Focus on the 'smart' not on the 'tech'

Generative A.I. is all the talk in marketing these days. Yet, we are framing our conversation about it in the wrong way. The critical shift is not about our internal processes. The way we work will certainly change. But what will change the most is not the way we work but the ways in which consumers will engage with us.

In other words, the biggest impact of things like ChatGPT will not be better ways of creating and delivering offers and solutions to consumers (or to clients, in the case of agencies and consultancies). Rather, it will be the necessity for marketers to develop new solutions that better fit a future of A.I.

This is not entirely new. In my 2013 FutureView, I introduced the idea of a “pivot to passive” by consumers moving away from active engagement with marketing to algorithmic engagement that would hand over much, if not all of the shopping and transactional journey to smart technologies. (If you’re interested, you can find my byline article?here?or a keynote address?here.)

While the future was clearly in view a decade ago, smart technologies?have not been ready to scale in consumer-friendly ways?until the introduction of ChatGPT late last year. The?moment?is?now at hand. Marketers must have more than an internal view of how to be more efficient with current offers and solutions. Marketers must get more original with an external, consumer-first view of the future.

A.I. is going to immediately usher in at least three changes in the ways in which consumers engage with brands. The current state of marketing is not ready for these changes, nor is the current focus of marketing preparing for them.

1.?????Automation.

Consumers will most assuredly offload much of the?shopper journey?to smart technologies. Marketers love ads; consumers, not so much. (Marketing resistance?is an old sermon of?mine.) Using LLMs to?evaluate options, screen ads and cull consideration sets is right around the corner. Pretty soon, ads, and all marketing, will only have the attention of algorithms.

·???????Is your brand ready for a marketplace of advertising to algorithms?

·???????How will your brand tracker measure algorithmic awareness and engagement?

·???????If equity and trust are in the eyes of consumers, what are equity and trust to algorithms?

·???????What do browsing, trial and impulse buying look like when it’s all about prompts?

·???????Should your brand develop?proprietary,?branded?prompts?

2.?????Curation.

A.I. will unlock and create?lifestyle experiences?we cannot even begin to imagine today. Consumers will find and invent new entertainments and activities both through and with smart technologies. Digital tools will also free time and resources for more face-to-face recreations and pursuits. Perhaps brands will find a place in these new experiences; perhaps not. Either way, technologies will be the guide that consumers use to navigate them.

·???????Are current metrics and norms for experiences relevant in a future of smart technologies?

·???????How compatible with smart tech is the branded engagement delivered by your brand?

·???????How can your brand use smart technologies to mash up personalized experiences for consumers?

·???????How can your brand still own consumer relationships when smart technologies own experiences?

·???????What will make your brand stand out as uniquely attractive to the smart systems curating experiences for consumers?

3.?????Migration.

Smart technologies are going to?accelerate the pace of change, as evidenced by the nearly instantaneous?rollout?of?applicationsand?plug-ins?once Open.AI?released?the?API?for ChatGPT. This will compound the?context of volatility and uncertainty?that surrounds consumers already. Consumers will look more to both brands and technologies for help in making all of this accessible, digestible, less stressful, and, most importantly, more convenient.

·???????How must your existing database and analytics?be updated to support?A.I.-driven personalization?

·???????Are your current innovation processes fast enough, sophisticated enough and sufficiently resourced to keep up with the changes that smart technologies will trigger and speed up?

·???????What will your brand need to do to remain easy to find, buy and use?

·???????Are you tracking the right trends in the right way for the kind of planning needed now?

·???????Are your target consumers vulnerable to?job or income disruptions?by smart technologies?

Many feel that the current craze over LLM-powered chatbots is just another craze like crypto. There is a critical difference, though, as pointed out by?New York Times?technology columnist Kevin Roose in the first of a five-part series introducing A.I. to readers. He wrote, “There’s a natural inclination to be skeptical of tech trends…But it feels different with A.I., in part because millions of users are already experiencing the benefits. I’ve interviewed teachers, filmmakers and engineers who are using tools like ChatGPT every day. And it came out only four months ago!”

Add consumers to Roose’s list of immediate adopters. This is where marketers should be looking—less on the inside and more on the outside. Less on the technologies per se and more on the smart things consumers are doing with them. Less about efficiency and more about originality.