Why Focusing on ChatGPT Will Lead Marketers Astray
We're now living in a time when artificial intelligence (AI) has become a part of many of our daily lives – and it's only the beginning. ChatGPT, a generative AI chatbot developed by OpenAI late last year, is now widely available and has opened the floodgates to what's possible. Just weeks after launching, ChatGPT attracted a jaw-dropping 100 million users and became the fastest-growing consumer application in history, as reported by Reuters.
A recent study by the University of Pennsylvania and OpenAI found that most jobs will be changed in some form by new AI tools like ChatGPT, and the marketing industry is certainly no exception. There's no escaping that AI will fundamentally affect how marketers do their jobs, and this means they will need to shift how they think about their own internal operations, how they gather and process intelligence, and how they interact with consumers accordingly.
Marketers would be remiss, however, if the focus were solely, or even primarily, on text-based generative AI like ChatGPT. Here's how marketers can stay at the forefront of the partnership between AI and the future of their business:
Treat ChatGPT Like HTML
In 1993, HTML revolutionized everything. It provided standards for building out the internet, which transformed our societies around the world. Marketers and developers who took the time to learn how to build websites in HTML and understand it at the fundamental level were better positioned to capitalize on the trends the web would enable than those who didn't.
However, it's important to consider that all our internal applications today – accounting software, HR software, and customer databases – used to be stand-alone programs that ran on individual PCs. HTML led to the development of other web-based coding languages that now enable all these applications to run in a browser.
For marketers, mastering HTML was not the end game, and neither is ChatGPT. Like the beginning of HTML, ChatGPT is the start of a fundamental shift in how data and information are brought together for better insights, discovery, and output.
What ChatGPT Can Do for Us
"You won't be replaced by AI, but you may be replaced by someone who uses AI better than you." I've heard this many times and think it's the best combination of warning and advice for marketers to consider in how they work in an AI-supported world.
In the future, a private and secure version of generative AI will be connected to our CDPs, web analytics, social media profiles, and campaign data so we can ask and discover insights in natural language. We'll connect sales data, inventory, and industry data to surface insights and predictions. Over time, we want AI to learn what we value and what success is for our enterprise to help maximize it. This is a game changer for marketers, who can use generative AI's abilities to complete more tedious tasks and give them back precious time to focus on tasks that will always require human judgment, like strategy and client relations.
Invest in Upskilling for a New World
With generative AI now being put to work to complete tasks that once kept marketers toiling away at their desks, it's critical that marketers invest in upskilling to be well-positioned in the future of our evolving industry.
Upskilling, or building on a current skill set, has never been more important for marketers in the context of generative AI. Two vital near-term skills marketers must learn are prompt engineering and the practice of stitching together various AI tools – generative text and text-to-speech to turn answers into audio, for example.
Preparing For the Road Ahead
AI will radically alter the way we work and will do so faster than most industries are currently prepared to manage. Marketers have a prime opportunity, if they are willing to take it, to meet this pivotal moment and understand AI's role in our industry now and as we move forward.
Now is the time for marketers to make way for AI and restructure their internal operations, workflow, and consumer interactions to embrace the benefits of the technology. Marketers will have more time to develop valuable, creative input that allows them to stand out.
By developing a deep understanding of AI, constantly re-imagining the future, and investing in new skills, marketers can harness the true power of AI and set themselves up for success in the years to come.
The views and opinions expressed are solely those of the contributor and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the ANA or imply endorsement from the ANA.
Jay Friedman is CEO of Goodway Group.