A B2B Marketer's Journey Into AI: Step Two, Find An Area To Build Expertise
My Journey with Generative AI in B2B Marketing
Over the last several months, there's certainly been no shortage of hand-waiving and excitement about AI, LLM, and about a thousand other acronyms people use to adorn their LinkedIn profiles. Everyone's an expert.
What's missing, then? Details.
To this point, I've watched about a hundred "expert" videos and read even more posts and whitepapers on the topic. I've found about three that offered any value to a B2B Marketing Professional. The other 99.9% of the content is value-free. Hat tip to...?
A lot of people insert superlatives and hand-waiving at this point, but the reality is that AI is about to change everything. This is a tipping point in the market, and there's no better time to understand this new technology than now. The good news for me is that I currently have a ton of bandwidth, as the consulting projects are a bit slim now, so I dedicated a ton of time to learning this area. I'm an admitted innovation junky, and the potential of Generative AI is easily the most significant area I've ever explored.?
After navigating through the area, I found a few topics I'd like to share. First, let's explore the likely paths you can consider in your approach to digesting the topic.
Here are the options I started looking at:
1. Embedded AI: The Silent Revolution
It was hard not to notice how AI began making subtle entries into the tools I used daily. My trusty grammar checker was suddenly making more intelligent suggestions. Mobile apps seem smarter, and even platforms like Outlook now enable ChatGPT-integrated solutions. Soon, all the tools you use today will start offering the highest value next steps and fill in many of the day-to-day blanks for you.
While you can sit back and become an AI user through osmosis, taking a more active role is probably better.
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2. Building AI In-House: A Costly Experiment
Intrigued by having a tailor-made AI solution, I explored the idea of setting up an in-house AI environment. But as I delved deeper, I recalled the challenges many faced with ambitious projects in the past, like data lakes. The allure of creating a custom solution is tempting, but if the past is precedent, the risks of resource and cost overruns are real concerns. If you are going to head down this path, I want you to know that you need to be crystal clear in your objectives, needs, and use cases. Like data lakes, not all failed, but a lot did, and even those that succeeded in reaching the light of day often did not address the business needs - static, latent, and reactive. These are multimillion-dollar projects that cannot be treated as a checkbox. Done!
3. Diverse AI Solutions: Too Many Cooks?
Like the MarTech landscape, I'm 100% certain we will soon see the "AI 5000" chart in a few years... then the collapse of consolidation. Markets change, but the combination of human nature and innovation is predictable. I experimented with many and still use several.?
The image at the top has quite an interesting use of AI within Adobe Photoshop. Check out this short video to show how I created the right side of this image through generative AI . One selection box. One sentence - "Seamlessly continue the image to the left of this selection, making the image wider than it originally was. continue the grass field and cloudy sky as if it was originally contained this new section." Poof! The image is now a few hundred pixels wider, and I dare you to find where the original and generative picture starts and ends!
Oh, and I'm writing this in Grammarly right now... a massive shoutout to how well it's helped with my writing over the years.
4. Specializing with ChatGPT Plus
I started with ChatGPT in December, a little after the first transformative release. I subscribed to ChatGPT Plus in late Spring and started using plugins to upload files, read webpages, and other cool stuff. Still, I wanted more; I couldn't wrap my head around what it could do.?
Then this Summer, BANG, Code Interpreter. Then, now, Vision!
ChatGPT Plus transformed into a comprehensive platform capable of handling over 35 file formats. Although its image generation feature is still in its early stages, the promise of future advancements made it a tool worth investing time in.
Until next time!
In a few days, I'll write the next installment... how to get started, find value, create value.
Until then, start thinking about what YOU would want to do with such a tool. Write a list of things... we'll talk about them soon!