A lot of award winners will end up in the gutter. How’s that for a click-baity opening line?
 
The thing is, it’s partly true. At some point of an awards night, you will see most Cannes Lions winners at the infamous Gutter Bar. Drinking a heady cocktail of alcohol, their peers’ fawning praise and their competitors’ envy. Bacchus (newbies) can’t make a wine that tastes as sweet.

So, congratulations in advance to the future winners. That includes all who entered. For there are no losers in this game. Sure, only a few among you will walk away with a trophy. The rest will be left with a burning desire to sip from that chalice next year. And both groups help creativity advance.

Speaking of moving forward, creativity is poised to take a giant leap. Some say it will be off a cliff. Others think the golden age of advertising will be made of silicon. No matter which way you lean, you will agree the business will change with the advent of Gen AI.

And award shows will change with it. If you thought there were way too many categories, wait a year or two. You will be overwhelmed with new categories.

Best prompt writer: copy, best prompt writer: art, best prompt writer: design, best use of AI in PR, best use of AI in activation, best use of AI in music, best AI commercial, best AI branded content, and best AI media innovation. I could go on and on, but I have run out of prompts.

This raises a few questions. Who is better equipped to judge the work created by AI? Human beings? Or AI? Who should go up on stage? An agency person? Or the servers that house the AI that created the winning work? Or both?

Imagine this scenario. The award-winning team of a human and an AI server go to Gutter Bar. The flesh and blood person bitches to everyone that it was all his idea and AI just executed it. Meanwhile, the AI claims that its partner did nothing except hit enter. The former gets drunk. The latter gets hacked.

In all seriousness though, AI is a tool. How great it can be is decided by the talent of the person using it. Like I always say, if you give a wood sculptor a chainsaw he will create a work of art. If you put it in the hands of a monkey a lot of people will get hurt.

The author is the former chairperson and chief creative officer of Havas India. Currently he likes being referred to as: a free thinker with free spirit who is generally free. He was recently appointed as creative consultant at News18 Studio.