Australian marketers and creative leaders embrace generative AI

Australia’s marketing and creative leaders are using generative AI to save time and enhance creativity, according to a new global survey.

Natalie Schwartz, global head of brand marketing, Canva

Australian marketing and creative leaders are among the most bullish globally when it comes to the uptake of generative AI ­technology, according to a new survey from graphic design platform, Canva.

Canva surveyed more than 4000 marketing and creative leaders from nine countries – which included more than 300 in Australia – about their attitudes towards the content-generating AI tools.

Throughout the year, content creators have already started to experiment with the technology. According to the survey’s findings, 77 per cent of respondents agreed that generative AI was enhancing their team’s creativity. Australia ranked the highest globally in this category.

Canva global head of brand marketing Natalie Schwartz told The Growth Agenda that generative AI was not a replacement for human-led creativity, but rather a tool that can improve it.

“AI is not creating things on its own in an independent vacuum. It’s magnifying the human creative intent,” she said.

Canva has embedded content-generating AI tools into its software, including Magic Write, a “copywriting assistant” that has generated around one billion words since it was launched in December last year.

The tool, which is also used to write content for Canva’s Threads account, uses OpenAI’s technology – the same operating system behind text-generating platform ChatGPT. Canva has also developed other AI tools that help perform simple design tasks such as editing images and language translation tools.

“I think a lot of these things are just like quick tools that can help kickstart or augment or really polish human creativity,” Ms Schwartz said.

According to the findings, generative AI is also driving efficiencies within marketing teams, as 68 per cent of respondents said generative AI was saving teams at least two to three hours per week.

Intellectual property rights and content ownership has emerged as a key issue for content creators and owners, as some generative AI platforms scrape the internet to train their systems.

In Canva’s survey, 50 per cent of respondents said they had introduced firm guardrails around the use of generative AI. Australia trails behind other countries surveyed, with the exception of the US.

“We don’t train AI models on creator or user designed content without their permission. We’re very explicit about the data we collect and how we’re using it. And we want to make sure we’re being respectful of all of our users on that front,” Ms Schwartz said.

A growing number of advertising agencies in Australia and internationally are increasingly implementing policies to guide their use of generative AI tools.

Overall, the survey suggests marketers are embracing the technology.

“Marketers have to be on the edge of culture. We’re the ones that are creating the content that is driving popular opinion, trends and entertainment. So I think it makes sense that we’re always exploring the latest innovations, and how they might resonate with our audiences, and then experimenting with them ourselves,” Ms Schwartz added.

“If you’re a marketer who’s not using or embracing AI right now, you’re firmly in the minority.”