As a content creator, I’ve experienced the shift to artificial intelligence firsthand. When generative AI burst onto the scene, I watched clients opt for what seemed easier, faster, and more cost-effective. AI is not a passing fad. It’s an industry predicted to be worth over $217 billion by 2034.
Even big businesses are getting in on the AI action. During the 2025 NBA finals, Kalshi, an online trading market, ran an AI-generated ad that was considerably cheaper to produce. The ad’s creator claims that the ad only cost $2,000 to make, though that number is debatable.
Right now, AI-generated content is still a novelty. The Kalshi ad was among the first of its kind. While it’s memorable, the ad lacks direction, shifting between internet meme vibes and the feel of a video game.
If Kalshi sees success with this ad, more companies could follow suit, which begs the question: Is human content still valuable in the age of AI?
Potential Scenarios for AI in the Future
Let’s ponder how AI could reshape the future of content creation, digital marketing, and advertising in the future.
AI Is Less Expensive and Generates a Higher ROI
Even though the Kalshi ad’s $2,000 price tag is up for debate, these ads are considerably cheaper than traditional ads. Design Rush estimates that an AI ad costs between $1,400 and $2,000 to produce.
Between locations, actors, production crew, and other costs, a traditional human-made ad can cost upwards of $400,000. I can see why generative AI is attractive to brands. Imagine being able to slash your marketing budget to end up with a comparable ad.
Are they really comparable, though? A high percentage of people say they don’t trust AI and won’t interact with AI-generated content on social media. Baby boomers are least likely to trust AI, but 20% of Gen Z said they aren’t interested in engaging with AI-generated content, either.
Substantial savings from AI-generated content is attractive to executives, but if it’s not engaging an audience, it’s not adding value. In its current form, AI isn’t smart enough to appeal to the human emotions that foster a trusted relationship with a brand.
Brands Will Keep Rolling With AI Because It’s Good Enough
Marketing executives are drawn to AI-generated content because it’s fast and affordable. A generative AI platform can churn out ads, social media posts, blogs, websites, and more in seconds. The company only has to pay for the subscription and pay someone to enter the right prompts.
For some businesses, this is good enough. If you’re a startup with a limited budget or a tech-forward company with an AI-first philosophy, you may not care that AI-generated content isn’t perfect. More than half of the respondents to a 2024 Marketing AI Institute survey said their main objective for using AI is to generate a higher ROI on campaigns.
AI Can’t Compete With the Human Brain
Although AI is fast and effective, it isn’t sophisticated enough to match human creativity. A person’s deep psychological understanding of other people is unmatched by even the most sophisticated AI tools.
Old Spice managed to go viral with the 2010 campaign, “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like.” This ad uses cheeky humor and old-fashioned sex appeal to entice women to buy Old Spice body wash for their partners (and for men to buy it outright). This campaign was so successful, it generated a 300% increase in website traffic and doubled sales of the body wash within a year.
It takes human ingenuity to reach this level of success with a well-executed ad campaign. I’ve personally dabbled with generative AI to write crossover stories featuring my favorite TV characters, and it has its limits. AI tends to run out of ideas quickly. It gets repetitive unless you’re creative with your prompts.
The same holds true in digital marketing. Every marketing team includes someone with valuable insights into the human mind. We use this data to make content that resonates. AI may be quick, but it’s not good at replicating the actual human experience.
The Future Is Hybrid
Although I want to make note of AI’s limitations, it’s not all bad. In fact, a lot is amazing. Even though generative AI doesn’t know people as well as we humans do, it can analyze data and identify patterns much faster. With an AI-generated assessment of historical data, purchasing patterns, and consumer preferences, other marketers and I have an accurate starting point for campaign building. We no longer have to guess what might resonate with customers based on a small sample size.
AI also helps us personalize content and experiences that successfully attract and retain customers. We can develop hyper-personalized campaigns and target them to people based on how they view our brand. To retain customers, we can develop rewards programs and other incentives that are tailored to their needs.
AI also saves time in the early rounds of campaign development. As a content writer, I can use AI to make an outline or organize my thoughts before I start researching for a blog post. Advertisers can use AI to sketch ideas and pitch them to clients in the early stages and flesh out their campaigns once the client has made changes.
Humans Can Outperform AI Through Large Teams
A single AI-powered marketing system can do it all. It can analyze data, generate campaign ideas, and create content in less than a minute. To outpace AI, a human team would need multiple members with different specialties.
Someone would need to be able to research large volumes of historical data and generate valuable insights. Others need to understand human psychology and develop creative that hits the right nerve.
Ultimately, the human marketing team is more creative and original. Its campaigns will likely be more strategic with a higher impact. However, human teams are slower and require the right mix of talent. They also need to know how to collaborate effectively. Otherwise, you could end up with something controversial or cringey like the Kendall Jenner Pepsi ad.
What Determines Value Today?
For some, value is all about the KPIs. If my content improves search engine results or gets more clicks and views, it’s considered valuable. Is that truly the measure of a valuable ad? Do you measure value by the hours worked or the results?
I could argue that if I use AI to enhance my work and the campaign generates sales, it is valuable. However, anyone else can enter a similar prompt and end up with a comparable blog post, social media post, video, commercial, or website.
As AI-generated content permeates social media, people are starting to recognize what’s ‘fake’ and what’s ‘real’. Human-generated content is unique and original, making it more valuable. In the current zeitgeist, customers expect brands to be authentic. Search engines that use AI algorithms to match search intent value original content.
Value also comes in the attributes we can’t quantify. Human content creators come with skills and expertise such as creativity and strategic thinking. Your marketing team understands your industry more than a robot and uses this experience to make impactful content.
I understand the pull of AI. It’s fast. It’s affordable. It does the job well enough. However, as more companies hop on the generative AI train and digital marketing starts looking the same, original content will become more valuable.
Consider a movie sequel. Sure, some of them stand up to the original, such as “Rocky II” or “The Godfather” trilogy. But more often than not, these movies come across as a cash grab. A studio sees success and tries to recreate the windfall by throwing a sequel together.
Good sequels work when the original creative team comes back together. This isn’t always the case. For example, Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” was a surprise success in 2025. The director is clear that he doesn’t want to make a sequel. According to Variety, he wanted the movie to be finished. Multiple industry magazines have reported that Warner Brothers, the production company behind the film, is going forward with a sequel anyway.
“Sinners” owes most of its success to Coogler’s vision. It’s a compelling and thoughtful story brought to life through his unique creative elements. Bringing in another director just to make money off the first movie’s success may end up feeling cheap or unimaginative.
The value of a digital marketer is similar. As more companies opt for a less expensive reprint, original content becomes more valuable because there are subtleties that machines can’t replicate.
Philosophical Lens: What Does the Future Look Like?
As someone who grew up watching movies like “The Matrix” and “The Terminator,” I have a perhaps irrational fear of AI. It’s easy to picture the full robot takeover of humanity. As an adult and a marketer, I’ve worked with AI for the past few years and am happy to say we’re not there yet. AI doesn’t have the sophistication needed to usurp humanity. At the rate it’s developing, it seems more likely that humans and their AI counterparts will collaborate in the future.
If we are the ones training AI and it’s built off the sum of our knowledge, can people ever out-create it? Creative humans are often drawn to fields like marketing because they give us an outlet. We can think up new ways to inspire and connect with people. Humans are capable of creating things out of nothing. Popular movies, historical buildings, beloved recipes, and more came from someone’s imagination.
AI automates tedious tasks and lets us focus on being creative and original. As it evolves, more companies will likely make the shift to AI-generated content. AI is still unoriginal. It lacks the ability to fact-check, meaning that when you use AI-generated content, you risk lying to your customers.
Once the market becomes oversaturated with artificial content, the pendulum will likely swing back toward original content. Human originality is a limited commodity. It’s possible that human-generated content could become a luxury because it’s irreplicable.
Consider the world of fashion. In the early days, everything we wore was handmade. When the Industrial Revolution brought mass production, more brands started making clothing and accessories using machines.
Today, fast fashion is produced inexpensively. You can hop onto the internet and get the latest styles for nothing, but they look cheap and they don’t last. On the other hand, luxury brands such as Cartier still assemble many of their products by hand. People pay a premium for the care and attention to detail that goes into these items.
Odyyc’s Position
At Odyyc, we believe in working in harmony with AI. We use AI to automate processes and handle common tasks. Our team values the time-saving benefits. AI is invaluable for data analysis and personalization. Because our AI-powered platforms can assess so much data, we feel more confident in the insights we use to create content and work with our clients.
We also appreciate how easy it is to generate outlines, captions, and other simple content with AI. But we know that humans are our greatest asset. Leadership in digital creativity still requires human insights, originality, and intent.
Our AI-powered platform can tell us that 60% of all body wash purchases are made by women. It takes a human to understand how to influence a woman to buy a body wash aimed at men. Human creativity is essential for turning a consumer buyer statistic into a funny ad that triples sales in a year like the company that developed the “Man Your Man Could Smell Like” campaign.
At Odyyc we pride ourselves on our ability to execute campaigns faster by working with technology instead of fighting it. We take the data and analytics generated by AI to better understand our clients’ customers and create impactful content that speaks to them.
Our clients still get original, creative ad campaigns made for their unique needs. AI just helps us deliver outcomes faster than if we were going it alone. Let us help you build your brand through performance marketing.
A Side Note on the Ad Itself
Today, the Kalshi ad may be considered unique, as it’s one of the first. But if you are following the AI-generated videos, much of what is being done is very similar: interviews, wild imagination, etc. — but is it connecting with the audience?
As we’ve seen quite a few already (not as an ad, but on social media), this one lacked any real surprise, the gimmick is already quite worn out. It can get quite old quite fast.
That said, we know it will get better, smarter, more creative. And, granted, lots of human creativity falls flat and can be out-of-touch, too.
It was bound to happen and worth a try. Bold to do it during the NBA Finals where the ad placement cost is high. Did the target audience love it and did it work for Kalshi (high ROAS)? Perhaps that’s all that matters.
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