Why brands must move fast to keep pace with consumer AI adoption

Having demonstrated its ability to secure an MBA from an Ivy League university, pass the US medical licensing exam, and prove its proficiency in law and accountancy, generative AI chatbot ChatGPT is a technological marvel. With such an abundance of (rapidly increasing) intelligence, how can brands harness the power of AI to effectively grow market share?

The evolution of AI is transforming the way consumers engage with brands and media; experiencing individualised news based on viewing history, for example, or receiving personalised content – or even generative imagery – based on what an AI thinks would be most resonant with a specific audience.

Of course, the core principles of marketing haven’t changed, but the way marketers create and execute campaigns has been revolutionised. AI enables brands to understand better (and faster) what creative and messaging will chime with customers, and how to invest budget and buy media more effectively.

Many brands are still in the throes of AI transformation, but as consumers become adept at interacting with AI, their expectations are changing, and brands are faced with a huge opportunity. Here, we take a look at some of the key areas.

Reshaping retail

The vast knowledge of GenAI gives people access to often niche expertise to help them explore their interests. From planning their next holiday to choosing new clothes or attempting a new recipe, GenAI now offers people insight into these passion points, along with personalised instructions and support.

This gives brands a new way to understand their customers, supercharging the way they approach future marketing campaigns, product development and pricing strategies. It also offers a glimpse towards the future of commerce.

People can already ask platforms like ChatGPT to recommend brands and shortlist products, but it won’t be long before these platforms can also make purchases on our behalf.

GenAI is about to make shopping faster and more seamless than ever before. This raises the question of how established brands, as well as newcomers, can position themselves to stay ahead, leveraging AI to secure their future in the new world of GenAI-based retail.

Next-gen content creation

While AI is supercharging how consumers access and interact with information to make purchase decisions, it is also revolutionising how brands validate their creative approach to better engage people, as well as to direct budget more confidently. Such foresight is a powerful tool.

Arguably the most mature application of GenAI within media and marketing is the creation of unique content, from imagery and video to audio, based on keywords or interest. This enables brands to test assets at speed, proving particularly valuable for retail and performance marketing teams. Being able to test, and prove, a hypothesis without needing to invest considerable time, budget and resources is groundbreaking.

GenAI can also empower brands to scale up campaigns and create localised content quickly and affordably, meaning global brands can truly resonate with local markets. Where media teams used to have to make do with the creative they were given, they are now empowered to make adjustments that will significantly improve the outcomes of the campaign. This means media data and insight are fuelling asset optimisation, ensuring that media and creative work as one, rather than existing as two isolated divisions.

A great example of this was when our AI platform Marcel created an ad for French mobile network Orange, partner of the French Football Federation (FFF), using AI technology to showcase the brilliant skills of female football players, combat bias and promote the 2023 Women’s World Cup. The ad begins by highlighting the wondrous skills of French football stars Kylian Mbappé and Antoine Griezmann, before revealing that the skills are actually performed by players in the women’s French team. Whilst this was a creative output using AI technology, we’re seeing equally profound ways that GenAI can impact media campaigns and campaign assets.

As part of our annual Christmas ‘wishes’ to our Publicis Groupe employees, we also harnessed the power of AI to send out 100,000 personalised ‘thank you’ films to employees, to showcase the practical applications and inform future campaigns for our own clients.

The human factor

Contrary to any concerns, AI assets aren’t reducing the role of creative teams. Instead, the technology is empowering people, allowing them to test and prove creative direction. Traditionally laborious manual tasks such as reporting and measurement are also being transformed.

Through automation, marketers can ingest campaign data at speed, enabling AI to pull insights from it, creating more time to dedicate to strategy and understanding, thereby adding real brand value. In turn, AI allows greater confidence when setting goals and investing marketing budget, by crunching data to predict outcomes and give more certainty to decision making.

While data quality is essential to optimising AI, people remain vital for its potential to be fulfilled. There are market changes and cultural dynamics that an AI simply cannot anticipate, which is where brilliant media experts come in and make the difference between winning and losing market share.

While AI is an efficient tool, its successful implementation still relies on a clear vision, strategic planning, and human judgement. Like an F1 racing car, AI is powerful and fast, but without a skilled driver and an expert team of mechanics and engineers, it won’t win races.

Marketers’ skills need to continually evolve – from technical understanding to data literacy, as well as an ethical and environmental awareness around potential bias and responsible data usage. And honing these skills now is critical. Brands should be exploring GenAI – testing and learning and understanding its capabilities (and its limitations) – if they are to capitalise in future.

AI is game-changing, but only as a partner to the marketer who knows how to wield it to drive brand growth.

Niel Bornman is CEO at Publicis Media UK.