Have a chat with any marketer, creative or founder, and you’ll likely land on the conversation, and all their opinions, around artificial intelligence (AI). Some doom. Some gloom. And plenty of unknowns.
People are saying it’s taking the creativity out of our industry. I believe there’s something more serious going on than that. This piece isn’t so much about the tech and more about the people – read: you and me.
Yes, AI is exposing creativity. But, more specifically, it’s exposing average creativity. Generative AI tools have made ‘good enough’ work faster, cheaper and easier than ever before.
As someone who long advocated for speed, quality and value across the industry, I still believe AI is a great enabler of achieving that.
But we’re starting to see something more problematic. Videos that took days to bring to life, are now produced in 30 minutes with a 300-character prompt. Copy that needs five rounds of feedback is spat out in less than five seconds.
The speed isn’t the problem. Being OK with the output as-is is. This shift matters, because when the bar of average rises, the middle becomes the most dangerous place to hang around.
For the longest time, many people managed to make careers in that space of grey. Producing work that’s not bad, not brilliant, but good enough. But now, with rapid progress in AI, that grey space will
no longer be rewarded. What it means to be ‘average’ has been firmly revolutionised by AI.
We’ve all seen AI slop. I’m now talking about work slop. Opinion slop. So much slop, everywhere. If an intern with an app can create similar work to a marketing veteran with traditional tools, then there’s been an obvious shift. And that forces a very uncomfortable question for a lot of people in the creative space:
‘What are we actually bringing to the work?’ The answer won’t be speed. AI can go faster than you. It isn’t polish, either. AI beats you there too. And if it doesn’t now, it will soon.
So if everyone is relying on speed and polish, how can you stand out from this new higher bar of average? Make AI your intern, just don’t let it be your final output. Don’t regress to average. Don’t let it marginalise your contribution to excellence.
Elite developers don’t code any more; they have agents for that. But they still define problems, give sharp feedback, and design systems to optimise for excellence. They do more, quicker.
Our industry is different from engineering. It relies on human truths as it always has: cultural literacy, nuance, and real-time insight. These are things machines can’t replicate – at least, for now.
AI can take meeting notes, but it can’t read a room. It can draft lines, but it can’t feel a tone shift. It can mimic a voice, but it can’t understand why a joke lands in one market and dies in another. That distinction matters deeply. Especially in a region like the Middle East.
This isn’t a shortcut market. It never has been. And those who tried got spat out time and again. Yes, AI improves efficiency. And it will keep getting better. But without strong judgement before the output, efficiency becomes automation. And automation without taste becomes noise. Remember, noise gets ignored.
Think of AI like steroids. Anyone can boost performance by juicing up. But if you expect steroids to replace the hard work in practice, you’re wrong. Instead, steroids amplify what’s already there. And if you have no underlying strength, you’re going to be exposed.
The same applies in marketing. AI, put into the hands of someone who understands culture and human behaviour, is powerful. But if you look for the easy way out, to cut corners, or choose to be lazy, it produces exactly what the market is already drowning in: slop.
AI has already raised the baseline. The advantage has shifted to those who use AI as leverage as opposed to a hack.
The irony? The more automated our industry becomes, the more human the best work needs to be.
This morning alone, with AI, I could’ve done a lot: Written an article about ‘The Flaws of the Marketing Funnel’ – a point of view for another day. Vibe coded a mobile app. Built a 3D game.
And all could’ve been delivered at a passable level because of friends like Claude, ChadGPT and Gemma-ni. But the thing that scares me most, is so could you. So could a student. So could anyone with a laptop and the tools.
So AI is not the enemy here. We need to move on from that. Average is. Yes, you can use AI. Yes, you should use AI. Everyone should. But use it as your intern. If work slop is your final output, then you’re accepting average. And no matter how much the bar of average is raised, it should always remain the enemy.
By Mike Khouri, CEO, Tactical
