Naturally, humans possess inherent understanding of cultural nuances and emotional resonance, enabling them to create impactful content and make decisions that Artificial Intelligence can hardly figure out on its own. Because human judgment involves critical thinking, creativity, innovation, and the ability to assess risks and impacts, which AI does not possess, AI and humans can best work together as a symbiotic innovative tool to accelerate marketing growth.

‎Sharing his slides during the 2025 MARKETING EDGE National Marketing Stakeholders summit as the keynote speaker, Baba Awopetu, Consultant, Strategy/ Marketing, Stragmer, dissected how AI serves as a dynamic ally, offering capabilities like data aggregation, analysis, brainstorming, and generating initial drafts to enhance human creative processes. He believes that an innovative and harmonious future lies in a symbiosis where humans provide the vision, intent, and contextual understanding while

‎AI provides tools and capabilities to achieve holistic development in all walks of life.

‎Mr. Awopetu, who addressed the theme “AI Integration: Leveraging New Technologies to Achieve Business Objectives”, explored the interplay between human creativity and AI, pointing out that as marketing industry professionals work smart on how to get up to speed with artificial intelligence, they should keep in mind that customers are still in charge and should be treated as kings.

‎He addressed the fact that there’s deficit in customer-centricity in the application of AI among marketers, saying, “Customers ensure that we are grounded and marketers must realise that they are the custodians of customers no matter the level of AI adoption.”

‎To create value in an AI-driven world, Mr. Awopetu urged marketers to cultivate unique human skills like critical thinking, cultural awareness, and emotional intelligence as the noise around AI, he insisted, is real and beyond hype. The fundamental questions for him are, how do we get along as marketers? How do we deliver solutions with AI? How does AI reinvent what we do?

‎‎”The fact that ChatGPT reached over a hundred million users in less than two months of its launch, surpassing every tech invention such as Facebook, LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter etc.) tells us all we need to know about the dynamic power and influence of AI, and why we should take it very seriously.

‎‎”Today, AI is presenting opportunities on the marketing landscape and other professional industries beyond what we knew ever existed,” Mr. Awopetu averred.

‎‎Considering that AI lacks the depth of human experience, intuition, and empathy that guides understanding and shapes authentic connections, the ace marketer warned marketers and industry practitioners to avoid over-reliance on AI despite the many benefits that it offers. The risk of over-reliance on AI, he noted, can diminish human creativity and a need to critically assess AI’s outputs to ensure originality and meaning.

‎He explained that AI matters most now to the marketing industry because of its impact on annual ROI and marketing investment, especially Generative AI.

‎”When we think of AI, we should keep in mind that this is a development that will continue to impact every industry broadly in years to come. The AI train has left the station, and it is an innovation we must catch up with and make the most of,” Mr. Awopetu concluded.

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