In recent years, the technological landscape has seen numerous evolutions. Yet, none compare to the current shift driven by the plummeting cost of artificial intelligence (AI).
Dane Vahey of OpenAI recently highlighted that the cost per million tokens, a unit measuring AI language processing, has plunged from $36 to a mere $0.25 in the past 18 months. A staggering 99.3 per cent reduction positions AI as perhaps one of the greatest cost-depreciating technologies ever invented.
Such a dramatic decline doesn’t just make AI more accessible; it fundamentally transforms the playing field for the media industry.
A cost revolution that outpaces Moore’s law
To grasp the magnitude, consider that this cost reduction eclipses the pace of Moore’s Law, which predicts the doubling of computing power approximately every two years.
The drop from $36 to $0.25 per million tokens compresses what might have been a decade of advancement into less than two years.
This isn’t incremental change, it’s exponential. Barriers that once confined advanced AI capabilities to tech giants are dissolving, granting unprecedented access to businesses of all sizes.
Unlocking personalisation: The age of customised media
Agencies can leverage AI to create thousands of versions of a single campaign, and have the freedom to query, segment and transform data at scale as they have never done before, at a fraction of the cost.
This hyper-personalisation doesn’t just benefit advertisers. Audiences are becoming increasingly resistant to generic content, craving relevance and resonance in what they consume. By feeding this demand, we can build deeper connections with consumers, increasing loyalty in an era where audience attention spans are fleeting.
This level of automation and adaptation was once the exclusive domain of corporate giants with complex and costly tech stacks. Now, independent groups can afford to run the same experiments to stimulate their growth initiatives. The efficiencies gained here mean reduced wasted expenditure and the opportunity to direct budgets where they will have the most impact.
But as more players gain access to these tools, what will set agencies apart? Will this democratisation lead to a vibrant and varied media landscape, or simply create an echo chamber of algorithm-driven content?
The risks of mass accessibility: quality or quantity?
While AI’s lower costs have unlocked potential across the industry, the accessibility of powerful generative tools raises a difficult challenge: As these tools become ubiquitous, will they contribute to the media ecosystem’s quality or dilute it?
Tools that automate content generation have enabled smaller players to produce high volumes of content quickly. While this has democratised the process, it also risks reducing the uniqueness of what’s produced. Moreover, while these tools enable precision and efficiency, they lack the human discernment that often catches tones algorithms miss.
Automated content lacks the spontaneity and instinctive flair that characterises groundbreaking campaigns. As AI-generated content proliferates, there’s a risk that audiences become desensitised, disengaging from repetitive, algorithm-driven narratives.
Navigating ethical challenges in AI-driven media
With accessibility comes responsibility. AI’s ability to create persuasive, human-like content at scale introduces ethical concerns, especially in an era of misinformation.
As generative AI tools become available to nearly anyone, we face potential misuse – from producing deepfakes to creating deceptive content. Media agencies and platforms must navigate these risks carefully, ensuring their use of AI upholds integrity, transparency and accountability.
Without stringent safeguards, the democratisation of AI could erode public trust and degrade media quality.
A new media paradigm: the role of human creativity
As we embrace this AI-driven transformation, we must ask ourselves what role human creativity will play.
AI is exceptional at scaling, optimising and predicting, but true creative leaps often come from human intuition, insight and inspiration. The future media landscape will likely hinge on those who can harness AI without sacrificing originality.
As the cost of AI continues to fall, we may find the greatest value in AI lies not in replacing human creativity, but in enhancing it. This will allow teams to explore uncharted realms of innovation, blending data with art to capture audiences in new, unexpected ways. In the end, the falling cost of AI is a tool, a powerful, transformative tool, but it is not the answer in and of itself.
The future of media lies not solely in technology but in how we, as an industry, choose to use it. Will we chase efficiency at the expense of authenticity?
Or will we use this newfound power to push the boundaries of creativity, reshaping media into something that resonates more deeply, speaks more truthfully, and engages more meaningfully with the audiences we serve?
By Natale Panella, Head of Digital, Fusion5
