At the World AI Summit 2024, Humaine, a pioneering human-centric AI marketing agency, officially launched its South African and European operations yesterday. The timing of this debut couldn’t be more significant, as the global conversation around responsible and ethical AI deepens. Humaine shared its innovative emerging technology solutions designed to help enterprises communicate with and adaptability, using generative AI-powered tools that deliver multilingual, diverse, and hyper-targeted content.
Why Europe, why now?
Europe is rapidly becoming the epicentre of AI regulation, innovation, and ethical leadership. The European Union’s focus on developing responsible AI frameworks makes it a natural choice for Humaine’s expansion. “As a marketing agency that is powered by AI, and with human centricity at its heart, we recognise that the region is spearheading efforts to introduce governance and accountability in AI, Europe is the perfect launchpad for our services. Here, the dialogue on AI centres around ethical, transparent development, which is at the heart of what Humaine represents,” says Mike Butler, CEO of Humaine.
By leveraging AI to create video, social content, PR and digital advertising, as well as translate languages, create custom AI-generated voices and actors, or chatbots, the marketing industry is transforming. Producing fast and relevant content, Humaine enables businesses to communicate seamlessly with a variety of stakeholders. With vast linguistic and cultural diversity in many territories, Humaine’s solutions are primed to provide immense value, helping enterprises engage more effectively with partners, resellers, intermediaries, and end customers alike.
Insights: The World AI Summit 2024
The World AI Summit has become the go-to global platform for AI thought leadership. This year, the event in Amsterdam gathers over 200 global AI leaders, futurists, and innovators to discuss AI’s role in reshaping industries, societies, and global governance. “We’re attending not only to launch our services but also to engage in critical conversations about the future of AI,” explains Grant Hilary, Managing Director of Humaine, based in South Africa. “South Africa offers phenomenal marketing expertise and competitive production rates, and our work between our country and Europe is incredibly exciting. We have some very experienced names previously from big agencies, and we will show the importance of that expertise when working with AI.”
The summit covers essential topics like generative AI, ethics, and human-AI collaboration. Humaine’s presence at this event highlights its commitment to not only innovate through AI but doing so in a way that aligns with global values of sustainability, responsibility, and inclusion.
Human-centric AI
As emerging technology evolves, the need for human-centricity, placing humans at the centre of our work, becomes ever more pressing. Humaine is responding to the growing concerns surrounding unregulated technologies. Current global discussions echo those of the early days of social media, where innovation outpaced regulation, leading to unintended consequences in privacy, misinformation, and societal harm, many of which are still felt today.
“At Humaine, we believe AI can be a force for good,” says Dean McCoubrey, Head of Humane Technology at Humaine. “But this potential depends entirely on who builds these tools, what they’re directed to do, and who controls the inputs. We need to ensure that AI serves not just corporations but the planet, people, and communities at large.”
Image: Supplied/Humaine.
AI’s vast capabilities, particularly in automating communications and personalisation, require training and frameworks to ensure the technology is used responsibly. As a result, Humaine offers guidance to large organisations on how to navigate this emerging landscape. “Training was a key highlight at The Summit. We can only benefit from understanding more, and being brought into the industrial revolution that is already unfolding. Our mission is to ensure enterprises are not only adopting AI but doing so in a way that aligns with their values, pushes for more consideration and diversity, and maintains clarity. One of our team members is AI; we repeatedly ask “What would AI do?” adds McCoubrey.
A timely and transformative launch
According to Statista, in 2021, the market for artificial intelligence (AI) in marketing was estimated at 15.84 billion U.S. dollars. The source projected that the value would increase to more than 107.5 billion by 2028.
Butler reflects, “We’re at a pivotal moment. AI has the power to revolutionise marketing in ways that were once unimaginable. The Summit repeatedly shared how organisations that have adopted the technology, reaped the returns, and used the time gained from the efficiencies to focus on strategy or upselling. When teams are relieved of tiresome and repetitive tasks that can be handled by AI, they can add more value and grow the business. While many think businesses want to replace their workforce with technology, many organisations want to retain staff to focus on other key tasks they can’t normally get to. It’s imperative to get employees to understand this, and feel supported as AI is deployed. If we can show humans their evolving future and help them to step into it, everyone can win. But you need to adapt and adopt, under the right values and leadership.”