Open or Closed AI? Marketing Has More at Stake Than It Thinks

For marketers, the global AI race can easily look like somebody else’s problem. Governments debate regulation, technology companies fight over models and computing power, and policymakers argue about safety. But underneath that geopolitical debate is a question with very practical consequences for marketing: Who will control the intelligence on which businesses increasingly depend?

A recent People’s Daily commentary cites a New York Times comparison that frames the emerging divide provocatively. One vision treats advanced AI almost like “nuclear weapons”, strategically valuable technology whose power warrants tight control. The other treats it more like “nuclear energy”, powerful and risky, but something that can be opened up, commercialized and shared.

China is clearly positioning its stated AI policy behind the latter narrative. That is China’s preferred geopolitical framing, and it should be read as such. But marketers should look beyond politics, because the underlying choice between closed and open AI could reshape competition.

AI is becoming part of marketing’s infrastructure

Think about how dependent marketing has already become on infrastructure controlled by others. Google shaped search. Meta shaped social advertising. Amazon shaped commerce. Each time, marketers built businesses on platforms whose algorithms, rules and economics they did not control. AI could concentrate on that dependency even further.

If a handful of proprietary models become the intelligence layer behind content creation, customer service, campaign optimization, research, recommendations and autonomous agents, marketers will not simply be usingAI. Increasingly,...