The voice of AI in our day to day lives seems to be getting louder every day. As marketers, we're standing at an intriguing crossroads. AI offers us a mirror—reflecting our ideas, challenging our assumptions, and opening up unexplored creative pathways. But how do we truly harness this potential without losing our own personality as brand leaders?
What if we reimagined AI as a creative collaborator rather than a tool to do the work for us, collect data etc? Perhaps harness some of that power, not to create the ideas, but to expand and explore our own thinking and then help to refine where we take it?
The potential
If we look at AI as a curious colleague rather than a cold algorithm; offering potential new perspectives, asking the right questions and then refining the answers, it has the potential to make some interesting suggestions and unexpected connections. Maybe we’ll find some insights and angles that might slip past our human perspective? Could we use this to drive a new approach to marketing creativity?
Questions to explore
· How might AI spark ideas we'd never have considered?
· Where's the balance between technological insight and human intuition?
· Can we create a genuine dialogue with our AI tools?
A collaborative approach
Every request made of AI offers an opportunity to give a human response. If we view AI output as an invitation to question and think differently rather than accepting everything at face value, it offers a new lens through which we can:
· Discover a different angle on market insights
· Develop a range of ideas with unprecedented speed
· Trigger moments of reflection – what if we…?
Challenges and possibilities
Let’s not pretend this is a straightforward journey where we say where we want to go and then follow the map provided. We're navigating uncharted territory, so it’s vital to keep providing context and direction through asking questions and challenging assumptions. Through an iterative process, we can maintain our own voice and nuance and avoid the fast-emerging accusation of ‘AI wrote that.’
Taking the framework of an idea, creating a narrative around it in our own voice and then asking AI for comment helps to maintain authenticity.
What about ethical considerations?
There are some important issues to be aware of when using AI, such as fact-checking, avoiding the use of intellectual property, personal or privileged data, and ensuring ideas are not inadvertently ‘biased’. Again, output is shaped by input, so structuring questions and refining responses is key.
An evolving partnership
It’s pretty clear that AI is here to stay, and whilst it’s understandable that some will approachwith caution, it’s vital to bear in mind that this isn't a roadmap, but aconversation. We're learning, adapting, questioning all the time, and it’s onlythrough maintaining those interactions that we will hone AI into a really powerful tool. AI in marketing isn't about finding definitive answers, but about asking more interesting questions.
Give it a go – you might be surprised where the journey takes you!
