A voice from AI in advertising? Research doesn’t lie – that’s how you scare your customers

We all hear about it. Generate artificial intelligence (Gen AI) revolutionizes the world, and marketing captures this trend in flight. The vision of creating advertisements – including voice recordings – for a fraction of the price and in a few minutes is extremely tempting. But before you enter “AI voice generator for advertising” in the search engine, stop for a moment. There is a hidden cost of this technological shortcut – and the cost is the trust and commitment of your customers.

When your commercial becomes “Creepy”

Study of the prestigious IAB organization (Interactive Advertising Bureau) December 2024 sheds merciless light on this issue. The results are clear: Your customers, especially younger ones, do not want synthetic ads. Moreover, they actively repel them.

The strongest conclusion from the IAB report? Almost half of the Z- and Millenials consumers describe ads using one word: “creepy”. That clear word means more than weird. It’s a feeling of anxiety, unnaturalness and the feeling that someone’s trying to trick us.

Think about it in the context of your company. Do you want your brand associated with discomfort? Do you want your potential customer to hear your spot instead of your interest to feel the chills on your back?

The synthetic voice, even the best one, falls into the so-called. The Valley of Amazing. It’s a place where our sympathy for almost human imitation suddenly turns into discomfort as soon as we sense falsehood in it.

The generated voice sounds almost like a man, but our brain unmistakably captures these microscopic, unnatural details – lack of authentic breath, artificial intonation, mechanical melody.

Wykres Masahiro Moriego dotyczący pojęcia Doliny niesamowitości
Masahiro Mori chart on the concept of the Valley of Amazing. Based on the graphics “Mori Uncanny Valley” (authors: M. Mori, K. F. MacDorman, C. Bartneck, Smurrayinchester), source: Wikimedia Commons. Polish version available under CC BY-SA 3.0 license.

As you can see on the chart, the horizontal axis shows a growing resemblance to man, and the vertical axis shows the level of our mental comfort.

Let’s look at the curve, starting from the left. Notice that when the object becomes more and more similar to us (e.g. from an industrial robot to a humanoid), we feel better with it – the line goes up.

However, notice what happens next. When the likeness becomes almost (this is the keyword!) perfect, the line drops rapidly, creating a distinctive “valley”. This is the moment where we feel anxious – objects like zombies or very realistic dolls seem strange and repulsive.

As you can see on the chart, the dotted line (moveable objects) falls even lower, which shows that the movement further enhances this unpleasant impression. Only when we are dealing with a fully healthy person, our comfort returns to the highest level.

It is this dissonance that makes the recipient subconsciously reject the message as false.

Authenticity: A currency AI can’t fake

Kolaż zdjęć uśmiechniętych ludzi na kolorowych tłach

In today’s world, flooded by content, authenticity is the most valuable capital of your brand. Customers no longer only buy products – they buy stories, values and relationships. They want to feel like there’s a real man behind the brand.

And that’s where we get to the bottom of it. The voice is not just sound waves. It’s a carrier of emotion, empathy and trust. As a professional lecturer, my job is not just to read the text. My job is:

  • Understanding Your Brand and her values.
  • Feel the emotionYou want to convey – joy, certainty, peace, excitement.
  • Establish an authentic bond with your recipient using color, pace and intonation.

AI’s voices can be imitated. They can simulate. But they can’t. feel. They can’t put a heart in a recording, smile in a voice, or convey a subtle shade of irony. And it is these nuances that determine whether your advertisement will be remembered and whether it will build a positive association.

Investment in efficiency and not cost of production

Of course, at first glance, the human voice recording is more expensive than generating an audio file by an algorithm. But it’s a trap to think only about costs, not about investment and return (ROI).

Ask yourself the key question: What is the purpose of your commercial?

If the goal is only to “check” the task and have any spot at the lowest cost – perhaps AI will suffice. But if your goal is:

  • Build trust in the brand,
  • Effectively convince you to purchase,
  • Stand out against the background of competition,
  • Create a message that resonates and recollects...

...then cheap, synthetic advertising that scares customers is actually 100% lost money. It’s not saving, it’s throwing the advertising budget in the mud.

Investing in professional voice recording is an investment in the effectiveness of the whole campaign. This human, authentic voice is an element that makes the script live, and the message goes straight to the hearts and minds of your customers. He is the guarantee that the rest of your budget will not be wasted.

Choose the voice that builds, not the storm

Uśmiechnięta postać lektora przed mikrofonem czytający z emocjami tekst reklamy

In the era of digital noise and artificial content, a true human voice becomes more powerful than ever before. It’s your way to break through chaos, show the human face of your brand and build a lasting relationship with your client.

The IAB report is not just an interesting analysis. That’s a tough business argument. The choice is simple: you can bet on a cheap synthetic shortcut, risking your brand being picked up as “creepy” and incredible. Or you can invest in the authenticity, emotion and effectiveness that only a professional human speaker will provide.

If your brand is committed to trust and wants real results, please feel free to contact us. Let’s talk about how my voice can help your company establish an authentic and profitable relationship with customers.

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Nazywam się Karol Szałapski. Dostarczam wysokiej jakości nagrania lektorskie, które skutecznie budują przekaz i wizerunek.

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