What is Generative AI that everyone has been talking about and how we can apply Generative AI in marketing? GenAI is a machine learning technology that can create different types of content based on a set of given commands (called “prompts”). It can generate text, images, videos, and other types of content based on the commands assigned in the prompts.
The whole AI “frenzy” started with the launch of ChatGPT, even though AI has been utilized for some time now for marketing data analytics, text recognition and sentiment analysis, personalization, and campaign optimization. The beauty of Generative AI is in its easiness of use and appeal to creativity which, when tools are appropriately used, can be expressed through the utilization of those tools.
While marketing professionals immediately got on the AI wave, started experimenting with available tools, and created a plethora of new solutions quickly, adopting new tools in academia is (as usual) a little bit slower.
In a way, it makes sense: how can we be expected to teach others about something we don’t have a clue about? And we did not. Generative AI is definitely not something we had an opportunity to learn about before. All our knowledge will be based exclusively on our curiosity and willingness to invest significant time in learning about new technologies and their applications.
For me, the interest in AI applications in marketing has been there for a while. My main research interest has always been human-technology interaction in different areas, and with the propulsive developments of marketing technologies, I have kept up-to-date with all recent developments in this area continuously. Last year I published a paper on AI applications in marketing (that, by the way, should be heavily updated less than one year since its publication!), and since November and the launch of ChatGPT, I spent hours and hours of my free time learning, reading, testing various GenAI solutions and finding the ways to bring them to the classroom immediately.
In such a fast-evolving discipline as marketing, I believe we must offer our students the most recent information, get them acquainted with the latest tools and techniques and prepare them properly for what awaits them in the rapidly changing job market.
Step 1: Master the Skills
Before you can teach, you need to learn. Your existing marketing expertise will help you learn new things quicker and see the opportunities to apply and integrate various types of Generative AI in marketing. If you are unsure of where to start, here are some recommendations:
– Start with creating a Discord account. It’s not only “a place to hang out and chat with friends” exclusively reserved for gamers but also a place where you can learn a lot by joining different interest groups related to AI and installing various AI-based bots and trying them out. As you will see, many AI tools will have an option on their website to “join Discord” and learn from the communities there.
– Learn more about creating prompts. You can find an excellent free course on prompting at Learn Prompting website, with different levels, from beginners to more advanced
– I am sure you are already using (or at least tried out ChatGPT). When you learn more about writing prompts, return to ChatGPT and test what you can do with more advanced prompts. You might get surprised!
– My personal favourite is definitely MidJourney. MidJourney is an AI-based program which generates images based on language descriptions (prompts). I tried out several GenAI image generators, and for me, MidJourney is currently the best. You can install MidJourney Bot on Discord and experiment with it. It is free to use, but recently due to the vast number of requests, it requires a small subscription to work properly. With a good prompt, you can forget about stock photos and copyrights (I generated all images in this newsletter with MidJourney).
– Another nice tool to check out is Ad Creative AI, which can help you generate various ad creatives – campaign ads and social posts with increased conversion rates.
– Last but not least – regularly check Futurepedia – daily updated AI tools database (today only 25 new tools were added). Explore, test, find the tools you like and you would like to master.
Also, explore people and companies interested in AI, and follow them on LinkedIn to learn about the newest developments, tools and trends.