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What’s really going on with generative AI and marketing?
We wanted to know, so we went straight to the source and asked.
It's no wonder there's a lot of buzz around generative AI – according to Statista, 73% of companies use generative AI in their marketing campaigns. According to CapGemini, nearly 60% of companies are implementing or exploring the use of generative AI in marketing.
Last week, Accenture announced that it was working with Adobe to develop solutions that “help companies create personalized content at scale and accelerate the transformation of their content supply chains.” Andreessen Horowitz published research that shocked her about changing attitudes toward budgeting and planning for generative AI.
But none of this really tells us what's going on with generative AI and marketing. Instead of refining our proposal, we turned to Robert Rose, CMI's chief strategy advisor, to get his opinion. Read on or watch this video:
A lot of generative AI means a lot of use cases
It can feel like everyone is moving much faster with generative AI than you and your brand. But is that the truth?
Well, take a breath. It seems that there are many use cases, but they are not very useful.
A company that turns to a technology provider with over 500 use cases to apply any technology is not only useless; it is counterproductive.
Andreesen Horowitz, better known as A16z, published research that stunned them – generative AI budgets are exploding. They found:
- Promising results from generative AI experiments led companies to increase their budgets this year by two to five times than last year.
- Executives are redistributing AI investments from last year's “innovation budgets” to more permanent line items in IT, business areas, and research and product development.
- Over the past six months, top-down orders have been placed to find and deploy generative AI solutions.
Okay, let's take a breath.
A16z obviously does content marketing. The company has made at least 20 generative AI investments, including leading a Series A round worth over $400 million for Mistral AI, OpenAI's European competitor. Of course, A16z advocates for generative AI to save the world. You need companies that have the urge to spend millions of dollars.
Click on any headlines, research reports, case studies, etc., and you'll find a whole bunch of “we believe” statements around generative AI: We believe we'll spend more. We believe this will save staff. We believe it will transform the marketing industry. We believe it can save the planet.
Generative AI has a lot of hype people. I don't mind. This is the heart of good marketing. But marketers who might use generative AI would do well to remember the words of Coach Taylor from Friday Night Lights: “Clear hearts, full hearts, you can’t lose.”
Don't believe all the hype
Consider another hypothesis. Pause any business technology change initiatives.
I'm seeing more and more tech companies, consultancies and brands taking an overall slower approach to business. The growth of companies like Accenture and others has slowed significantly. Research shows that IT-related budgets have also fallen.
Perhaps the true story of integrating generative AI is much slower.
Over the last six months, I've asked my network, clients, trainees, and colleagues how they've used generative AI. So far I have 235 unique use cases for generative AI and content and marketing. Most are creative and interesting. I can see the value. But some of them make me say, “You could do that.” But is it that valuable?
As I said before, generative AI is not a strategy. It's an amazing, transformative innovation that can be applied to strategy. In marketing, it is a new skill to do something that would not be possible without great human effort, or something that can now be done faster and more efficiently.
Why is this distinction important?
This explains why companies are in no rush to prioritize enterprise-wide generative AI applications. They talk like they're in a hurry, but the world doesn't even know what “enterprise-level generative AI” looks like.
Realize that the real lesson lies in this
Whether you're a company with 100 or 10,000 employees, generative AI takes time to figure out. If your company has a change fatigue mindset or is still struggling with all the changes brought on by the pandemic, no one will rush to tackle the BIG CHANGE project of generative AI.
The lesson is this. If leadership is pressuring you or your team about how generative AI can create efficiencies, improve performance, or future-proof your competitive advantage in marketing, don't ask for the budget to purchase all the models so you can build 500 use cases.
Ask management for a budget for the change management needed in marketing and content to develop a new strategy. You can then assess the priorities for generative AI use cases and the budget for the technology required to support them.
Explain how you are changing with technology. Don't make a list of all the ways technology will change you.
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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute
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