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The news on artificial intelligence (AI) is currently coming thick and fast. A few examples:

• Google is fundamentally rebuilding its search engine with AI
• OpenAI develops AI search engine
• Only 1.3 seconds decide success on social media

News like this should be a wake-up call for brand and marketing managers. Because the AI developments described are radically exacerbating the situation for brands.

Personally, I am a big fan of AI, and at BrandTrust we have been using our own AI models for years. I am convinced that this technology can be both a saviour and a nail in the coffin for many brands because they are not sufficiently prepared for the 'new normal'.

From experience: AI in marketing and brand practice

This much is clear: burying your head in the sand or romanticising AI now would be fatal. However, my experience from marketing and brand practice in recent years shows exactly this:

1. Until the ChatGPT hype, marketers hardly believed in the 'magic' of AI. That's schizophrenic: After all, they have been entrusting the algorithms of Facebook, Instagram & Co. with a lot of budget for years. They are also guided by the recommendations on the platforms every day in their private lives.
2. Everyone in marketing has been talking about AI recently. But how many people understand the operational opportunities that this creates - and, above all, its strategic consequences for brand management? People prefer to philosophise about the technology instead of concretising AI integration and putting it into practice.
3. Yes, more and more companies are waking up and experimenting. However, it is far from common practice for marketing departments to utilise technology systematically and purposefully in order to achieve more growth with every euro.

A great example is Dove, which has strategically translated its brand success code into the age of AI (Playbook).

What a contradiction: AI has long been present in our everyday lives. However, it has not yet arrived in most German-speaking marketing departments - apart from individual tools.

This is my experience: although the pressure to act is great, a genuine willingness to change, concrete plans and specific measures are rare in marketing departments.