World Marketing Forum: AI will shape future of marketing

Speakers at the World Marketing Forum explained Thursday how artificial intelligence or AI will transform the sector’s future worldwide.

Dubbed “The Marketing Wars: Episode 6.0 & Beyond,” the November 6 World Marketing Forum’s theme was “The Force of Marketing Awakens: The Strategic War for Excellence,” and kicked off with speeches presenting numerous insights on how AI and other innovations will shape marketing. 

What are the innovations behind the future of marketing?

Philip Kotler, the Father of Modern Marketing, delivered his keynote speech, “The Force Awakens: Charting Our Future,” via Zoom.

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Kotler shared how the following technologies will transform marketing: 

1. Artificial Intelligence: “AI will allow us to take some clerical processes… and search for any piece of information or anything a businessman has accomplished.” 
2. Generalized AI: “I’m particularly impressed with ChatGPT,” Kotler said. Then, he explained how it could draft advertising campaigns and generate images. 
3. Machine Learning: “ML will help you realize… new ways on how the customer buys.”  
4. Internet of Things: “The world will be full of sensors,” he stated. Later, Kotler shared examples like air conditioning units and garage doors that react to temperature and movement, respectively.
5. Metaverse: “Companies could use the metaverse to experiment with how successful brands and strategies might be. If it isn’t very successful in the metaverse, you learned a lot. It didn’t cost you that much.”
6. Drones: “Drones can be used to size up areas that are too arid or wet to make suggestions to improve agriculture.” 
7. Robotics: The Father of Marketing shared examples of how robots could serve as “pets” and “butlers.” 
8. Blockchain: “Blockchain is an accounting method that preserves every transaction.”

Why its future is immersive

Next, Hermawan Kartajaya, Founder of the Asia Marketing Federation (AMF), delivered his speech about developing countries becoming the “new sun.”

Its title was “The Rise of the New Suns: Reimagining Operational Excellence Across the Galaxy.”

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He mentioned the recent US Election and called the United States a “sun” of marketing and progress. However, Asia and Africa must take advantage of technology to shine bright, too.

“Don’t let the sun only rise in the West… But now, let us, in Asia and Africa, be the new suns.” 

Then, Kartajaya explained his latest book, “Marketing 6.0,” and its focus on immersive technologies. 

He said the future of marketing is “Meta,” meaning it merges the offline and online. The AMF founder cited his time in Disneyland’s “Frozen” attraction, which used technology to simulate its make-believe world convincingly.

More importantly, he emphasized that businesses could become “new suns” with “operational excellence.”

“If you’re not good in operations, you die. Operational excellence is at the center of any business.”

“Technology and human resources must be blended in operational excellence,” he stated. However, businesses must balance them.

Relying heavily on technology could make a business “too robotic.” On the other hand, a company could lose to competition by being “too human.”

Nevertheless, people should remember why Microsoft AI is called “Copilot.” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told Hermawan Kartajaya that “human is the pilot.”