I will start this article with a story that, if you still don't know, you need to know: a famous clothing brand adopted a creative strategy to win over a supermodel and gain free publicity. With great boldness, but a huge confidence, chose to gift the model's circle of friendsvery pumped up, who saw her friends wearing the pieces, praising everything, and her being left out. Out of fear of not fitting into the "clique", this supermodel sought the brand, asked to receive the items and, spontaneously, posted on their social media. Result? The brand became a worldwide success. What this supermodel felt is something that all of us – mainly marketing professionals – we have all experienced it at least once: the FOMO, the famous "fear of missing out".
This analogy brought me another question. In the face of the AI race, are we not being victims of this same syndrome? DeepSeek has been officially launched and, in less than a day, we were all already immersed in a frantic search for information, discussing technical aspects, how the costs of technology development in China compare to other countries, up to broader issues, how the gigantic volume of data from the Asian country, that makes it a superpower. Concerns about security due to it being a Chinese technology and detailed comparisons with ChatGPT and other existing intelligences in the market were also included in the agenda.
In light of the extremely high figures and the technological race, it is natural for industry giants to fight for leadership in this digital revolution. It is part of the valuation strategy to launch your news amidst the noise, accompanied by a flood of information, comparatives, expressive results and exorbitant numbers. But, and we, marketing professionals? We need to keep up with this hustle with the same intensity?
The launch of DeepSeek and the barrage of information that followed reinforce the feeling that we are, yes, being victims of FOMO. The excess of connection and the constant need to be updated on every news can be harmful, limiting our time, creativity and even affecting our emotional well-being. Meta itself has already admitted that excessive technology use is not advisable and encouraged users of its social networks to disconnect and live more in the real world.
The race of AIs is very reminiscent of the internet bubble in the 2000s. At the time, everything seemed like gold: billions were circulating, Google emerged, the PayPal, YouTube and several startups that experienced the peak of Silicon Valley. Many theories have emerged, as predictions that machines would dominate the world and replace most of the human workforce. Coincidentally or not, this cycle of AIs emerges exactly 20 years after the "digital boom", signaling yet another revolution in the market and in the two-decade cycle.
In light of this scenario, the big reflection for marketing professionals is whether it is worth entering this frantic race or if it is more strategic to follow the changes with more balance. The FOMO syndrome can drive us to act, but it can also blind us to what really matters. Amid the avalanche of information, the true advantage lies in filtering what is relevant, understand what truly impacts our work and adopt innovations consciously. After all, it's not about consuming everything, but rather knowing how to choose what really makes sense for our strategy and for our time. Dive into the news, but with wisdom
