MANILA, PHILIPPINES – A couple of years into its emergence, it’s safe to say that the power of AI has taken over many aspects of daily life and work. Most now rely on AI tools to not only assist them in day-to-day tasks, but also to turn figments of imagination into reality in creative work.
Works of AI have now started to appear in marketing materials, proving the usefulness of content-generation tools in ideation and storytelling. But will AI truly ever fully replace the human mind and talent?
L-R: Roche Vandenberghe (Globe Telecom), Kim Martin Viray (GCash), Laurent Goirand (GroupM Nexus), Emmanuel Ordinanza (Nestlé), Bea Atienza (Colgate-Palmolive), Liam Capati (Publicis Media), Mary Buenaventura (Omnicom Media Group), Reena Franciso (EssenceMediacom), Peach Natividad (BBDO Guerrero), Carlo Licuanan (Universal Robina Corporation)
For the jurors of this year’s YouTube Works Awards Philippines, composed of some of the finest creative and marketing minds in the country, AI won’t supplant the creativity and heart of real people. For the most part, authenticity is still the one thing that resonates with fellow Filipinos, and AI is still a tool that helps bring out that authenticity more efficiently.
“I think AI amplifies creativity, more than anything else, when done right and you use it in a way that leverages the strength of the platform,” said Liam Capati, Chief Media Officer at Publicis Manila. “It can only amplify the power of creatives in a way that has not been seen before. I say that simply because the ability to drive relevancy across a wider breadth of audiences and customers is where the value of AI lies.“
“AI helps in the background, making things more efficient so that brands and agencies are able to come out with award-winning creative work in an even bigger and faster way,” said Peach Natividad, Chief Strategy Officer at BBDO Guerrero.
“I would say that the biggest a-ha! moments came from me looking at what AI churned out, so it helped me become creative faster. It didn’t help me become less creative–maybe more creative.”
“For now, I think AI is a good partner that really delivers and generates efficiency,” said Emmanuel Ordinanza, VP and Head of Integrated Media at Nestlé.
The jurors made it abundantly clear that first and foremost, marketing is still a game of human creativity and resonance, as people respond to the stories and insights of fellow human beings.
“Human creativity is absolutely critical – it’s still the soul of how we tell stories. And without it, no matter how creative a media design or algorithm you have, it’s the human creativity that brings people back to what it is you need to say about a brand. That’s where the connection really happens. So excellence in that is fundamental to the success of any brand today,” said Liam.
“You need to be more relatable in your content, and I think machine learning may not be able to address or deliver that yet,” added Emmanuel. “I think it’s very important that brands have humanized content that delivers a good connection to your audiences and consumers.”
“At the end of the day, clients still look for creativity; they also use AI, so they know if it’s AI-generated. They know that this is the baseline, so they ask how we elevate from that,” added Peach.
Stay tuned for the results of the 2025 YouTube Works Awards Philippines, determining which campaigns will represent the country in the overall YouTube Works Awards Southeast Asia.
adobo magazine is an official media partner of the YouTube Works Awards Southeast Asia 2025.
