Artificial intelligence (AI) is advancing rapidly, and for some, it's exciting to see how it's speeding up the creative process. However, for others, the thought of AI potentially replacing their jobs is frightening. Regardless of the impact of generative AI on the marketing industry, it's important for marketers to stay up to date with technological trends and understand how they can leverage innovative technologies to improve the customer experience. In this article, we'll explore recent updates in the generative AI space, how it's changing current workflows, and how it could transform marketing in the future. 

The History of Generative AI

The current evolution in modern AI has its roots in 2012. Geoffrey Hinton, who’s known as the father of modern AI, had a breakthrough when he and his team discovered that they could use deep neural networks, which are made up of a subset of machine learning and deep learning algorithms, to perform speech recognition. This discovery led to other technologies such as voice-recognized assistants such as Siri and Alexa. 

Since then, AI has grown significantly, with several text-to-image services such as DALL-E and MidJourney, and natural language processors, like ChatGPT becoming available to consumers in the latter half of 2022. These generative AI platforms are trained on millions of data sources, enabling users to generate photorealistic images and cohesively written narratives. 

These platforms are developing faster than expected. OpenAI recently released GPT-4 to subscribers. They claim GPT-4 scores in higher percentiles than standardized tests, such as the Uniform Bar Exam. Compared to ChatGPT, GPT-4 scored in the 90th percentile on the bar exam, while ChatGPT scored in the 10th percentile. Additionally, Midjourney announced that version 5 of its image-generating platform can produce photo-realistic images that are difficult to distinguish from real humans. 

With such powerful technologies at consumers' and businesses' fingertips, tasks that used to take days to complete can be automated within seconds. The question is, how will this increase in productivity affect marketers and the industry at large? 

AI is Accelerating the Creative Process

AI, particularly generative AI, is beginning to speed up creative processes in ways that many marketers couldn't have predicted just five years ago. While creative teams are amazed by AI's capabilities, they're also worried about its impact on the future. 

ChatGPT is empowering marketers with a chatbot that can answer almost any question. This AI can deliver several main points that could be incorporated into an article, provide a personalized editor for content creators, and help articulate challenging portions of a paragraph. 

Similarly, image generators like DALL-E can create images from scratch, as it's been trained on over 650 million images and text captions. However, these platforms aren't perfect. ChatGPT is error-prone in its current state, and OpenAI has been transparent about its mistakes. When using ChatGPT, it's recommended to ask questions within your area of expertise and be skeptical of the results. While image generators can produce amazing images, it's still necessary for designers to sketch and composite from the generated images if you want your imagery to fit within your brand standards. 

In summary, generative AI provides many great capabilities, but it's not a magic wand. It can speed up creation workflows, but it can't generate 100% of your content. However, any advantage that enables you to prioritize strategic initiatives and improve the customer experience is worth taking. 

AI Is Revolutionizing the Customer Experience

Great customer experiences are no longer just technology-enabled, but technology-led. AI is quickly becoming the glue that intelligently orchestrates personalized customer experiences in real-time across multiple channels. 

For example, e-commerce sites, like Amazon, are leveraging AI to transform the customer experience completely. By analyzing individual customer journeys, they can supply unique product recommendations. One of our financial institution clients is even using customized web content to encourage employees to take specific compliance training and leverage marketing/sales enablement materials based on their lifecycle stage. 

Both use cases can be built using Salesforce Marketing Cloud Personalization's (formerly Interaction Studio) Einstein Recipes functionality. By considering different lifecycle stages, previously viewed content, or any other relevant customer data, you can create personalized content that is highly relevant and delivered throughout the customer journey and web experience. 

As AI continues to advance, personalization use cases will continue to grow. At Lev, we believe that we are still in the preliminary stages of the AI revolution, and it could be as impactful as the internet was to our modern world. Imagine having a chatbot that can analyze a client's earlier support cases to supply customized insights and solve even the toughest problems. Or imagine a future where every customer can have an extensive, personalized web experience across your entire website based on their previous engagement with your brand. As development continues, AI could make this all possible.  

Why Marketers Should Care About AI

In a world where customers demand personalized experiences, AI will only heighten those expectations. Businesses that take advantage of this technology and develop unique use cases that customers didn't even know they were craving will have a significant competitive advantage. However, this will only be possible if organizations can orchestrate their data and leverage the latest advancements in AI to work together in harmony. This inherited competitive advantage will enable organizations to act smarter, be more resilient, and move faster than their competition. 

If you want to prepare your existing marketing technology to take advantage of AI, check out the Marketer's Guide to Maximizing the Value of Your MarTech Stack. This guide will walk you through how to fully use your MarTech stack to fulfill your strategy, automate manual tasks, and create deeper, personalized experiences that will keep your customers coming back for more.