It is well known that generative AI is experiencing unprecedented growth and, according to Forbes, marketing and advertising will be among the sectors where this technology will see the greatest growth and where it will be most widely applied in 2024.
The American consultancy firm Gartner says that 80% of companies will have implemented generative AI software, models and applications in their systems by 2026, transforming their business strategy. But what does generative AI mean for the future of marketing?
In a context in which content is king, one of the areas where generative AI is having the greatest impact is, in fact, the creation of that very content.Creating content for websites and email campaigns, writing posts for social networks and blog articles, among other things, are made significantly easier thanks to the speed with which AI offers proposals for content based on our prompts. These tools generate personalised content at a speed we humans cannot match.
ChatGPT from OpenAI, one of the most used AI tools, had 180 million users in December 2023 and it generates an average of 1.7 billion visits per month.
Another important application is in the field of graphic design and audiovisual production. We have solutions that allow us to develop art proposals in a short time, which would require many more resources to achieve the same results if we were using traditional tools. Tools like Uizard, Designs.ai and Fronty generate efficiency due to the large number of iterations they are able to perform in the initial part of the process. We also saw the launch of Sora in February, which makes it possible to generate videos from text descriptions.
Digital campaigns and programmatic advertising, which pose a great challenge for marketing professionals, also benefit from efficiencies in their processes with generative models. We can create and test multiple versions of an ad, optimising the performance of the campaigns almost in real time, guaranteeing a more personalised and appealing experience for different targets.
Chatbots and virtual assistants serve customers and interact with them in real time. These virtual agents not only provide instantaneous responses to our customers, but they also learn and improve the quality of their responses. Eliza, the first conversational chatbot created in 1966, which simulated conversations with users by generating an illusion of understanding on the part of the program, seems a long way behind us.
Data analysis and prediction is another high-impact area of generative AI. Through the collection of large volumes of data, which can be collected in real time, AI has a great capacity to analyse customers’ behaviour patterns, preferences and desires in order to propose personalised offers that, with a high probability, will be accepted, thus improving their experience. So, based on how a user browses our e-commerce site, we can propose the product that is best suited to them, or depending on a customer’s banking behaviour, we can anticipate their need for a loan or insurance.
Therefore, broadly speaking, generative AI is radically transforming marketing and its strategies thanks to greater process automation and mass personalisation. AI gives companies powerful tools for understanding, interacting and attracting customers more effectively, thereby improving their experience. The organisations that adopt these technologies will be better positioned to remain competitive in a market that is increasingly digital and data- and customer-centric.
However, the other question we have is whether AI will be able to replace the human factor. Are marketing teams and professionals under threat? Probably not. Marketing teams will not disappear, but there will be a process of adaptation and development of new capacities to use these new technologies. It is the joint work of generative AI and the specialised team that will bring value and efficiency to the company. The critical reasoning of professionals, based on skills like empathy, leadership and management, will continue to be needed to develop successful strategies. And, at least for the time being, this cannot be replaced by AI.
Diari d’Andorra 21.03.2024