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Generative AI - Friend or Foe?

Fiona Corsie

AI Marketing Shaper

The explosion of generative artificial intelligence captured our imaginations in early 2023. While previous AI models could perform a specific task, generative AI can create content from unstructured data for text, images, video - even code. And can deliver it consistently, at speed and at scale!

Flattening our excitement for this shiny new tool, Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman were part of a group who, in March, wrote an open letter to US Congress asking for the halt to generative AI development, because “if this technology goes wrong, it can go quite wrong.” Their concerns (remain) around the dangers of unfettered growth and usage of a tool enabling the spread of misinformation and bias for “society and humanity.”

Here is another instance of technology moving faster than regulation. The more recent mistakes with data privacy and misinformation issues on social networks, make governments and lawmakers around the world keen to regulate AI applications, while not stifling innovation.

Within the marketing industry, there has been a great deal of conversation about the impacts of generative AI on marketers and marketing disciplines. Is AI an existential threat to a marketer’s skillset, perceived value and job certainty? Will the speed and convenience of AI delivered tasks ultimately hinder or help marketing teams?

In these days of the great attrition, where labour force shortages and job switching is a recurring issue, a responsive low-cost tool that provides a productivity boost offers a real competitive advantage. There are a number of areas AI can ably take on marketing tasks, completing work quickly with relatively good structure and few errors.

So, let’s break ‘marketing-by-AI’ down into some key tasks:

● Market Research – AI can collate and return information at speed, but (at this stage) cannot ascertain if the information is correct or analyse it with real diligence, so be sceptical.
 
● Content Creation – AI writers are powered by algorithms that can generate text content quickly and efficiently but cannot generate original ideas.
 
● Digital Content - There is already software created that recognises AI generated content and how Google will value this is yet to be known – but we do know that Google has always prioritised original content. A dominance of AI generated content in your marketing portfolio may work against you over time.
 
● Search Engine Marketing – a real-time tool that can analyse ad success, review audience segments and ad targeting, and deliver tests results for the (human) expert’s consideration.
 
● Image and Audio Generation – mastering photorealistic art and audio enhancements with AI is easy and quick, and is an area that has significant focus with security and copyright experts
 
● Email Marketing – AI is the perfect tool for prescriptive messaging and trigger responses
 
● Social Media Marketing – has the ability to extract key messages, write content including hashtags and return posts in seconds, just make sure someone is fact checking before you hit publish
 
● Product Marketing – can easily enhance product features and benefits, product message and position, with accuracy relying on the product expert and proofing for correctness
 
● Search Engine Optimisation – while AI can automate certain aspects of SEO such as keyword research and analysis, and technical site audits, human expertise is still required
 
● Lead Generation – can help identify online behaviour and match prospects with the right product or service

In a number of areas generative AI can perform simple tasks quickly and efficiently, and much better than humans. By using AI, marketers can save time, reduce costs, and focus on higher-value activities. For companies that have no or small marketing teams, AI is an invaluable ‘resource’.

"In these days of the great attrition, where labour force shortages and job switching is a recurring issue, a responsive low-cost tool that provides a productivity boost offers a real competitive advantage."

However, if you’re planning on replacing or not employing that marketing role, consider this - the ‘generative’ in this AI equation refers to its ability to identify patterns across expansive sets of data (like the internet) and generate new (but not original) content.

Thus, with AI content there is a blandness, a lack of spark and personality. Content is linguistically constructed using deep learning algorithms; bots approach language as a code, a formula. It mimics, replicates, and rewrites content, so tone and style run the risk of sounding and feeling the same.

More importantly, good marketing content is more than just information retrieval and satiation – it should create a feeling and elicit emotion. While AI meets the information need, marketing that creates feeling will always outperform marketing that doesn’t. Companies that tell their stories better, build their brand around relationships and personality, will always do better. In this arena, genuine empathy and creativity will always beat economic efficiency.

While we’re all being seduced by the potential of generative AI, there are some challenges that cannot be ignored.

● Cybersecurity – the ability for generative AI to operate in human-like ways enables sophisticated, and difficult to detect, phishing and hacking attempts.
 
● Copyright and IP Protection – at this time copyright law does not cover AI-generated content (including coding), so to be clear, AI-generated content is not considered original work. There is a push for companies to declare the use of AI-generated content when used as part of a significant piece of work.
 
● Privacy – AI does the task set, it does not question or apply intuition or self-awareness. This type of AI does not yet exist. Companies using generative AI to collect and share personal or sensitive information need to be cautious with the data. Privacy breaches remain one of the biggest concerns in the use of generative AI.
 
● Ethical Considerations – we have already seen generative AI create fake news, articles, images, videos and audio grabs. While some pieces are fun and obvious, those people with malicious intent have a powerful tool with which to create disinformation and propaganda.
 
● Truthfulness and Accuracy – generative AI returns information according to the algorithms. It does not have fact verification (yet), so as we used to warn our children – just because it is on the internet does not mean it is true. Plus, all algorithms have an underlying bias, so as more tools enter the market there is a concern that the social engineering of AI biases will increase.
 
● Regulation and Compliance – while governments and policy makers around the world are focussed on the risks of AI, there are few regulations currently in place on the use of AI tools. How algorithms reach results is not clear, and the lack of transparency is concerning. The speed technology is developing in this area is another obstacle. Laws can quickly become obsolete, but it is inevitable that this will change soon as stricter regulations are applied.
The articles from these contributors are based on their personal expertise and viewpoints, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of their employers or affiliated organizations.

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