It’s that time of year, when Business Link Magazine invites the region’s business leaders to offer up their predictions for the year ahead.
It has become something of a tradition, given that we’ve been doing this now for over 30 years.
Here we speak to Anna Hutton, director of communications and behaviour change at marketing agency MacMartin.
During 2023 we have seen a significant rise in the use of AI, and this is only predicted to increase.
Behaviour change marketing is the term used to describe campaigns which are created to change human behaviour; whether that is to stop smoking, or to call out friends when they are carrying out misogynistic behaviours.
With that in mind, our prediction for 2024 will be to see a rise in the need for human intelligence: a requirement to understand humans at a deeper level.
As humans, we are predictably unpredictable. The rise in AI will call attention to the areas of work in marketing where the need for understanding humans and individual differences is really important.
AI can’t replicate true creativity, understand nuanced social cues, or empathise in complex situations. These skills are deep rooted in human experiences.
Behaviour change marketing is about our behaviours and attitudes; employing traditional marketing techniques to communicate with people to drive the desired changes in behaviour, based on our understanding of humans, including the acknowledgement of individual differences.
For all the prevalence of AI, it will never be able to take over this profound understanding of humans and it is this that will become more and more important.
