Marketing professionals must learn to direct, question and critically assess artificial intelligence rather than rely on its outputs as final answers, Founder of Dochase ADX, Chibuike Goodnews, has said.
Goodnews made the observation during a session titled “Artificial Intelligence and the New Realities of Marketing to Women” at the Women in Marketing and Communications Africa (WIMCA) 2026 conference.
He said the rapid adoption of AI is changing how marketers conduct research, generate ideas and make decisions, but stressed that the technology still requires human direction and professional judgement to deliver useful results.
According to him, marketers need to understand how to communicate effectively with AI through prompt engineering while also developing the ability to recognise when an AI-generated recommendation does not fit the audience, brand or business objective.
Goodnews noted that while AI can process large amounts of information and provide recommendations quickly, it does not possess emotions or fully understand the context behind human behaviour.
This, he said, makes human oversight important, particularly when marketers are dealing with audiences whose decisions are influenced by culture, emotions and lived experiences.
He therefore encouraged marketers to treat AI-generated information as a starting point rather than an unquestionable answer.
“AI can help with research and data mining, but marketers still need to probe the results, bring in their own research and data, and apply professional judgement before making decisions,” he explained.
Goodnews’ comments come as AI continues to become more deeply integrated into marketing, from audience research and campaign planning to content creation, targeting and optimisation.
He argued that the value marketers derive from AI will depend not only on access to the technology but also on their ability to use it intelligently.
For marketers, this means moving beyond simply knowing how to use AI tools to understanding how to ask the right questions, evaluate the responses and determine how relevant those responses are to a specific marketing challenge.
The Dochase founder also stressed the importance of recognising the limitations of AI, particularly where human behaviour and emotions are concerned.
As brands increasingly use technology to understand consumers and personalise communication, he said marketers must continue to provide the human layer needed to interpret what the data and technology are saying.
His position formed part of a broader discussion at WIMCA 2026 on how artificial intelligence is reshaping marketing and communications, particularly the way brands understand and engage women.
The session also featured Martha Kayode, Head of Marketing, PZ Cussons; Kenneth Iruonagbe, Group Head, Digital Marketing, Tropical General Investment (TGI); and Esosa Osagiede, Group Creative Director, Insight Publicis. Elizabeth Ogunseye, Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer, Subify Technology, moderated the session.
For Goodnews, the growing influence of AI should not mean that marketers surrender decision-making to technology. Instead, professionals need to combine the speed and analytical capabilities of AI with their own understanding of consumers, brands and the markets they operate in.
The message, he said, is not for marketers to compete with AI, but to become better at using it while retaining the judgement required to determine what should ultimately make it into a campaign or business decision.
