As a media professional, you’ve probably heard the buzz about how AI is the future of media planning. New AI announcements are coming on a daily basis. Just yesterday, Digiday reported how Google, Meta, Havas, and Horizon are increasingly focused on, and investing in, AI-powered advertising.

With stories like these, you may be starting to feel you’re becoming obsolete.

Many believe the future of advertising will be ruled by robots and algorithms.

But is this really the case? And, if so, at what cost?

Artificial Intelligence Has Been Around

old robot working in office 1960s

Artificial Intelligence has been around longer than most of us have been alive. The earliest recorded reference to the term “artificial intelligence” was made in 1955 just a few blocks from where I am now writing: on the campus of Dartmouth Collegesee photos here.

AI has an equally long history of boom then bust hype cycles. Based on its dodgy track record, you’d be wise to be skeptical.

That said, the development and practical application of AI technologies has gained significant momentum recently with advances in computing power, data storage and machine learning algorithms. ChatGPT and Midjourney are prime example of this recent progress. In fact, both helped me with this article.

Artificial Intelligence Can Be Biased

AI algorithms can automate certain aspects of media planning, but they also come with limitations. Perhaps the biggest limitation is how AI algorithms are naturally biased from their training data.

For example, if an AI algorithm is trained on data from middle-class suburban white females aged 25-54, it will fail to provide accurate insights about everyone else outside this demographic (i.e., most of the human population). This will result in a narrow and skewed view of the target audience, leading to ineffective media planning decisions.

Clearly, it’s important to take great care to train your media planning AI with data sets that are not biased.

You have to assume your algorithms will often miss the mark. To go to the next level, it’s best to include positive and negative feedback mechanisms into the media planning workflow. This enables media planners to further train the AI algorithms in the context of real-life media planning.

Can AI Really Replace the Human Touch in Media Planning?

Media planning is a complex process that requires an understanding of audience context, cultural trends, and the rapidly changing media landscape. AI algorithms can provide valuable insights, but they cannot replace the human touch in terms of creativity, intuition, and empathy.

In addition to its limitations, there is also a risk of overusing AI in media planning. This can lead to a loss of innovation, as well as data privacy and security concerns, and questions about transparency and accountability.

Balancing AI with the Human Touch in Media Planning

As a media professional, you know that the key to successful media planning is to strike a balance between art and science.

AI algorithms can automate certain aspects of media planning and provide valuable insights, but they cannot replace the discernment of humans. Media planners bring a unique perspective to the table, considering factors that are impossible for AI algorithms to understand.

Combining the Strengths of AI and Human Expertise

woman and robot laughing together steam punk

By combining the strengths of AI and human expertise, media planners can achieve better results and create more effective campaigns.

Here at Bionic, we believe in a future where human creativity is unleashed by automating the mundane tasks that consume most of your time and energy. Bionic will enable you to achieve super-human results through advanced workflow automation.

We believe this so strongly that it’s baked into our name: Bionic literally means enhancing human powers with technology.

How Bionic’s AI-powered Media Plan Builder Works

media plan recommender

Bionic media planning software includes an AI-powered media plan builder that helps to guide your media planning decisions.

This tool is in the class of AI known as a recommender. Bionic uses a technique called collaborative filtering to recommend media for your media plans.

This is the same type of technology that Amazon uses to recommend books, Netflix uses to recommend movies, and Spotify uses to recommend music. If you’ve used any of these services, you already know their recommendations are helpful, but often miss the mark.

The same goes for Bionic’s media plan recommender.

You cannot use Bionic AI to blindly build your media plan. It generates ideas for your media plan. As a media planner, it’s your responsibility to discern between the good ideas and the bad ideas.

How to Train Your AI for Smarter Media Planning

media plan recommender feedback

Bionic builds a unique AI model for each of your clients. At the start, each of these recommenders is naïve because it doesn’t yet understand your client’s tastes. As a result, it will default to the most popular media options.

With each RFP and placement in your client’s media plan, the recommender gets a little smarter.

When the recommender makes a bad recommendation, you can give it negative feedback by rejecting its recommendation.

Over time, the recommendations will improve. You’ll also have built a valuable asset that your client will lose if they switch to another agency.

Bring Your Own AI to Media Planning

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Although we enable AI-powered media planning in our software, we don’t claim to be experts is AI. There are many others much smarter than us in this technology.

Our core expertise is media planning workflow. When we added the recommender, we built it in a loosely-coupled architecture that welcomes you to plug in your own proprietary AI. Since your AI lives outside Bionic, its inner workings are kept secret. This gives you a proprietary advantage.

Bionic wraps your AI with a media planning workflow that ensures your AI will be used as part of everyday media planning. It won’t be a standalone tool that requires extra steps and is often forgotten when media planning.

Want to bring your AI to life? Let us know.

Don’t Have Your Own AI?

Don’t worry if you don’t have your own AI. You’re not alone. Most advertising agencies lack the resources to build an AI algorithm.

When you get Bionic for Agencies, you also get a unique AI-powered media recommenders for each of your clients. This comes for free with your subscription and requires no extra effort. Just do your media planning as normal and the AI models will build themselves automatically.

So, next time your client asks, “what are you doing with AI?” you can show them the media recommender you built for them in Bionic.

How to Get Bionic AI for Media Planning

If you’re already using Bionic, you already have these AI capabilities. Contact us for help and training.

If you’re not yet using Bionic, start a trial to get access to the software.