Let’s talk about Conversational AI
The risk is not if AI/conversational AI tools will take away marketing jobs but rather people who are skilled at using AI creatively will be the one creating jobs. McKinsey recently noted AI is advancing 10 times faster and at 300 times the scale of the Industrial Revolution. The AI infused future is inevitable and ChatGPT is just one facet of this new era.
For example, there are essentially nine types of intelligence: intrapersonal, spatial, naturalist, musical, logical-mathematical, existential, interpersonal, bodily-kin.sthetic, and linguistic. Of course, everyone has all these components to a greater or lesser degree. Some are strong musically while being weaker spatially, while others are strong in the existential area but are introverted and thus have less in the interpersonal area. AI will be able to enhance each of these types of intelligences to enrich the human condition via more personalized and predictive experiences.
When it comes to ChatGPT the AI is leveraging natural language processing (NLP), which uses machine learning and deep learning to analyze, understand and use human language in a useful way. Essentially, NLP can understand and generate spoken and written language and put the two together for more immersive engagement.
AI is defined as ‘the study and design of intelligent agents’, which are systems able to perceive their environment and act based on what is happening. The subject of AI overlaps with computer science, data mining, facial recognition, robotics and others such as the study of the human mind.
The intriguing thing about all these initiatives is it is not just about about a single device or technology. Instead, take for example a smart city or smart home which is a set of interconnected devices that can, in many cases, communicate with each other and with systems in the cloud. The resulting data can be used to feed artificial intelligence-based systems to provide even more capabilities on a very human level — so in many ways 1+1=3 when AI powered systems are integrated.
To take it a step further individual devices and their owners are engaging and useful, but when combined with the power of cloud-based AI, the possibilities are endless. Hypothetically, local supermarkets could leverage anonymized, consolidated data about the amount of consumables inside refrigerators in the local area. They could then use that information to more precisely stock those items — the possibilities are endless. ChatGPT is just one on ramp into the broader intelligent world.
ChatGPT can be used to automate customer service, accelerate lead generation, and sales processes, as well as it can be customized to suit the needs of different types of businesses. The level of success a business will have with the tool will depend on the insights and creativity infused into the system, rather than the tool itself. For example, B2C marketers may be able to use ChatCPT to engage with customers in a more personal way, at scale and at speed, while B2B marketers may be able to use the technology to provide more detailed and informative responses to customer inquiries. Overall, ChatCPT can be a powerful tool for both B2C and B2B marketers, but it will be crucial to anchor on strategic imperatives and core product attributes.
Plato said the purpose of humanity is to obtain knowledge. Friedrich Nietzsche had a different take and said it is to obtain power. Ernest Becker thought the purpose is to escape death and Darwin thought it is to propagate our genes. On the other hand, the nihilists said there is no meaning, and Steven Pickard said the meaning is beyond our cognitive capabilities. I would argue that the answer is none of the above. Instead, it is human creativity for innovation to improve the human condition.
AI powered tools like ChatGPT can be used as a catalyst for designing change. As a recent D&AD article says, ‘The difference between a good idea and a great idea lies in how human it is — and in an increasingly machine dependent world, this is more important than ever.
Human creativity together with computational creativity will counter and defeat ‘heirloom beliefs’ and ‘the curse of knowledge’. Heirloom beliefs stem from a cognitive bias that ‘this is how we’ve always done it’. The curse of knowledge is assuming the audience receiving your message has information that they actually may not have.
With collective intelligence (human + machine) creativity can be used for business reinvention. Human ingenuity plus AI will bring about invention across energy, fashion, finance, pharmaceuticals, recruiting, retail, advertising, art, automotive, aviation, banking, energy, security and sports…ChatGPT, Generative AI… are essentially new resources to amplify the human experience. The only limit to AI is human imagination.
