AI as a People-Enabler: It’s Time to ReMake the Narrative Surrounding Automation
Mike Cowler, CTO of ReMake, explains how AI partnerships will elevate human capabilities as opposed to replace them.
Image created by Midjourney
Henry Ford, American industrialist and founder of the Ford Motor Company, revolutionised the world of work with his take on automations and production lines. His legacy is complicated, but ultimately of benefit to humanity – AI will be the same.
If you've ever read anything about Ford and the automation of his production line, you’ll know that people were initially worried it would spell the end for jobs - but it didn’t. It allowed people to become more skilled. It allowed them to work fewer hours, do more and subsequently earn more – enough to afford to buy their own car.
Ford’s automated production line also significantly boosted sales. The business magnate understood that automating the assembly line would empower his workers and facilitate a more efficient way of working.
As it stands, our industry is not focused on empowering people, we’re simply multiplying people. If history shows us anything, it’s that every new technological advance has been led by demand, and right now there is an incredible demand for content. And we are not meeting it.
Leaving the Creativity to the Humans
Of course, advances in technology are not entirely black and white. But the current demand for content is such that we have to do things differently. AI and automation is the answer and those that embrace it will be the winners.
The way I see it, it will be the repetitive and laborious tasks - the ones people don’t want to do, and those holding back a person's growth - that are replaced, as opposed to entire jobs. Because companies will always want human bastions to control the output. One that is in line with brand ethics, codes and values. While here to assist, empowering AI - where the risk of it going rogue and (potentially) destroying brand reputation - will always be too much to stomach for most.
Individuals are already using AI to craft more effective content, enhance productivity and increase creative capacity. It’s a brilliant ideation tool and people-enabler, but creativity can only be enhanced by AI, not replaced. Until AI develops consciousness, it's another tool in your toolbox. And before then, I am hopeful regulation will mature to protect the creators.
In advertising, it all starts to look a bit templated eventually. It’s typically the big guns that have the power to produce next-level, game-changing creative. There's immense disparity in the quality of ads. At the pace AI is moving, it will soon present an opportunity for those with smaller budgets to raise the bar and level the playing field. All those people with great stories to tell, but limited budgets, will suddenly be able to compete.
AI is maturing at a rapid speed in the creative space. What we’ll soon see is businesses climbing the slope of enlightenment, and finding ways to work in tandem with AI. Some may already be there, especially where image is concerned. Eventually, everyone will have no choice but to embrace this mode of working - it’ll be a no brainer. At ReMake, we’ve seen huge gains and strides taken for clients through automation and our platform, and AI is the obvious next step. For us, and for them.
AI as a collaborative tool
ReMake is not simply jumping on the bandwagon. AI and automation is closely entwined and has already been a major part of our story. We have always used AI to process external data that enables video versioning - to change text, imagery, media, audio with brutal simplicity - all with brand safety in mind. Our latest partnership with AI voice synthesis specialist, DeepZen, continues that journey.
It started out as a means to let customers test different voiceovers and languages in their creative, but the features and quality proved to be so good, our customers are using DeepZen AI voices for final production material.
We are also working with University College London on a number of AI-powered initiatives to complement content production from discovery to performance, and production analytics is key to ReMake’s strategy of enablement.
Our future AI roadmap is extremely ambitious, and we couldn't be more excited about it; we will continue to position ourselves as the ultimate versioning and localisation solution for the industry. It’s only a matter of time before our platform is assisting in the creative optimisation and brand safety custody aspects of creative automation: all driven by AI.
Book a tour with our team to see ReMake in action.