We have officially entered the New Era of Artificial Intelligence. We already talked about that Singaporean advertising agency that decided to employ an A.I. as creative director. That A.I. can not only review its advertising database, but also detect any potential plagiarism and compare “its” creative team’s works. It can also predict if copywriters’ and other creative directors’ proposals will be well received by the public or not.

Even if some purists dislike it, this new technology is not going to stop, as shown by Nutella’s example. Here, an algorithm took on the role of the designer to propose at least seven millions of different designs for this famous chocolate spread’s pots.

This algorithm, using a database containing only a dozen of different motifs and colours, was able to create more than seven million uniquely designed pots. This amazing work is a result of a tour de force by the adverting agency Ogilvy & Mather Italy, which named this campaign “Nutella Unica”.
All pots, considered as artworks in their own right because of their uniqueness, have their own code in order to allow potential collectors to identify them.

In about one month, all seven million pots have been sold. This just goes to show that creating this feeling of exclusiveness has worked well for the brand, which reached a record in sales.

This advertising success brings about some questions about product designers’ role in a creative team. It is true that the decorative patterns are simple, but it is also true that a significant volume of sales has been achieved while saving a lot of time.

 

So, are we replaceable by A.I.? Should we rather be happy about the fact that they will increase our creative abilities?