What happens when you stop fearing AI and start using it for marketing

Boxers & Briefs Podcast #23: The future of AI in marketing with Steve Ballantyne

The conversation around artificial intelligence in marketing is drowning in hysteria and sensationalism. Yet beneath the noise lies a profound opportunity for businesses willing to look beyond the headlines and embrace AI as what it truly is: a revolutionary creative tool that amplifies human potential rather than replacing it.

Steve Ballantyne, who has spent over 30 years working with 200+ startups and established brands throughout New Zealand and Australia, brings a refreshingly pragmatic perspective to the AI marketing debate. Through his company Brand IQ and his role teaching Digital Storytelling at the NZ Marketing Association, Steve has witnessed firsthand how AI can unlock unprecedented creative possibilities for businesses of all sizes.

The productivity revolution hiding in plain sight

While media attention fixates on AI-generated fake images and deepfake controversies, a quieter revolution is reshaping how businesses operate. Harvard Business Review’s collaboration with BCG consultants revealed that professionals using AI tools demonstrated 30-40% higher productivity compared to their colleagues working without AI assistance. This isn’t just incremental improvement – it’s a fundamental shift in how creative work gets done.

“If we draw the curtain of hysteria aside and really look at it as a practical business tool, it is an amazing tool to create more efficiency and productivity in your business,” explains Steve. This perspective cuts through the fearmongering that dominates AI discussions and focuses on tangible business outcomes.

AI now enables personalised customer experiences at scale, powers sophisticated chatbots that actually understand context, drives predictive analytics that anticipate market trends, and optimises ad targeting with precision that was unimaginable just years ago. But perhaps the most exciting frontier lies in content creation, where AI tools are democratising access to professional-quality marketing materials.

Levelling the creative playing field

For decades, high-quality visual content remained the exclusive domain of businesses with substantial budgets. Professional photography sessions, complete with studios, equipment, models, and skilled photographers, could easily consume thousands of dollars for a single campaign. This reality created an obvious disadvantage for smaller businesses competing against well-funded enterprises.

AI-generated imagery is rewriting these rules entirely. A small business with limited resources can now create visually stunning content that rivals the production values of international brands. The technology doesn’t just reduce costs – it eliminates traditional barriers to creative expression and enables rapid iteration that would be impossible with conventional photography.

Steve’s approach to AI imagery centres on what he calls ‘smart photosynthesis,’ a process that begins with original photographs and evolves through careful prompting, remixing, and blending. “I take a photograph I’ve taken of a landscape and then I get other ideas or references around the place and I remix and remix and blend and blend and blend like a DJ with music creating a new sound.” This methodology ensures that AI serves as a creative amplifier rather than a replacement for human vision.

Navigating the ethical landscape with intention

The rise of AI-generated content inevitably raises questions about authenticity, copyright, and artistic integrity. Recent scandals involving deepfake celebrity content and manipulated political imagery have heightened concerns about AI’s potential for misuse. However, these isolated incidents shouldn’t overshadow the technology’s legitimate applications in business contexts.

The reality is that marketing has always involved elements of artifice. Heavily retouched photographs, staged family scenes, and idealised lifestyle imagery have been industry standards for decades. AI simply makes these processes more accessible and efficient. The key lies in approaching the technology with ethical awareness and creative responsibility.

From a legal perspective, the landscape remains fluid. Major court cases in the United States involving OpenAI, Midjourney, and other platforms are still working through complex copyright questions. What’s clear is that AI models have been trained on vast datasets that include copyrighted material, creating grey areas around ownership and fair use.

Steve navigates these challenges by focusing on photographic techniques rather than copying specific artistic styles. Instead of prompting AI to mimic a particular photographer’s work, they emphasise camera types, lighting conditions, depth of field variations, and compositional elements. This approach respects individual creators while leveraging AI’s ability to understand and apply broad photographic principles.

The authenticity paradox in an AI world

Perhaps the most fascinating development in AI marketing is how it’s forcing brands to reconsider authenticity itself. As consumers become increasingly sophisticated at detecting AI-generated content, businesses face a new imperative: creating genuine connections in an era of synthetic media.

“Brands now, their biggest job is really to create authenticity and trust because we’re living in the age of what’s real and what’s not real,” observes Steve. This challenge extends beyond simply disclosing AI usage – it requires brands to demonstrate authentic values and genuine commitment to their customers’ needs.

The irony is striking. At the precise moment when technology enables unprecedented levels of content creation, success increasingly depends on human elements that can’t be automated: genuine storytelling, authentic brand values, and real emotional connections with audiences.

Democratising diversity through intelligent prompting

One of AI’s most compelling applications in marketing lies in its ability to address representation challenges that have long plagued the industry. Traditional stock photography often skews towards specific demographics, making it difficult for brands to authentically represent diverse audiences without significant investment in custom photography.

AI image generation offers a solution, but only when approached thoughtfully. The algorithms contain inherent biases based on their training data, which can perpetuate harmful stereotypes if left unchecked. Prompting for a ‘CEO’ might default to an older white male, while requesting a ‘cleaner’ could produce racially problematic results.

However, these biases can be actively countered through careful prompting strategies. Steve’s work with the Australian Marketing Institute demonstrates this potential. Faced with the need for 100 diverse images across a new brand launch, traditional photography would have been prohibitively expensive. AI enabled the creation of authentically Australian-looking individuals spanning from European descendants to First Nation Aboriginals to Vietnamese Australians, all within budget constraints that made the project viable.

The key insight is that marketers maintain complete control over the prompting process. This control comes with responsibility—the obligation to actively counter algorithmic biases and ensure that generated content reflects genuine diversity rather than perpetuating harmful stereotypes.

The creative amplification effect

Critics worry that AI will diminish human creativity, replacing skilled artists and writers with algorithmic alternatives. This perspective misunderstands how creative professionals actually use these tools. The most sophisticated AI users aren’t seeking replacement for human creativity—they’re pursuing amplification of it.

The technology creates a fascinating bifurcation in creative capabilities. On one end, it enables less skilled individuals to produce adequate content quickly and easily. This will inevitably increase the volume of mediocre content flooding digital channels. On the other end, truly creative professionals who master AI prompting techniques can achieve results that were previously impossible.

The distinction lies not just in technical prompting ability, but in the creative vision that guides the process. Understanding composition, colour theory, narrative structure, and audience psychology remains fundamentally human. AI provides the execution power, but the creative direction still requires human intelligence, intuition, and experience.

Educational institutions at a crossroads

The emergence of AI tools is forcing educational systems to grapple with fundamental questions about learning, creativity, and academic integrity. Some institutions have banned AI usage entirely, treating it as a form of cheating equivalent to plagiarism. Others are embracing controlled integration, teaching students to use AI tools responsibly within defined boundaries.

This tension reflects broader uncertainty about AI’s role in professional development. Should students learn to work without AI, mastering traditional skills before incorporating technological assistance? Or should AI literacy be considered an essential modern competency, integrated from the beginning of creative education?

The parallel with historical technological shifts offers perspective. When desktop publishing emerged in the 1980s, traditional printing and design industries initially resisted the change. Ultimately, professionals who adapted to new tools thrived, while those who refused to evolve found themselves increasingly marginalised.

Looking ahead to AI companionship

Perhaps the most intriguing development in AI’s evolution is its movement towards emotional intelligence and conversational sophistication. Platforms like Pi, developed by Mustafa Suleyman (formerly of Google DeepMind), represent a new category of AI designed for natural, emotionally intelligent interaction.

These advanced AI systems function less like traditional software tools and more like digital companions capable of nuanced conversation, creative collaboration, and even emotional support. For marketers, this evolution suggests a future where AI serves not just as a content generation engine, but as a creative partner capable of brainstorming, refining ideas, and providing sophisticated feedback.

The implications extend beyond mere efficiency gains. As AI becomes more conversational and emotionally sophisticated, it may fundamentally change how creative professionals approach problem-solving, ideation, and content development.

Practical strategies for AI adoption

For businesses considering AI integration, the path forward requires balancing enthusiasm with pragmatism. Start with clearly defined use cases where AI can address specific pain points – whether that’s scaling content production, improving targeting precision, or reducing creative costs.

Investment in prompt engineering skills is crucial. The quality of AI output directly correlates with the sophistication of human input. This isn’t just about learning technical syntax; it requires understanding how to communicate creative vision effectively to algorithmic systems.

Consider transparency strategies appropriate to your brand and audience. Some clients prefer explicit disclosure of AI usage, while others focus on end-user value regardless of production methods. The decision should align with brand values and customer expectations.

Most importantly, maintain focus on human elements that AI cannot replicate: authentic brand voice, genuine customer understanding, and creative vision that resonates with real human needs and desires.

The future belongs to creative hybrids

The AI revolution in marketing isn’t about choosing between human creativity and algorithmic efficiency – it’s about discovering new forms of creative collaboration that combine the best of both approaches. Businesses that embrace this hybrid model will unlock creative possibilities that neither humans nor AI could achieve independently.

The technology will continue evolving rapidly, with new capabilities emerging regularly. Success will depend less on mastering specific tools and more on developing the creative vision and strategic thinking that guides their application.

As we move forward, the most successful marketers will be those who view AI not as a threat to creativity, but as the ultimate creative amplifier – a tool that enables bigger ideas, faster execution, and more personalised connections with audiences than ever before possible.

The conversation around AI in marketing needs to move beyond fear and hype towards practical exploration of creative potential. For businesses willing to embrace this shift, the opportunities are extraordinary. The future belongs to those bold enough to reimagine what’s possible when human creativity meets artificial intelligence.

You can contact Steve through his agency Brand IQ.

This article and podcast is proudly brought to you by Gilligan Sheppard, the problem solvers in business who believe in thinking differently.n thinking differently.