Coffee company uses digital AI billboard to read and record emotions
A few months ago, we reported that artificial intelligence is slowly making its way into the advertising ﻿industry, following an announcement by M&C Saatchi that it had created the world's first interactive AI digital advertising billboard, using hidden Microsoft Kinect cameras to read viewers' emotions. Saatchi, in collaboration with Clear Channel, tested the billboard this summer on ﻿Oxford Street and Clapham Common, featuring an advertisement campaign by a coffee brand called Bahio. Following the trial, ﻿﻿the AI technology, which can monitor up to 12 people at a time, recorded 42,000 reactions during the summer period. However, the technology has﻿﻿ raised privacy concerns among critics, despite each interaction being recorded by the company﻿ as a number﻿.   

Artificial Intelligence may become the next big thing in the advertising industry as M&C Saatchi, a giant advertising firm, has created digital advertising billboards with hidden Microsoft Kinect cameras to read viewers' emotions. This is the world's first ever artificially intelligent poster campaign.

Reported in Newser, the advertising firm is testing out the world's first ever artificially intelligent poster campaign in London this summer. The test advertisement features a fictitious coffee brand called Bahio. These posters have appeared on Oxford Street and Clapham Common in London. The advertising firm created digital billboards that monitor faces of passerby, as much as 12 people at a time. The billboards change images, slogans, fonts, colour scheme and more in accordance to viewers' emotions. M&C Saatchi Executive, Dave Cox, tells the Guardian that, "It's the first time a poster has been let loose to entirely write itself based on what works."

London pedestrians who so much as gave a glance at the posters probably didn't realize that they were already supplying information to the advertising company. In collaboration with Clear Channel, the digital billboards gathered more than 42,000 reactions during the summer. The advertising firm has insisted that nothing recognizable has been saved in response to privacy concerns. "Each interaction is given a number, that's it. We're trying not to be creepy", Cox said.

As pointed out by CityMetric, there are key things that should be recognized with this news: advertisers can now read consumers' behaviour; this is based on consumers' feelings rather than any personal history; lastly these gathered information are used to improve advertising. The campaign's ultimate objective is to get closer to its market, something that the industry has continuously researched on. Advertisers may now come up with messages that directly affect the market.

This may pose as a threat to copywriters, however Cox has assured them that they will not be replacing manpower with artificial intelligence. "It's not writing the best ad in the world. There's a lot of weird copy." However, in one promotional video Cox was reported saying, "Machines have taken over more and more jobs in every industry. So we thought, what about advertising?"

Loss of manpower and privacy are the two areas that can be affected with this kind of technology. Do you think the world's first ever artificial intelligence ad can be a powerful tool that doesn't violate consumers' privacy? Or do you think otherwise? Share us your thoughts.