And yes, I can follow his general argument: we seem to be moving towards a world in which routine cognitive work is quickly being automated, while craftsmanship, physical expertise and human presence are once again becoming rare and valuable.

But craftsmanship, expertise and human intuition are important for marketers too. At least, if you want to do marketing properly. So, I don’t see marketers disappearing any time soon, let alone be fully replaced by AI.

The death of the marketer

Because let us follow Hinssen’s argument for a moment. Suppose we indeed end up in a world where marketers are dead and buried. AI creates your marketing plans; AI writes the content; AI designs the banners; AI even produces your TV commercial.

Let us assume that, at that point, the AI agent is behind the AI wheel. What do you think will come out of all this? A great deal of uniformity is the answer. Not least because similar AI tools will be managed by similar AI agents in all those other companies too.

What will happen next is easy to predict. Company boards will quickly come under serious pressure when they realise that their brand has been diluted into an empty shell. A brand that barely stands out any more, no longer evokes emotion and ultimately has become meaningless.

The return of the marketer

What makes people unique is, among other things, creativity. According to the Dutch language dictionary Van Dale, creativity is: “The ability to create something new or the power to form new ideas from existing information.” Brands need to stand out. Brands need to differentiate themselves. Brands need to touch consumers’ hearts. Creativity is the key to doing that.

Every day, I work with brands that want to have impact with their content and campaigns; with companies that want to turn their brand into a stronger brand. Of course, they also use AI, but they use it as a tool. AI is a resource that can offer support and inspiration. But the vision and creativity still come from marketers and creative teams.

Creativity will only become more important in the AI era, as Geertrui Mieke De Ketelaere pointed out when she was interviewed on the news channel Trends Z. So, AI will not replace marketers – not today, and not tomorrow. And brands that place their blind trust in AI in spite of that will discover sooner or later that doing so isn’t enough to stay relevant.