In The Know | Things AI Just Can’t Replace
THE MEDIA PULSE DECODED BY YOUR AGENCY
Contents: The theme for this month is AI can’t replace human judgement. This edition of In The Know draws on conversations and observations from Cairns Crocodiles, Mumbrella 360, Programmatic AI and Google I/O, and gives us a chance to share our take on what it all means.
Cairns Crocodiles Debrief: Let’s Get Weird?
One of the strongest themes to emerge from Cairns Crocodiles was a challenge to the growing sameness creeping into modern marketing.
In her session on “Weirdism”, creative sociologist Amy Kean highlighted just how similar many brands have become, from near-identical taglines to the repeated use of the same buzzwords and category language. Marketing has become flattened by risk-aversion and trend-chasers yet the work that sticks, she reminded, is the work that feels distinct, human and emotionally different.
Paula Bloodworth, co-founder and chief strategy officer of Alien Baby, came from another angle. In Don’t Steal From Culture, Add To It, she questioned whether marketers have become too reliant on strategic templates and rigid planning processes that can strip originality from the work. Drawing on her campaign with Idris Elba to reduce knife crime in the UK, Bloodworth argued for more impatience, instinct and responsiveness. She reminded marketers that change disrupts even the best-laid plans and that culture rarely operates on annual planning cycles.
Kean and Bloodworth both circled a similar tension: marketers need both efficiency and originality.
What we know
Modern marketing has never had more tools to drive efficiency. AI can accelerate content creation. Planning frameworks improve consistency. Measurement helps reduce waste. These are all good things, and they help protect the significant investments brands make in marketing by improving productivity, accountability and performance.
But when everyone uses similar tools, follows similar processes and responds to the same trend reports, brands risk becoming harder to distinguish from one another.
Hey, here’s something reassuring though. Marketers already know the fundamentals that make brands effective. It’s marketing and advertising 101, including:
Be distinctive.
Understand culture.
Create emotional connection.
Give people a reason to remember you.
What this means for marketers
The challenge is learning how to benefit from the efficiencies, structures and tools without abdicating decision-making. Outsourcing strategy to proprietary algorithms and relaxing into programmatic come at the expense of instinct, creativity and judgement. Data, tools and automations have critical roles to play in driving predictable and effective outcomes. But they’ve got to be paired with the human judgement needed to interpret signals, challenge assumptions and make distinctive choices.
The brands that stand out will be the ones willing to make different decisions with the same tools everyone else has.
Related reading: AI and marketing strategy: prioritise de-homogenisation
– Karla Wilson, Account Manager and Marcus Sountas, Performance Media Manager
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Mumbrella 360: AI Can’t Replace Human Judgement
A few days after Mumbrella 360 we realised that, for a conference held at a time when AI dominates almost every industry conversation, the ideas that stuck with us were reminders about human connection, communication and judgement.
Rituals create energy. Habits conserve it.
Rituals are additive. Habits are reductive. Rituals require mindful attention. Habits happen on autopilot. One expands energy, the other conserves it.
For leaders, that’s a useful lens. Teams need habits and processes to operate efficiently. The structure is important, but we also have to look for and make space for those rituals that create connection, momentum and culture.
While habits help teams function, rituals can help boost performance. Recognising the difference, and knowing when a team needs one versus the other, is a judgement call.
Culture and performance are allies
Founder and managing director, Marilla Akkermans, argued that “culture and performance are allies,” and we agree.
Getting it right requires infrastructure grounded in judgement calls and understanding the needs of your people. Then, culture and performance can work together to propel both career and business growth. And that infrastructure is ours to build as leaders.
Communication deserves more attention
A negotiator for the Victoria police service, Lee Wolahan spoke about the need to continually refine communication skills through high-stakes conversations.
What can we learn from hostage negotiation skills that we can apply to our own work? His emphasis on paraphrasing stood out as a way to show someone you’re listening and to make sure you’ve actually understood what they’re trying to say. It’s a particularly useful tool to sharpen for unpacking briefs, refining proposals, managing stakeholders and getting to the heart of what’s really being discussed.
Metrics need context
Ehrenberg-Bass Institute’s Senior Marketing Scientist, Bill Page, offered a timely reminder that people still buy without searching and search without buying.
He arrived at the point that metrics only become useful when paired with context, interpretation and experience.
Data can tell you what happened. Judgement determines what happens next.
What this means for marketers
If Cairns Crocodiles reminded us not to outsource originality, Mumbrella 360 was a useful reminder not to outsource judgement.
It was a reminder that as AI, tools and automations become more accessible, judgement becomes more valuable.
- Knowing which metric deserves attention.
- Knowing when culture needs investment.
- Knowing how to navigate a difficult conversation.
- Knowing when to trust experience, when to challenge assumptions and when to ask for help.
AI can’t replace human judgement. Technology can accelerate decisions, but it still takes people to make good ones.
– Angela Rogers, Head of Client Services and Casey Greig, Head of Strategy
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Programmatic AI: Search Advantage is Changing
Our MD James McDonald recently attended both Programmatic AI and Google I/O in the US, where one obvious theme came through clearly: AI is changing how people discover information, products and brands online. Of course it is.
We explored some of those shifts in our recent blog, Google I/O 2026: Search Is Entering the Retrieval Era.
But there are two implications that help explain why many marketers are feeling like search has become more expensive, harder to outperform in, and increasingly dependent on platform automation.
As search platforms become more automated and AI-driven, some of the traditional ways advertisers created advantage have weakened. At the same time, competition for commercially valuable search demand continues to intensify.
For marketers, the takeaway is to rethink where search advantage comes from. Search remains an essential channel. But the nature of search expertise is evolving. Increasingly, success depends less on managing bids and keywords, and more on helping AI systems optimise towards the outcomes that matter most to the business.
Now is a good time to ask a simple question: if your search campaigns are being optimised automatically, are they being optimised for the right customers?
Watch for more on search in the coming weeks.
– Aimee Gossage, Head of Investment
