Machine Learning Is Not Going to Contribute to the Downfall of Humanity

Several years ago, programmatic trading looked like it would kill the media buyer. Of course, in hindsight, we know that wasn't the case. Programmatic trading reduced the number of salespeople making cold calls as well as the number of analysts necessary to calculate media yield, but those activities were at the margins of the advertising business. The core of the advertising business is to draw out emotional connections between brands and consumers. A media buyer intuitively understands what an algorithm can never grasp--that a Ford means something very different to an audience than a Cadillac.