Judge of the Day: Haley Paas - the real power of media lies in human judgment

"In creative, it's speeding up idea generation and enabling production at scale. In media, it's making optimization faster and more predictive, helping us allocate dollars with greater precision. But the limit lies in judgment. AI can process data, but it doesn't know our brand values or the cultural nuance of a message. That's where vision, human creativity, leadership and taste will still be essential."

"It's about designing an ecosystem where both fuel each other. Long-term brand building creates the trust and emotional resonance that makes performance work harder. Performance marketing, in turn, gives us real-time signals on how we're converting that demand and interest."

Haley Paas serves as Verizon's senior vice president of media, marketing effectiveness and agency management and juror for the Drum Awards Festival. AI accelerates creative idea generation and enables production at scale while making media optimization faster and more predictive. AI's limitations appear in judgment, brand values, and cultural nuance, where human vision, creativity, leadership and taste remain necessary. Effective marketing integrates long-term brand building that creates trust and emotional resonance with short-term performance that provides real-time conversion signals. Marketers must test and adjust the balance between brand and performance to improve outcomes and maintain cultural relevance tied to authentic brand purpose.

Read at The Drum