sentiencePHD has launched its latest publication “Sentience: The Coming AI Revolution and the Implications for Marketing”, looking at the impact that AI will have upon the world of marketing.


According to the agency’s worldwide CEO, Mike Cooper, “The impact of AI will result in a radical reorganisation of advertising and marketing. AI applications will be largely ad-supported, meaning that marketing will be one of the first disciplines disrupted by AI. In the future, brands will be marketing to an algorithm, not directly to consumers”.

“Artificial Intelligence will be one of the most transformative technologies the world has ever seen, a new utility that uses the data from billions of people and objects to perform tasks, provide services and adapt and learn as it does so. Marketing and communications won’t be spectators to this greatest show on earth – they will be transformed by it. In Sentience, PHD again explores how technological advancement will create tantalising possibilities for marketers and agencies. Our algorithms are set to wake up – get ready to say hello,” said Chris Stephenson, PHD’s APAC Head of Strategy and Planning.

Speaking about the release of the book, Cooper continues, “In Sentience, we have tried to peer beyond what we know. To scope out a commercially realistic view on the potential products we will be using and the advertising and data models that will likely support them”.

Sentience provides a comprehensive history of AI – what it is, where it started and the road leading to today - and builds a picture of ‘the future of intelligence’, offering a peek into the AI-driven world of 2029 and the implications of AI enabled marketing.

The book explores the increasing role that ‘sentient’ Virtual Personal Assistants (VPA’s) will play in our lives, with many of our purchasing choices being made for us, meaning brands will have to adapt to reach consumers.
The book was previewed at last month’s Cannes Lions Festival to coincide with PHD’s keynote seminar, which saw guest speaker Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, give his views on the impact that AI will have on society and business.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee joins leading figures such as Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk, Bill Gates and Steve Wozniak who have recently given their views on the impact that AI will have, which according to Stephen Hawking, “would be the biggest event in human history (and)… might also be the last, unless we learn how to avoid the risks".

Speaking at Cannes Lions, Sir Berners-Lee asserted that "to be part of the business world, you need to put data out there", seeing a future where artificial intelligence drives the decisions in major corporations. He dismissed the clichéd view of physical robots running the world, suggesting instead that artificial intelligence will actually comprise businesses driven by algorithmic decisions as data becomes free and open to use. He envisaged robot holding companies that could move and make investment decisions based on data and algorithms - and without human input.

However, Berners-Lee warned that businesses would be left behind unless they started actively putting data out onto the web, as a step up from simply creating web pages to push products.

Berners-Lee was positive about open data and AI's impact on business on society, particularly in health and wellbeing. But he warned that there was a "red line".

Sentience is available to purchase from Amazon, the iBookstore and Google Play, with all proceeds going to UNICEF.

By MediaBUZZ