Do you need to design a new logo for your business, quickly create content for your blog or compose a catchy jingle for your next commercial?
You can do all of that with generative artificial intelligence (AI).
But should you?
Generative AI uses machine learning to perform tasks from the mundane to the uber-complex. It can write a speech, a song or an email, generate images, analyze customer opinions, augment data sets, use historic data for forecasting, and much, much, more. Pretty cool, right?
Well … yes and no.
If you’re thinking about using generative AI for marketing purposes, here are some things to keep in mind.
Generative AI By the Numbers
A wide number of statistics suggest that AI is a dominant technology that everyone can and should put to work immediately:
- AI is expected to be a $36 billion industry in 2024, according to Statista research. Over a fifth of U.S. content creators are already using it to edit content and generate images and videos, and that number is expected to only go up.
- We’re not just talking about small mom-‘n’-pop operations, either. Huge brands such as Nike and Virgin Voyages are regularly using generative AI in their marketing strategies.
- More than 70% of marketers believe AI can complete key tasks better than humans, so much so that 60% are actually worried about being replaced it.
- Nearly half of marketers only spend about 10% of their marketing budget on generative AI; however, 20% of marketers are allocating 40% of their budget to AI.
At the same time, there’s plenty to suggest that people should be at least a little (if not very) wary of this still-emerging technology:
- In 2023, European nonprofits found that Microsoft’s AI tool, Copilot, gave inaccurate answers in roughly 1 in 3 questions about recent election cycles in Germany and Switzerland. (And it even misquoted sources.)
- AI chatbots produce “hallucinations” (which IBM defines as “… outputs that are nonsensical or altogether inaccurate”) in response to queries between 3% and 10% of the time.
- In a survey from machine-learning (ML) observability platform Aporia, 93% of ML engineers “encounter problems with their models on a daily or weekly basis.”
- A 2023 Bilkent University study found that 5% of code generated by AI assistants was incorrect; 23.2% was partially incorrect.
In other words, while AI is increasingly being used, there’s more than enough evidence that suggest if you don’t have the resources to use AI responsibly and thoroughly check your work, you probably shouldn’t be using it at all.
We suggest weighing the pros and cons of generative AI before making a decision.
The Pros of Using Generative AI
It’s Cost Effective
The thing about robots is that they’ll work for a pittance. Depending on your needs, you can get a pre-built AI solution for as low as a few hundred dollars a month. That’s far less than what it would cost you to hire actual human beings to perform the same tasks.
It Can Save Time
What takes you or an employee two hours to do may only take AI two seconds. This frees up valuable human hours that can be better spent on high-level, non-automatable tasks.
It Enhances Creativity
Generative AI can help you make a good idea great. It can help you get past those nagging mental blocks we all face every once in a while. And it can serve as a whole new way to create, experiment and brainstorm.
It Can Help Predict the Future
Have you ever wished you had a crystal ball? Now you do! AI can help you analyze consumer behavior, trends and preferences so you can create more targeted campaigns.
The Cons of Using Generative AI
People Might Not Trust It
New is always scary, and AI, while advanced, is arguably still in its infancy. Whether it’s due to a lack of understanding, privacy concerns or the potential for manipulation (read: deepfakes), some of your customers might be hesitant to support your brand using it as a marketing tool.
It Might Not Save Time
What takes you or an employee two hours to do may only take AI two seconds. However, if hallucinations and other issues force you to spend two hours checking that work, you’re not actually freeing up any time.
There’s a Lack of Authenticity
While AI can help you personalize your marketing messages, using AI is also the opposite of personal. Some people might see the use of AI as a sign that they don’t value humans — not the employees AI might be replacing, nor the customers who might not be receiving personal service.
It’s Not Always Accurate
There’s a term in computer science: Garbage in, garbage out. As mentioned above, generative AI can be a prime example of that. Computers are limited — they can’t think or reason on their own, and they can only work with the data they have. (And breaking news: The internet is full of false information already.)
Generative AI: Yea or Nay?
To AI or not to AI? There is no clear verdict. Yes, the technology can be useful in your marketing efforts, but it can also be quite harmful.
At the very least, you should not consider using AI as a standalone strategy. Instead, you might just want to consider peppering it in to augment some of your existing efforts. But AI’s usefulness will vary from one business (and one operator) to another.
At Mischa Communications, we believe in the power and ingenuity of the human mind — both in our and the client relationships we build.