South Africa, Feb. 24 -- I have two issues - firstly, brands are cannibalising their own customer base in the name of cost optimisation and secondly, in the process, they're doing untold damage to an entire creative ecosystem.

By replacing real people in advertising with AI-generated faces and voices, companies aren't just cutting production costs, they're engaging in profit hoarding that shows a fundamental misunderstanding of who it is that keeps them in business.

There's a place for AI, but it should be applied in research, automation and igniting ideas - the 'grunt work', rather than producing the finished work.

AI kills

Every real person eliminated from the creative process means one fewer paycheque in the economy, one less tax p...