C-Suite Perspectives On AI: Betty Louie Of The Brandtech Group On Where to Use AI and Where to Rely Only on Humans

An Interview With Kieran Powell

The ethical use of AI is a crucial consideration, especially when it involves marginalized groups. In marketing, using AI to represent a community without any input from that community can lead to misrepresentation or offensive content. For example, generating ads that depict certain cultural groups using AI without real-world involvement from members of those groups could lead to inaccurate portrayals. Ethically, it’s vital to involve the right voices and perspectives, making it clear when human input is necessary to ensure fairness and representation.

As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to advance and integrate into various aspects of business, decision-makers at the highest levels face the complex task of determining where AI can be most effectively utilized and where the human touch remains irreplaceable. This series seeks to explore the nuanced decisions made by C-Suite executives regarding the implementation of AI in their operations. As part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Betty Louie.

Betty Louie is a Partner and General Counsel at The Brandtech Group. She has more than 25 years’ experience advising both public and private tech companies, and was previously a partner at a leading international law firm. She has been consistently ranked in Chambers Global and Legal500 since 2012. Betty oversaw Brandtech’s 2023 acquisitions of Jellyfish, a digital media company, and Pencil, a Generative AI platform, and works extensively with major global brands to design robust and ethical AI and Gen AI policies. She spearheaded Brandtech’s green-listing system to enable companies to experiment and explore new Gen AI tools within certain legal, tech, ethical parameters. She is leading speaker and industry thought leader.

Thank you so much for your time! I know that you are a very busy person. Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?

I grew up as the youngest of five children in an immigrant household. Although we lived on a strict budget, I never felt poor or lacking. I was part of one of NYC’s first charter programs, which introduced me to friends from diverse communities across the city. I still vividly recall the awe I felt when my friend’s parents drove into the garage of their luxury high-rise, the countless sleepovers at friends’ weekend homes in upstate New York and the tip of Long Island, and hearing about their summers filled with sleepaway camps and international travel. I remember thinking, “How do families manage two vacations in one summer?” I loved being exposed to such different experiences at such a young age. It opened my eyes to the vastness and diversity of the world, and I’m sure it planted a seed in my mind that anything is possible. That sense of possibility led me to a fulfilling legal career as a Partner at large international law firms, where I’ve had the privilege of working and living in New York, Milan, Rome, and Beijing.

It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

I’m not sure this qualifies as a funny mistake, but it was certainly an important one that taught me a valuable lesson early in my career. Back then, the associates would often go for drinks after a long day at the office, and naturally, conversations would drift to discussing the office and sharing our candid thoughts. On one such occasion, a colleague shared his honest opinion about a particular situation. The next day, in casual conversation, I mentioned this to another colleague, who happened to be a close friend of the person who had confided in me. The moment the words left my mouth, I saw a flicker of pain cross his face, and I immediately realized that I overshared information that wasn’t mine to share. From that day forward, I understood the power and importance of discretion, and to this day, I take great pride in upholding it.

Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?

We’ve just launched our Gen AI Ethics Package, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to see it come to life — it’s been a personal passion of mine. In an era where AI is evolving at breakneck speed, having a strong ethics policy isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s absolutely essential. But here’s the key: an effective ethics policy has to go beyond lofty ideals. It needs to be concrete, actionable, and provide clear, practical steps that guide how we operate. It’s not just about having a moral compass; it’s about embedding ethical decision-making into every facet of our AI work.

Thank you for that. Let’s now shift to the central focus of our discussion. In your experience, what have been the most challenging aspects of integrating AI into your business operations, and how have you balanced these with the need to preserve human-centric roles?

One of the most challenging — and fascinating — aspects of integrating AI into our business operations is navigating the rapid pace and vast potential of its capabilities with a rigorous ethics backbone. As we and our clients use AI more deeply into our work, essential internal discussions become critical. We continuously ask, “AI can now do this, but should we?” and “What is our responsibility, not just legally, but ethically as a company?” These conversations drive how we incorporate AI across the business while guiding our clients to use it responsibly and transparently but still be on the cutting edge. Ensuring AI aligns with our values and operations is key as we navigate its ethical landscape.

Can you share a specific instance where AI initially seemed like the optimal solution but ultimately proved less effective than human intervention? What did this experience teach you about the limitations of AI in your field?

AI doesn’t always get it right, especially in generating content that is representative of all people — this is where some intervention is necessary. That’s why we created Bias Breaker, a tool that allows a user to add the most common elements of diversity to AI’s content generation, including age, race, ability, gender identity, and religion, to help tackle the bias that is currently inherent in the foundation models.

To offer another, more technical example, AI tends to struggle when it comes to illustrating realistic hands and fingers, a limitation that some attribute to the lack of sufficient training data. For instance, in selfies, hands and fingers are often absent or not the focal point, leaving AI with fewer examples to learn from. As a result, AI often falls short in generating photorealistic images of hands. So, if you’re running a campaign for watches or rings, AI might not be the most effective solution for achieving lifelike hands. Instead, it’s advisable to use hand models while leveraging AI for other elements of the campaign, ensuring a more polished and realistic result.

How do you navigate the ethical implications of implementing AI in your company, especially concerning potential job displacement and ensuring ethical AI usage?

I don’t view AI as a zero-sum game leading to job displacement; instead, I see certain roles evolving while AI creates new, higher-quality opportunities for everyone. Ensuring the ethical use of AI is a critical and continually evolving challenge, and it’s something I remain highly vigilant about. Any company integrating AI must establish a clear and actionable AI ethics policy. Without it, employees may feel “paralyzed” by fear — whether from concerns about using AI incorrectly, potentially harming the company, or worrying about the security of their own jobs due to an inadvertent mistake. A well-defined policy helps alleviate these concerns, fostering responsible AI adoption while empowering the workforce.

Could you describe a successful instance in your company where AI and human skills were synergistically combined to achieve a result that neither could have accomplished alone?

We constantly witness the powerful synergy between AI and human skills with our Pencil Pro tool. Human expertise is essential for crafting insightful prompts, selecting the appropriate AI tools to generate the desired images, and refining and customizing those images to meet specific needs. Then, leveraging Pencil Pro’s predictive models, AI steps in to predict the probability of an ad’s success through a color-coded matrix. This seamless collaboration between human creativity and AI’s analytical power is what drives the success of the platform, showcasing how AI can enhance rather than replace human skills.

Based on your experience and success, what are the “5 Things To Keep in Mind When Deciding Where to Use AI and Where to Rely Only on Humans, and Why?” How have these 5 things impacted your work or your career?

1.Creativity
AI is great for sparking creative inspiration by generating a wide range of images, ideas, or content options. For example, in a marketing campaign, AI can produce an array of visual concepts for a new product launch, giving the creative team a broad foundation to start from. However, the final creative direction — the look, feel, and emotional resonance of the campaign — must ultimately be shaped by humans. The subtle understanding of taste, brand alignment, and audience appeal is something only humans can masterfully judge.

2. Level/Type/Stage of Agreements
In legal work, certain types of agreements lend themselves well to AI assistance. For instance, AI can efficiently analyze edits to a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) or generate initial comments on a Purchase Agreement. This saves significant time in the early stages of drafting. However, as negotiations progress and agreements become more bespoke, such as tailoring specific terms in a high-stakes M&A deal, AI cannot replace the skilled judgment of an experienced lawyer. A lawyer’s ability to anticipate risks, apply industry-specific knowledge, and craft nuanced clauses is critical as the deal evolves.

3. Sensitivity
When handling sensitive issues — whether it’s a delicate client negotiation or a public-facing marketing campaign — human oversight is essential. AI might be able to assist with drafting legal language or producing content, but it lacks the ability to perceive emotional nuances. For example, in a legal case alleging workplace harassment, AI could help sort through documentation, but a lawyer’s empathy and emotional intelligence are indispensable when communicating with an individual and making sensitive decisions. In marketing, a crisis response campaign needs human oversight to navigate public sentiment and ensure messaging is thoughtful and respectful.

4. Ethics
The ethical use of AI is a crucial consideration, especially when it involves marginalized groups. In marketing, using AI to represent a community without any input from that community can lead to misrepresentation or offensive content. For example, generating ads that depict certain cultural groups using AI without real-world involvement from members of those groups could lead to inaccurate portrayals. Ethically, it’s vital to involve the right voices and perspectives, making it clear when human input is necessary to ensure fairness and representation.

5. Reputation
When launching a new or high-profile campaign, reputation management is key. AI can be invaluable in generating data-driven insights or testing ad concepts for effectiveness. However, for a critical campaign, such as a company rebranding or a major product rollout, human oversight is essential for the final touch. For instance, while AI can predict which ad concepts might perform best based on past data, a skilled marketing team must still make the final decisions, ensuring the campaign aligns with the company’s long-term reputation and values. Human intuition and judgment ensure that every aspect resonates authentically with the audience.

Looking towards the future, in which areas of your business do you foresee AI making the most significant impact, and conversely, in which areas do you believe a human touch will remain indispensable?

The human touch is critical to a brand’s voice, understanding customer psychology, fostering creativity, and applying emotional intelligence. These are areas where intuition, empathy, and cultural context play a significant role, and they require human insight. However, AI’s greatest impact lies in its ability to process vast amounts of data, generate complex algorithms, and identify patterns that would be impossible for humans to detect alone. AI can link and connect data in countless ways, offering insights and efficiencies at unprecedented speed and scale. The true magic happens when we seamlessly integrate these strengths — combining AI’s data-processing power with human intuition and creativity. This synergy is where the future of innovation lies, with AI amplifying human potential rather than replacing it.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

It would be “Ethical AI for All” — a global initiative dedicated to ensuring that the benefits of AI are accessible, transparent, and ethical across all communities. The core of this movement would revolve around three pillars:

1. Equitable Access to AI Tools: AI should not just benefit large corporations, wealthy nations or individuals who already have access to the latest technology. This movement would work to democratize AI, ensuring smaller businesses, developing countries, and underrepresented groups have access to the same cutting-edge tools, resources, and training. AI is too critical of a technology for anyone to be left behind. Empowering individuals and organizations to harness AI’s potential would drive innovation, improve livelihoods, and uplift entire communities, and play a role in reducing inequality and leveling the playing field.
2. Transparent, Accountable, and Bias-Reduced AI Development: The movement would advocate for transparency in how AI models are built, trained, and deployed, with a strong emphasis on upholding ethical standards throughout the development process. A key focus would be on reducing bias in AI systems by pushing for diverse, representative datasets and practices that actively mitigate bias. Clear accountability mechanisms would ensure that AI systems do not perpetuate discrimination, misinformation, or harmful stereotypes, but instead contribute to positive, equitable outcomes.
3. AI and Human Empowerment: The movement would emphasize that AI is not a replacement for human skills but a tool that enhances human potential. It would ensure no one is left behind by integrating AI ethically in sectors like education, healthcare, and legal systems. This would help create better, higher-quality jobs and improve overall well-being. The focus would be on augmenting human intelligence, creativity, and emotional understanding, ensuring AI is a force that empowers people rather than diminishes human agency.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

I invite readers to keep up to date with my LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/betty-louie-039a1920/ as well as keep up with the latest from The Brandtech Group at https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-brandtech-group/. You can also learn more about responsible AI from my recent work in AdExchanger (https://www.adexchanger.com/data-driven-thinking/5-tips-for-drafting-an-ethical-generative-ai-policy/ and https://www.adexchanger.com/adexchanger-talks/405939/), Creative Ops (https://creativeops.fm/episode/e19-legal-as-co-pilot-in-accelerating-creatives-ai-adoption-w-betty-louie-of-brandtech-group), and BrXnd (https://brxnd.ai/sessions/navigating-legal-risks-in-gen-ai-a-practical-guide-for-companies-with-betty-louie-and-shareen-pathak).

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this!

About The Interviewer: Kieran Powell is the EVP of Channel V Media a New York City Public Relations agency with a global network of agency partners in over 30 countries. Kieran has advised more than 150 companies in the Technology, B2B, Retail and Financial sectors. Prior to taking over business operations at Channel V Media, Kieran held roles at Merrill Lynch, PwC and Ernst & Young. Get in touch with Kieran to discuss how marketing and public relations can be leveraged to achieve concrete business goals.