This post was created in partnership with Typeface
Artificial intelligence is now cracking marketing’s oldest code, delivering the right message to the right person at the right time. This leap might seem like a threat, but it’s actually steering the marketer’s role in a surprisingly human direction.
During an ADWEEK House Advertising HQ fireside chat, Jason Ing, CMO of Typeface, and Zoë Ruderman, chief content officer at ADWEEK, explored how AI is creating a “Mad Men 2.0” era, where data-driven optimization becomes the floor, and human creativity defines the new ceiling.
A fundamental shift in the work itself
While past technology offered new distribution channels, Ing argued AI is different because it changes the nature of the work itself.
“When you look at what AI does, it’s helping a lot with productivity,” Ing explained. “It’s something that not only makes your job as a marketer different and easier for the most part, but it changes the way you work.”
This change is happening at a relentless speed. As new AI models from Google and OpenAI launch with capabilities that are nearly indistinguishable from reality, marketers are being pushed to adapt faster than ever.
“If you were to take away anything from what’s different in this AI age we’re living in, it’s everything is happening leaps and bounds faster than any other technological change,” Ing noted.
Where the algorithm ends
Early in the conversation, Ruderman framed the central theme: “AI raises the floor. Storytelling sets the ceiling.”
Pointing to the classic ad man Don Draper, whose genius was rooted in a flawed humanity, Ing agreed that technology’s logic can’t replicate the human experience. “His ability to tell stories that make for great advertising is because of all the shared pain, the brokenness of his character,” Ing said.
He noted that technology is rational and logical, while the human experience is not. This gives human storytellers an edge that AI may never conquer, a concept he likened to an asymptote, or a line that continually approaches a curve but never meets the upper limit. “I see AI going in that direction where it’ll get close, but you can always tell the difference,” Ing shared.
As proof, Ing pointed to the ultimate source: OpenAI itself. “OpenAI made its first brand advertising spot,” he explained. “It was shot on 35-millimeter film with actors, real people, real director—this is a company that could have made their own AI spot, but they chose to make it very human.”
