Can You Believe ChatGPT Isn't Even a Year Old?

Last fall, during the third week of November to be exact, I was teaching my Schulich School of Business Master of Marketing students about AI and how it was going to transform digital marketing.

Really, I was talking about generative AI, but the world hadn't started calling it that yet. I did mention OpenAI's GPT-3 and its breakthroughs processing language and making statistical predictions on what might come next.

I showe class a few available free tools, many of which were, as Larry David might say, 'pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good'. These included HyperWrite (OthersideAI) for copy generation and Lumen5 for video production.

Then, I divided students into groups and asked them to come up with an idea for an ad, draft a short script using AI and produce a video—all in 20 minutes or less.

I could sense many of the students were wary they could do that. Yet, less than a half hour later, they got to witness their AI-created content first-hand.

And see the potential of marketing with generative AI.

Fast Forward One Week

The next week, I can't tell you how many students came up to show me a new website that had just been launched: ChatGPT.

Suddenly, everything we talked about the previous class came into an even sharper focus. ChatGPT, with it's simple UX, was a preview of the future and how much marketing was going to change in a very short period of time.

Since then, the pace of announcements hasn't let up. And the list of available tools continues to grow in leaps and bounds.

Case in point. Here's a small sampling of the many, many announcements that were made this month alone:

• Think before you tank or look at how the big ad holding companies are approaching AI. They're organizing small internal think tanks to explore opportunities and partnerships and establish a new strategic course.
• Microsoft sets a date for the rollout of its ChatGPT-powered Copilot assistant across Office 365 including Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Teams.
• YouTube gives Shorts creators the opportunity to use AI to create backgrounds, dub videos and even come up with ideas for new content based on what followers are watching.
• Google extends the Bard experience to other properties so you can chat with Gmail, YouTube, Google Drive, Maps and more.
• The folks behind Stable Diffusion release Stable Audio and now anyone can add a text prompt and in seconds get a tune.
• Salesforce announces Einstein Copilot - an AI productivity app built into its customer relationship management (CRM) platform.
• Coke and generative AI conjure up Y3000, a new soft drink that's supposed to taste like the future. My question: will robots enjoy it as much as you?
• Dentsu launches a free virtual client tool - three personas who will happily critique and or trash your latest creative idea to give you an idea of what a real client might say.

Whew! And that's just the tip of September's A-Iceberg.

It's no wonder many of you may be feeling uncertain about your future and insecure about your job.

There's even a term for that now: FOBO, or fear of becoming obsolete.

So What's a Digital Marketer to Do?

For one thing, take a deep breath (and I'm not kidding). Mindfulness can be an effective way to calm your anxiety. It's what I try to do before I dig into the maelstrom of news each morning.

Here are three other tips:

1. Figure out how and where you're using AI in your creative workflow. Is it for brainstorming, first drafts, editing, research on other perspectives? Then, determine which tools can help simplify your human-machine collaboration. It could be an all-in-one product like Microsoft Copilot from a provider you already trust. Or maybe there are specific tools geared to your industry or specialization. Just be sure you don't sign a long-term contract (who knows what will happen in the next year) and that your selection fits within your existing tech stack.
2. Don't trade quality for productivity. Or relationships, for that matter. Sure, machines can speed up what you do. But you don't need to put the pedal to the metal on the development of even more content garbage. In Thinking Fast and Slow, author Daniel Kahneman outlines a model for the way we think. System 1 is fast and impulsive. System 2 is slower and more reflective. Maybe you should consider AI an extension of your System 1. It provides the speedy response and your role is to harness your own System 2 analytic and creative skills to tear the AI output apart, improve it, add depth and veracity and make it more human.
3. Learn how to code in natural language, that is, how to talk to machines. It's true prompt outputs are improving quickly. And according to recent research, AI agents will soon be able to give you suggestions on how to improve your prompts. But till then, you need to figure out how to converse with chatbots, which is different than the way we communicate with each other. You need to be clear about what you want, specify the style, format, give it examples and use the back and forth dialogue you have with the bot as a way to nudge the machine and get it to make the refinements you want. And don't settle for good enough (see point two).

Speaking of talking to chatbots, that's what I ... talk about in the latest digital marketing trends video. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Follow Me on LinkedIn

Well, it's time to blow out the candles on issue #87.

Be sure to?follow me on LinkedIn. This newsletter comes out every two weeks. But between issues, I share shorter daily posts with my take on digital marketing and the latest on generative AI. It's another way to stay on top of the trends.

And while you're at it, follow the Future of Marketing Institute , too. Every day we share content and perspectives on where we may be heading and what the shift might mean.

You can also check out my?course,?Generative AI for Digital Marketers. In it, I break through the hype to demystify AI. And I offer strategies to integrate the tools.

Thank you to the more than 420,000 of you who subscribe, read, comment and share the newsletter! It's great having all of you along for the ride.

Be sure to reach out if you have questions about any of the videos in Digital Marketing Trends, or my other?LinkedIn Learning courses. You can visit?my?my website?and send a message or a question.

How are you adapting to the pace of change at work? Do you have FOBO? What are you doing to make sure you don't get left behind? Please share your thoughts and tips in the comments below.

OK, time to break before the AI hype machine starts up again. See you in a couple of weeks!

Disclosure: All the content in this post was written by a human—me and not Martin the bot. The illustration was created with Dall-E 2.