ROCHESTER, N.Y. — You can’t escape the headlines these days about artificial intelligence and the tasks it can undertake. The latest industry to be impacted is marketing.

“It was clear it was AI; it was too weird," said Michelle Ashby.

That’s Ashby’s reaction to a new commercial from Toys "R" Us. 

The minute-long video from the company shows the founder of Toys "R" Us dreaming up the idea for the store. The ad was made using entirely OpenAI Sora technology. 

The ad is drawing criticism and creating lots of conversations online about the use of AI. Ashby is the founder of Tipping Point Communications, a marketing agency in Rochester. She says the industry is already using AI in their work. 

“It helps in the initial idealizing of concepts. A lot of times, clients don’t know what they want. It helps us put together different ideas," said Ashby. 

AI is being used to reduce repeatable tasks, says Ashby. Things like writing social media captions. It’s also changing the types of jobs becoming available in the marketing field.

“We need technicians now who can help us deliver on the work we promised," said Ashby. "Sometimes that work needs to be done in AI."

She expects the industry to move toward collaborations between creative and technical departments becoming more common. 

Ashby isn’t sure if the point of the Toys "R" Us video was to create buzz.

"If it wasn’t, hey, great way to get a lot of free publicity," Ashby said.

But she says it didn’t hurt either way.