The new era for the internet is well underway! Whoop whoop!
That might seem like an extreme and also a little cringe statement but it’s true.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has opened up the possibilities of the internet like never before.
And marketers, businesses, tech giants, and more have leapt on the multitude of opportunities available to them at their fingertips.
Microsoft bought ChatGPT and incorporated it into Microsoft Edge and Bing.
Google created their AI with Bard and has started rolling out the “Search Generative Experience” (which is basically another way of saying they are including AI in the results they show you).
And AI art, videos, and deepfakes are everywhere now.
While some people have remained sceptical, even terrified (we’ve all seen Arnie in Terminator right?), about AI and its uses, marketers have embraced this new technology as they can see exactly how it can both transform and enhance how they do their work.
And transform it completely, it will.
Practical Uses
The first “caveat” I have to talk about is this. AI is just another tool.
Now the obvious fear is that AI will have the same effect as the automated loom did to the Luddites, or the telephone had on the telegraph industry.
This might well happen, however, only if you don’t understand what AI is good for.
All business people know they have to evolve and change in some way to suit more modern times and tastes.
AI is the change that will affect marketing and all tech-based businesses greatly.
However, the practical applications of AI are this – it speeds up what we humans do.
It doesn’t necessarily replace us but rather we can use it as a tool to say launch the first couple of paragraphs of a blog, give us an image or image idea to use, or even fix that computer code we have been frustrated over for days.
The point is that AI’s biggest practical use is that it is quick at giving us the basics that we can then take advantage of and improve on.
Midjourney and DALL-E could never replace the talents of a fantastic artist or graphic designer. But it can give them inspiration or a reference point to work from.
Chat-GPT could never write copy or content as well as a human, but it can provide the research and the key points that will give the writer something to work on.
You can see where I am going with this.
The New Salt & Pepper
With this new technology, there is only one thing left – to use it and use it well.
As I have already mentioned tech giants and other companies are already using this technology every day in their work and their products and services.
My prediction is simple. In the same way, the start of the internet suddenly created digital marketing and its growth to be the foremost marketing discipline AI will perform the same.
AI marketing will become the new frontier for digital marketing as well as marketing as an industry.
In fact, AI marketing has already appeared as a dedicated discipline with job adverts and demand increasing for experts in this field every day.
Marketing as a profession enjoys leaping on new trends, technologies, and the occasional bandwagon.
But with AI, it’s all going to be different.
With capabilities such as machine learning, natural language processing, and ever improving technologies marketing tasks can be automated easier, with greater accuracy and complexity as well as distinctive personalisation and marketers will get customer insights beyond their wildest dreams.
If you ever want proof of how powerful this is, look no further than Netflix.
They use AI effectively to provide personalised recommendations based on user preferences and behaviour.
So next time you see a “recommended” film or series, you know it’s AI.
AI is going to be the future… so how do you use it?
How to Use AI in Marketing
I’ve highlighted a couple of areas where AI can be extremely useful but let’s focus on what it’s most known for at the moment.
Apps like Midjourney, Ideogram and now the Dall-E integration with ChatGPT can all create custom images and art from simple text prompts.
The resulting artwork provides mixed results but where so many people have been using it and it has learnt so much… the results are now incredible.
In a matter of moments and with a few carefully written text prompts you can create a wealth of content to use in your work.
Likewise, tools like ChatGPT as well as Jasper, Claude and Writer have come to the fore for the written word.
They’re even built-in to Canva, Grammarly, and Microsoft Word and can help produce an astounding amount of written content.
Again the “quality” can be mixed, but the point of AI is not to replace your hard work.
It’s to enhance your hard work. By using AI to either act as an inspirational launch point for your writing or to enhance what you have already written you can save a wealth of time and money (and a lot of headaches).
Another real world use of AI are chatbots.
Love them or hate them, they are undeniably useful for marketers and businesses alike for being able to solve basic queries.
What’s more, is that now the natural language processing and experience of these platforms get better the more accurate and helpful the chatbots can be in your customer service.
Need to analyse all the data you’ve collected? AI can not only collate and show you the data but also help you present it by summarising the key points you need.
Need to improve your SEO/PPC/Email marketing? There’s an AI tool for that!
In short, the possibilities are not endless yet – but they’re getting close.
This is the start
Where AI used to be a gimmick for sci-fi movies and doomsday prophecies, it has now advanced enough to become an incredibly effective business tool.
That combined with the fact that the more we use it the better it becomes, means that this is only the beginning of what is likely to be the next revolution in technological capabilities.
Not just for marketing but for all business, everywhere.