In recent years, Artificial Intelligence has been mentioned time and again as the groundbreaking technology of the moment. Yet for many, it remained a far-from-my-bed show, and it never fully broke through in our marketing world. Until now? Strategist Maarten sheds his human light on the latest developments.
You would have had to completely ban social media and the news from your life over the past few months not to be aware of ChatGPT: an AI-based chatbot that uses natural language processing (NLP) to conduct seemingly lifelike conversations. An example of what we call generative artificial intelligence.
At the end of November 2022, OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, launched the beta version of the chatbot. Millions of people, including us, were quick to start testing it. The platform even managed to reach one million users faster than any other platform in history. Since then, marketing professionals on LinkedIn have been talking about nothing else: generative AI, like this tool, will change our world forever. For real this time.
Keyword research, content creation, marketing analysis, brainstorming sessions? ChatGPT is your man (or rather your thing). And it is by no means the only AI tool marketers can use to optimize their marketing efforts. For example, there is Expoze.io for AI-based eye-tracking of visual material, Midjourney for visual content creation, or Selligent, an AI-driven platform for marketing automation.
Does this convergence of AI and marketing mean that marketers will soon become completely redundant? And that robots will take our place?
I don’t think it will come to that. Even though AI tools like ChatGPT are very powerful, they still have their limitations. Fact checking, sensing nuances, understanding context, being witty, making a stylistic and emotional difference, and adding the necessary wink. For that, the human touch is indispensable.
For example: I asked ChatGPT to come up with subheadings for this article. No problem and, honestly, the suggestions looked pretty good. When I asked for some more creative suggestions with a pun in them, it went quiet. The subheading above? I just came up with that myself.
In addition, the systems behind AI are trained to process heaps of data from the internet. An internet that contains a lot of relevant information, but also a lot of fake news, hate speech, and unconscious bias. Things that AI tools cannot interpret as such, unlike the average human.
So let’s embrace AI, albeit in the right way. Not by blindly following AI tools, but by using them during brainstorms, as a tool to break through tunnel vision, or to speed up certain processes.
Because marketers with real professional expertise, who understand companies to their very core and develop and roll out targeted marketing strategies based on that? You don’t just replace them.
Expliciet: ‘Hi ChatGPT, will Artificial Intelligence take over the role of marketers?’
ChatGPT: ‘It is unlikely that Artificial Intelligence (AI) will completely take over the role of marketers. While AI is capable of automating many marketing tasks, such as data analysis, customer segmentation, and personalization of marketing campaigns, there are still many tasks that require human skills, such as creativity, empathy, and decision-making. Furthermore, the relationship between a brand and its customers is often complex and can be difficult to automate. AI can be a great help to marketers, but it will likely never completely take over their role.’
Start the conversation yourself at chat.openai.com.