………...48