AI: Embrace the Revolution!

The first quarter of a century of this millennium has been a time of revolutionary change for humanity. More specifically, there have been many areas of the toy and game business which have been hugely disrupted, enhanced or eradicated.

If you asked the average industry bod back in 2000 which would be the last toy retailer standing, I suspect Toys R Us would have been a common answer. If you asked the same people what would happen with e-commerce, they knew that buying over the internet would be huge – but were still playing Snake on their phones and sending SMS messages to each other. We didn’t know that, within a few years, the smartphone would see us heavily addicted to staring at a tiny screen, scrolling through social networks…

Right now, there are some challenges facing the world of toys and games. Skipping all the geopolitical turmoil for now, let’s jump to demographics. Whereas people of my age were taught Malthusian theory – that the human population would keep rising exponentially until we ran out of food and starved – most developed countries have terrible birth rates today.

This means that – among many other complications – there are fewer kids being born. Based on current trends, that in turn means fewer kids to buy toys and games for on a long-term basis. Our industry has adapted well to this by innovating in the kids’ space to make products ever more desirable, and by embracing the so called kidult opportunity to sell toys to – or for – adults.

As we head deeper into the artificial intelligence revolution, where machines become smarter than people, we can learn from what we already experienced so far in this century: change equals both opportunity and threat. For those on the creative side, the necessary action to come through this next phase of technological advancement is simple – be evermore creative. Be more creative at using the power of AI and find new ways to innovate better with these new tools.

The rising tide of ever smarter AI will raise all boats that choose to rise on that wave versus fighting against it. What does this mean in practical terms? The task or creative function that was your livelihood yesterday, or even today, might fade away…

But the toy biz still needs your creative mind to develop better products, marketing and packaging than our competitors. The best creative minds have nothing to worry about – just carry on being creative – but level up better than those around you with the power of AI tools.

Finally, of course, remember the JFK quote: “The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word ‘crisis’. One brush stroke stands for danger, the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the danger – but recognise the opportunity.”

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