AI chatbot ChatGPT and digital portrait generator Lensa have seen a lot of hype over the last couple of weeks. There’s every chance their buzz is a passing fad. What’s not a passing fad? The use of generative AI in marketing, which will increase significantly over the next few years.
Here are seven ways you might use the tech:
1. Create visual content for listings and social posts
At the center of AI’s marketing takeover (okay, “takeover” might be a bit fatalistic) is creative content. Images taken by IRL people will be replaced partly by AI renderings. Why? The same reason tech often takes over (less fatalistic here): Because it’s faster and cheaper. Commercial photography and logo design can cost thousands of dollars. AI costs less.
2. Generate marketing copy for product listings
This feature goes hand in hand with visual content. Why pay real people to write descriptions if an AI can do it faster and cheaper? One reason is people may do a better job.
In his The Rebooting Substack, Brian Morrissey described the soullessness of a worst-case generative AI future: “We’ll have bots writing for bots, monetized by bots.”
For both image and copy generation, human finesse is necessary to prevent what would essentially become marketing battle bots. Kate Lindsay argued in her Embedded Substack that the social media screenshots of silly ChatGPT conversations are “more about people showing off their prompts than it is the text. The reason they’re interesting to anyone at all is due to what a human did, not a robot.”
This reflects Morrissey’s philosophy that “jobs displaced by technology are often replaced by other jobs.” But no matter the human influence, AI will certainly be involved in the coming interaction of creative marketing content.
3. Allow users to change visual features of products
AI’s marketing influence (that word is less scary than “takeover”) will allow user interaction with products.
Rather than shooting a 360-degree video of a pair of shoes, AI could render a sneaker from any angle, in any size, with any background, and any modifications, as Troy Young mentioned in his People vs Algorithms Substack. Digital merchandising is costly and laborious. AI will cut those corners.
That presents an opportunity for retailers like Shein, which our analyst Sky Canaves predicted will push into custom goods and on-demand fashion. Visualizing those customizations via AI rendering tools will push consumers closer to purchase.
4. Personalize marketing campaigns
If AI can visualize custom products, it can certainly personalize custom campaigns. Ads are already targeting consumers, but marketers and brands are limited to images and copy they have on hand. With AI cutting labor, consumers could see hyperpersonal campaigns.