Recently, ChatGPT has roiled our collective consciousness. It revealed how easy and seductive it is to interact with a narrow artificial intelligence (AI) that speaks to us like a human. It has transformed our standard search experience, driven record-breaking adoption rates, achieved a valuation of $29 billion and inspired other tech giants to accelerate their AI go-to-market strategies.
This ability to mimic intelligent discourse through natural language processing (NLP) is driving many to seriously consider how AI might take over their job, interfere in their society and generally wreak havoc on humanity. There is no doubt AI has seen and unseen risk. But like any powerful tool, it needs to be properly assessed, wisely applied and users — and society at large — need to know what precautions to take to keep themselves from injury. Before we consider where it may take us — and our work— let’s look at where we are now.
AI is already with us every day.
AI development is still in very early stages of its potential with only narrow capabilities in the market today. But it is ubiquitous in much of our lives. In fact, it is estimated that every day over a billion people are engaging AI-driven voice assistants such as Siri, Alexa, or Google Assistant to search the web, set-up reminders or choose music. These tools listen to voices and learn patterns. They continually scrape the web for data to improve their responses.
Image recognition is used on our smart phones, security systems, search tools and self-driving cars. For example, Amazon’s image search helps consumers compare products and make faster, more informed purchase decisions. Pinterest’s Lens lets users search their image library using any photo and Google Lens can recognize landmarks and provide travelers with related information.
Natural Language Processing (NLP) is used in applications such as chatbots, which allow users to ask questions and receive answers in natural language. NLP is what makes ChatGPT so alluring. We can inquire about topics in language natural to us and immediately receive answers we understand. It’s like having a ‘guide on the side’. Many of you reading this have probably used NPL tools to automate language translations, transcripts or pull sentiment analysis.
Virtual Agents like Siri can be used to make phone calls, set reminders, search the web, and Amazon’s Alexa Help can answer questions about products and services or help resolve a technical issue.
Autonomous vehicles are using a combination of these capabilities to detect objects, map a path to destinations and interact with the driver.
Industries such as health care, retail, automotive, manufacturing and financial services already use AI-driven tools to support their workflows. Image, voice and pattern recognition are used for early identification of disease, fraud prevention, product and service personalization and safer driving systems.
Regardless of the industry AI-driven tools are used to predict behavior, accelerate decision making, increase accuracy and gain efficiency in the workflow.
The role of AI in creative communications is growing
The communication industry is no different. Agencies and clients are already adopting tools into their workflows. Let’s look at how strategists, designers and writers are already putting AI to use.
Strategic planners can use AI to tie their efforts more closely to audience behaviors and preferences. They can:
Analyze layers of integrated customer data and identify patterns in demographics, online behavior and purchase history. Strategists can further use this insight to optimize marketing and media campaigns and predict customer lifetime value.
Predict customer behavior and create more targeted campaigns. This is increasingly used in B2B marketing to identify where each business buyer is in their journey so appropriate content can be delivered in near real time.
Automate processes like segmenting customer data and identifying customer segments to deliver more personalized messages and campaigns.
Extend consumer engagement by using AI-driven chatbots to continually provide customers with personalized recommendations and offers.
Designers can use AI-powered tools to push past stock imagery and templates to create a broader range of concepts based on audience preferences and design trends. They can now:
Expand the range of concept options.
Create, source and edit images, videos and music.
Master complex painting techniques
Create high-quality 3D images with photorealistic lighting.
Generate palettes based on images or user-defined criteria.
Generate digital images from natural language descriptions, called "prompts".
Copywriters can take advantage of tools to plan, research, draft, refine and edit — swiftly sorting through a wide range inputs and options. They are using AI to:
Suggest outlines for blogs, white papers and articles by using prompts.
Automate transcripts and analyze for the most succinct version of the points the speaker is making.
Improve or personalize titles, subject lines, headlines and body copy by using NLP algorithms to analyze the content and determine the words that are likely to maximize engagement.
Optimize the length of titles, subject lines, and headlines by using data-driven algorithms to determine the ideal character counts.
Strengthen their fact checking by using AI to analyze large quantities of data to compare statements to existing sources and detect discrepancies. It can also be used to flag false information for further review by humans.
Optimize copy for specific search terms and tailor copy to specific target audiences.
Edit copy for conciseness, grade level and grammatical accuracy.
Automatically generate content in multiple languages.
Ensure copy is compliant with U.S. federal regulations, including HIPAA and FERPA.
The power is still in our own hands – for now at least.
Ironically, according to ChatGPT, “it has not been proven that leveraging AI can create more personalized, engaging, and effective copy”. However, AI has been shown to be helpful in providing insights about customer preferences, helping to determine the best words to use in copy, and providing other data points to inform the copywriting process. From there we test and measure.
For now, teams can embrace AI in four steps:
Define the specific and measurable business value you seek from incorporating AI such as speed-to-output, increased accuracy, cultural competence, customer alignment, broader range of options, etc.
Break down the steps in your strategic and creative development processes and determine exactly where in your workflow you will apply an AI-driven tool to obtain the value you seek.
Encouraging team members to explore tools and to understand their risks and benefits and then share their perspectives and opinions. These tools will continue to evolve, and each discipline needs to be responsible for maintaining an up-to-date point-of-view.
Be rigorous about fact-checking, including legal approvals and avoiding plagiarism. AI sources most data from the internet which is inherently flawed. It may also not recognize image copyright constraints.
These AI-driven tools speed the collection of strategic and creative inputs, generate more alternatives, analyze options, suggest refinements and make it easier for creative teams to strengthen their outputs.
What’s critical is that people in our industry study the tools, test their application and build their own points-of-view on their usage and inclusion in workflows. AI-driven tools should take on the burden of managing through vast sources of data and free the human to be more innovative and human-centered in their planning, copy and design. Let’s go exploring.
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