Mercury was delighted to host its inaugural Mercury Academy event – a series of content-rich gatherings to discuss and debate various hot topics within the world of luxury. To kick things off, we chose the trending thematic of AI and partnered with a stellar line up of speakers at Google’s offices to discuss the fascinating subject across industry verticals such as art, retail and health and wellness.
Below are some of our favourite outtakes from the incredible and truly inspirational panel including:
Marine Tanguy, CEO, Global talent agency, MTArtAgency, representing the world’s leading contemporary visual artists
Saadia Hakim-Monero, Head of Consumer, UK&I, Google Cloud
Katrien Cruz Grobler, Founder & CEO, AI KAT
Tiffany St James, Founding Member of the AI Advisory Board for the Global Wellness Institute & Founder of Transmute, leading change in digital transformation
Marine Tanguy shared insights into the harm of visual pollution which has been exacerbated by generative AI. Shockingly, we are exposed to 10,000 images a day with the vast majority having commercial intent. This has significantly impacted the digital society that we now live in, with a higher ratio of advertisement to art imagery contributing negatively to the overall ‘happiness’ of a population.4/5 billboards nationwide are in low-income neighbourhoods, demonstrating the inequality of advertising vs art in our everyday spaces. With ‘75% of imagery becoming AI generated by 2050’, Marine highlighted the need for visual education, policy changes and our own participation in creating a more positive visual world.
Head of Consumer UK&I at Google, Saadia Hakim-Monero, discussed the tools and services which have been designed to help the retail industry thrive in the digital age since Covid. We learnt a lot about Gemini, Google’s largest and most capable AI model, and how our key search words are determining our daily intake through results on social media and the internet. We can be the ones to shape the system rather than being controlled by our intake with attention to online absorption.
Katrien Cruz Grobler’s AI startup similarly explores how AI generated content is moulded by our input and the prompts we give it. Her talk highlighted how AI is simply a reflection of ourselves, with results reflecting our own output – AI is therefore not biased but humans are. With limited personal information the majority of AI tools share highly generic results but Kat says that anyone can master AI with discipline and time, with personality and values being an important aspect. Sharing her prompting tips, Kat voiced that brands should explore and provide answers on their purpose, positioning, promise, proposition and personality to result in more authentic content with a tailored tone of voice.
Tiffany St James shared AI and wellness trends and discussed the wellness industry and how mental health is one of the fastest growing areas for AI development. Tiffany says that AI is making it possible for people to track their own personal data in real time with biometrics being used to test experiences such as watching a film with the collected data showing how people feel about them. Biometrics can also be used in business, looking to personalise wellness experiences, improve customer service, and develop sustainability initiatives.
This event on AI and emerging trends across industries was a huge success with fantastic insights into the future of this game changing development, and guidance on how we can best manage these current digital impacts. We look forward to our next Mercury Academy to take place next quarter and working with more inspiring speakers and thought leaders.
