Three months later, nothing about the actual work has changed. At Forge, we have a name for this. We call it AI Theatre, and it is quietly costing the advertising industry a fortune.
Marketing’s most expensive theatre
AI Theatre is the superficial use of technology to impress the people who sign the budget. It is the tool bought because a competitor bought one. It dazzles in the room and delivers nothing once everyone leaves. The tell is always the same: no one can point to work that got better because of it.
The cost is not just the licence fees. It is the strategist's afternoon lost to a tool nobody really uses, the client confidence spent on a demo that goes nowhere, and the slow erosion of belief that any of this works.
The antidote is not more caution. It is a ruthless focus on outcomes. The only question worth asking of any AI tool is whether it makes the work better, faster or more effective.
Discipline is everything
If it does not, it goes in the bin, no matter how impressive the demo was. That sounds obvious. In practice, almost nobody applies it, because the theatre is more comfortable than the discipline.
Real adoption looks boring from the outside. It starts with the unglamorous work of getting your brand's truths into one place, so the machine has something honest to draw on. It treats AI as a research and volume engine, not a creative oracle.
It keeps a person accountable for every final call. And it measures you by the hours given back to your best people and by campaigns that hit their commercial targets, not by the number of assets generated.
Marry speed with efficacy
We have seen what that looks like when it works. Campaign timelines that used to run six to eight weeks now run under two. A performance campaign for a pet food brand reached 172% of its sales target.
None of that came from a tool. It came from a process built around people who know what good looks like, with AI doing the heavy lifting underneath.
Before you approve another AI initiative, ask the question that matters.
Will this improve the work, or will it just make a good slide? If you cannot answer honestly, you are not adopting AI. You are buying a ticket to the most expensive show in marketing.
But you can change the way you do things with The Forge AI Playbook, free at https://forge-ai-playbook.replit.app/.
About the author
Mat Sexwale is the product marketing director at Forge, an AI-powered marketing solution. He specialises in omnichannel marketing, data-driven insights, and human-technology collaboration. Throughout his career, Sexwale has focused on crafting campaigns grounded in real-world impact and relevance, and his strategic leadership has been instrumental in the Brave Group securing top industry honours, including leading positions in the Scopen ratings for digital, AI, and transformation.
A recognised thought leader and brand builder, Sexwale frequently contributes articles to platforms such as Forbes Africa and Bizcommunity. His writing explores the intersection of marketing, culture, and technology, covering topics such as the impact of generative AI on the advertising industry, the evolution of retail loyalty, and the dynamics of South Africa's mass market. He is particularly known for his insights into mass marketing, such as utilising WhatsApp for word-of-mouth, and advocates a shift from aspirational marketing to delivering tangible value and affirmation for consumers.
About Forge
An award-winning, AI-powered creative agency, Forge reshapes how marketing campaigns are created, developed, and delivered. Forge deploys a proprietary AI system with integrated tools, enabling a multidisciplinary team of strategists, creatives, and media experts to create engaging, effective advertising in a fraction of the time required by conventional agencies. The platform marries the best of artificial intelligence with the best of human creativity to generate work that resonates and is culturally relevant to audiences.
