This article is reposted from the WeChat public account “Digital Business Innovation” Shanghai Pangjing Enterprise Management Co., Ltd. The author Hanna’s interview article, the original URL: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/SmSH_6RuwcuBHVhADZnFeQ。
The pain point of marketing is never how to generate a picture and a text.
Can AI handle advertising creativity?
With the rise of AIGC (AI-generated content) advertisements, from brand posters to video ads, the answer seems to be a resounding “Yes.” There’s no doubt that AIGC capabilities have become adept at deeply integrating into various stages of the creative process, from generating copywriting to producing images and videos.
However, a closer look at these cases reveals that even with manual optimization and adjustments, AIGC-generated ads still carry a distinctive “AI flavor” and the so-called “lifelike” feel often still comes across as artificial in comment sections, with users easily spotting AI-made content. Even ChatGPT itself admits that while AI excels at optimizing efficiency and enhancing precision, it struggles when it comes to emotional depth and creative expression.
Despite numerous AI Native applications in the industry boasting their ability to execute full-stack marketing strategies, the involvement of AI in marketing—especially in advertising creativity—largely remains confined to the latter part of the workflow, specifically from proposal to execution. On the other hand, AI tools related to creative inspiration and strategy generation remain relatively scarce in the market.
Undoubtedly, this is a field that urgently requires transformation through AI. With a rich background in senior advertising and marketing roles, David is acutely aware of the industry’s pain points. “The creative marketing industry heavily relies on interdisciplinary knowledge and practical experience. For instance, at international 4A advertising agencies, cultivating a creative director usually takes at least ten years. While this underscores the commercial value of talent, it also highlights the reality that high-level creative professionals cannot be widely accessible to most companies.”
In 2023, he co-founded AICE Inc. with partners from marketing technology and consulting backgrounds, introducing the concept of AIGI－AI Generated IDEA, referring to generative AI creativity. After a year of product refinement, AICE officially launched its creative inspiration generative AI solution—ADGo—on November 27, claiming it to be “the industry’s first multi-AI agent system to attain 4A-level professionalism.”
It is reported that the creative demo for Starbucks China’s first brand-customized short drama, “I Opened Starbucks in Ancient Times,” originated from ADGo.
AICE states that ADGo has the potential to achieve a fully AI-driven workflow from strategy to content, enabling anyone to complete a professional-grade marketing plan and creativity in just one hour, enhancing efficiency by 72 times. Its core lies in the innovative “M.A.G.I.C.C” multi-agent creative production workflow technology, enabling complex creative strategic thinking. Additionally, the product integrates marketing industry knowledge graph training technology, incorporating professional advertising and marketing knowledge and methodologies, along with its proprietary mixed RAG knowledge invocation technology. It can quickly retrieve over 100,000 global case studies, target audience reports, and social media trends from open internet data sources.
“The pain points in marketing are never about generating an image or text, but about executing marketing tasks effectively and selling products—that’s the essence of a comprehensive marketing strategy and market analysis,” asserts David, CEO of AICE. He emphasizes, however, that AI creative tools are not intended to replace high-end creativity, but rather to enhance the efficiency of creative production and eliminate “unnecessary” processes.
After the ADGo product launch, Pangjing conducted interviews with David, Founder and CEO of AICE; Vitas, Founder and Chief Product Officer; and Joseph, Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer. They shared their observations on the AI marketing industry and the stories behind the product development.
The topic of AI marketing has been around for nearly two years now. Why did you choose to enter the field at this time? What is AICE’s biggest advantage?
David Chu, ” The emergence of AI marketing came after the development of AI tools. It was first the introduction of tools like ChatGPT and Midjourney that prompted people to consider how AI capabilities could impact the marketing industry.”
However, we discovered that AI’s potential goes far beyond just generating copy and images. The question is whether AI can create creative advertising and marketing. The pain points in marketing are never about generating an image or a piece of text; rather, they revolve around executing a marketing task effectively and selling a product. The real challenges lie in the overall marketing strategy and market analysis.
The first half of the marketing workflow is the most crucial, yet it is precisely the area that remains largely unaddressed. This is the first stop in marketing and the problem that marketers should prioritize solving—using creativity to influence the entire advertising and marketing process, thereby enhancing the completeness of marketing solutions.
Other AI marketing companies are fundamentally technology firms that utilize existing models and products to address general problems. Few specialize in the enterprise marketing context, particularly in tackling front-end scenario issues. Our understanding of creativity is deeper than that of other AI marketing companies. We truly grasp the workflow of creative generation and aim to enable AI to genuinely produce creativity.
The thinking patterns in advertising creativity somewhat contradict the working logic of AI. How can you ensure that AI-generated creativity does not lead to overlaps or “collisions”?
The question of how to make AI think creatively like a human boils down to understanding how humans generate ideas.
Most people use AI by simply asking, “Give me an idea,” and AI responds based on its training. However, can this answer truly solve the problem? Often, it cannot.
The generation of a creative idea requires deep exploration of user insights and may involve drawing from numerous concepts, tapping into trending topics on social media, and incorporating cross-disciplinary thoughts and perspectives. It can also benefit from social and cultural contexts or collaborations with IPs, celebrities, and KOLs. Creative thinkers approach idea generation from multiple angles.
To address this, we utilize AI agents to simulate the entire workflow and have developed the “Multi-Agent Creative Generation Workflow” and “Marketing Industry Knowledge Graph Training Technology,” along with our proprietary “Hybrid RAG Knowledge Invocation Technology.” The entire working model resembles a lengthy cognitive chain that takes about 5 to 10 minutes to generate. Behind each generated proposal lies a significant amount of complex computation, requiring 200,000 to 300,000 tokens for each iteration.
Under this system, the ADGo product is capable of effectively controlling the generation of creativity through various modes, such as “Crazy Mode” and “Brainstorming Mode,” resulting in outstanding creative cases.
When was the first generation of the ADGo product launched? What does the product’s research and development and iteration cycle look like?
In January 2024, we developed the first generation of the product, which allows AI to generate 15,000 words directly from a brief to a complete workflow. This functionality is now one of our seven key features, known as “Pre-Launch Strategy.” After creating this feature, we clarified that AI is capable of handling creativity and complex workflows, setting the direction for AIGI (AI Generated IDEA).
By April, we launched three main features: “New Product Pre-Launch,” “Social Buzz Amplification,” and “Integrated Marketing Creativity.” In June, we added “Market Intelligence Sweep” and front-end search capabilities, thereby establishing the official version of ADGo and entering the marketing phase.
Throughout this process, we have gradually observed how AI can address marketing, planning, and creativity, delving deeper into the creative refinement process and leveraging AI capabilities.
Could you introduce how you collaborated with Starbucks?
Our initial contact with Starbucks was regarding the creative concept for a short drama. At that time, Starbucks’ agency team used the ADGo tool to generate creative directions—specifically, Chinese-style marketing and short dramas. Following that, we provided around fifty to sixty related case studies, from which we developed an ancient crossover setting to form the entire creative framework.
This opportunity allowed Starbucks to become familiar with us, and the brand began actively using our product once they understood its capabilities. However, this doesn’t mean that ADGo will replace external advertising agencies. AI tools are designed to address urgent scenarios, such as tight timelines, or to allow brands to preset some creative marketing directions internally before handing them off for external execution.
This represents a significant pain point for many brands today. If everything has to go through an advertising agency, the constant back-and-forth in the creative process can be quite frustrating. Moreover, the Chinese market changes rapidly; decisions made today may face alterations just one or two weeks later. There are even instances where a marketing plan developed over three months may launch unsuccessfully, necessitating immediate adjustments.
For example, if a brand like Starbucks is planning a Halloween campaign and sales do not meet expectations, what should they do? No 4A advertising agency can solve this issue because at that time, revisiting adjustments would take another two weeks, and by the time the brief is ready, the campaign has already concluded.
The greatest value of ADGo lies in its speed, quantity, and quality. At the beginning of October, Starbucks approached us for creative concepts for their Halloween product launch, directly stating, “We need the product out immediately; give me a plan today.” We quickly provided five to ten ideas.
When a brand has three months to prepare for a marketing activity, everything can unfold gradually. But when there’s only a two-day window, decisions need to be made instantly. The process is all about immediate selection, immediate execution, and delivering the best possible results quickly.
How do we balance creativity and efficiency?
AICE CEO David Chu, ”I believe both must coexist. If the creativity is lacking, speed alone will not meet client expectations. Many large language models fall into this trap. Therefore, creativity needs to be approached with care, while also having the capability to achieve productivity levels.”
There are many tools in the market that are fast; in comparison, ADGo is relatively slower, involving a longer cognitive chain requiring at least three to five minutes for generation.
When it comes to efficiency versus effectiveness, we should prioritize effectiveness, which means focusing on creativity. The efficiency of ADGo primarily lies in the fact that it enhances productivity by 72 times compared to human efforts.
AICE Co-founder Joseph Tang, ”Our goal is not to replace genuine high-end creative work. Instead, we aim to shorten some important yet repetitive tasks that require significant time to develop, allowing a skilled advertising creative to directly select the most suitable solutions from countless options to meet market demands. AI tools address the most challenging steps: nurturing, waiting, and integration.”
Currently, the integration of AI marketing within the industry is far from adequate in both breadth and depth. What do you think is the reason for this?
AICE Co-founder Joseph Tang, ”All advertising groups are currently developing similar AI tools; however, many of these groups have actually purchased our product because only ADGo can address the deeper issues faced by enterprises—specifically, time. This additional time allows them to manage more cases effectively.”
If one is still approaching advertising creativity without understanding that creativity is a multifaceted problem-solving ability and remains focused solely on the copy itself, then it can be said that they are out of touch with the business world. The greatest advantage of ADGo is its capacity to solve business challenges, enabling those on the front lines and at the final stages to receive excellent inspiration and generate proposals while reducing unnecessary waiting periods.
Some marketers are now using free marketing tools like Kimi, which can solve most of the work-related issues. Will this create a competitive relationship with ADGo?
AICE’s Chief Product Officer Vitas Zhang, ”I am reminded of a classic analogy that can answer this question. In the early 20th century, before General Motors introduced the production line, the method of car manufacturing involved experienced craftsmen teaching apprentices how to better use production tools to build cars. However, this approach posed a problem: what happens when the master craftsman leaves? Or what if both the master and the apprentice leave together?”
It was not until General Motors introduced the world’s first automated automobile production line that this issue was thoroughly resolved, marking the true beginning of a production paradigm shift. What ADGo aims to create is a new marketing production methodology. It cannot be compared directly to large models. Using Kimi versus using ADGo involves a significant difference in proficiency achieved with a single tool by one person compared to the introduction of an entire production line.
AICE Inc.－ Pioneering AI-Driven Marketing Innovation
AICE Inc. is a cutting-edge AI-driven marketing innovator, dedicated to democratizing creative excellence through technology. Our mission is to empower brands with smarter, more efficient, and highly scalable solutions that unlock true value. Since the launch of our flagship product, ADGo, in 2024, we have helped both global and local brands redefine the synergy between creativity and marketing performance.
At AICE, we believe AI is reshaping the future, and we are committed to leading this transformation. We are seeking visionaries who thrive on challenges and are eager to disrupt the industry’s status quo—together, we will push the frontiers of marketing innovation.
Spirit
The Relentless Spirit of AI Innovation
AICE is not just building an AI-powered marketing tool; we are shaping a revolutionary approach that challenges conventional marketing paradigms. Our vision is to democratize access to high-quality creative marketing through AI, driving the industry toward a more intelligent and efficient future. As we navigate the evolution of AI-powered marketing, we are all part of AICE’s journey.
Vision
First-Stop & One-Stop AI Marketing Solutions
Mission
Empowering Brand Creativity Through AI—Creating Value, Solving Problems
Value Proposition
With industry-leading AI innovations, AICE focuses on marketing’s vertical ecosystem—accelerating business growth and fostering global success for enterprises at home and abroad.
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