Generative AI has raised considerable buzz lately, but with this hype comes a lot of misconceptions and confusion on how it can help marketers. With customer expectations rising and personalisation now an expectation, marketers can use generative AI to help maintain customer loyalty and gain insights in a post-cookie world.
We’ve already seen how AI can help marketers, commerce teams, salespeople, and more make informed decisions. This merely scratches the surface on how brands can use AI in their marketing to become more efficient and productive.
We recently asked marketers how this technology will help, with 60% saying it will transform their role. More than half (51%) are already experimenting with generative AI or using it at work already.
In our survey, marketers estimated that generative AI could save them 5 hours per week — that adds up to over one month a year. Imagine how much more you could do with that time back.
Though generative AI is still in its early stages, here are three ways marketers can use it today to better connect with customers.
What generative AI for marketing could look like
Generative AI can help with drafting marketing materials or providing quick answers to customer responses. But that’s just the start of what businesses can do with this technology.
Combining generative AI with an intuitive customer data platform can arm companies with the tools to take action on real-time insights. This can help you deliver personalisation at scale, such as product recommendations, tailored to individual customers based on their browsing and purchase history.
Consumers also expect brands to use their data to offer more relevant services. We found that over 60% of customers expect that companies instantly react with the most up-to-date information when transferring across departments. Generative AI can satisfy this customer need by giving agents suggested responses generated right in the moment, based on real-time data.
The next step for brands? Education. In our latest research, 54% of marketers told us that generative AI training programs are essential to them successfully using this technology. And 72% expect that their employers will provide them with the opportunities to learn how to use generative AI.
The last mile of personalisation
Today’s customers expect personalisation at every step. Recently, we found 65% of customers say they will stay loyal if the company offers a more tailored experience.
Combining the power of generative AI with your CRM data gives marketers the ability to create those kinds of digital experiences for their customers. Altogether, this results in more efficient marketing journeys that are better tailored to their audience across content generation, design, and targeting.
3rd-party cookie replacement
Third-party cookie deprecation and access to high-quality data — data that’s well-structured and useful — is a growing challenge for marketing organisations. We discovered that 41% of business leaders cite a lack of understanding of data because it’s too complex or not accessible enough.
As data becomes increasingly difficult to collect, store, and analyse, marketers can now turn to AI tools to help analyse the data they do have and make the right decision. AI will help marketers process their existing, perhaps limited, first-party data and provide them with rich insights.
That trusted first-party data is important for generative AI to work well, 63% of marketers told us. Marketers themselves also play a pivotal role in generative AI’s success, with 66% saying that human oversight is necessary to make sure a brand’s voice stays authentic.
Ways to develop generative AI responsibly
Generative AI has the power to transform the way we live and work, but it’s not without risks. Here are five guidelines for building it inclusively and intentionally.
Letting you focus on the customer
This shift in focus and conversation around generative AI is imperative, not a nice-to-have. By eliminating the confusion and delay in analysing data, generative AI takes the heavy lifting out of content creation. This technology can generate product descriptions that are accurate, compelling, and optimised for search engines.
With generative AI handling lower-level tasks, marketers are able to focus on strategic campaigns, executing on creative, and creating connections with customers. Generative AI can fundamentally change how marketing departments operate, allowing teams to place more focus where it belongs — on the customer.
What are marketers saying about generative AI?
Generative AI can be the next big innovation in marketing. How can it help? What needs to be done next? We asked marketing leaders all about it.
