Influence of ChatGPT in today's marketing landscape.

As soon as ChatGPT started making the headlines, I received a phone call from my father. He was worried that somewhere down the line, in the very near future, my content writing job is going to be automated by ChatGPT. For people who don't know what ChatGPT is, it is an AI-enabled generative chatbot, that answers all your queries. And that got me thinking, what if? So, I decided to conduct a small survey, mostly comprising my friends, to know about their take on how ChatGPT has influenced or might influence our daily lives. I'll be posting the summary of the survey here, just for inference but won't be diving deep into it since it is just a survey conducted over a tiny set of audience. Following are the inferences:?

• While 45.7% of the respondents had a hands-on experience with both Google(Search engine) and ChatGPT, 54.3% have never tried out ChatGPT.
• In this audience with minimal exposure to ChatGPT, 51.4% would use a search engine to know about something. While 5.7% have preferred ChatGPT over search engines. Still a major chunk of 42.9% stated that it pretty much depends on the scenario. (Kindly note that 54.3% of the respondents have never tried out ChatGPT.)
• While 25.7% of the respondents are comfortable with an AI product suggestion, 48.6% of the respondents want to go through various products, and find the right one by themselves. The other 25.7% have stated that it depends on the price of the product.
• While 34.7% of the respondents have rated 3 on a scale of 5 on how likely they are to take an AI chatbot's prediction, 17.1% have rated 4/5.

Now, coming back to the issue at hand. Is ChatGPT really that big a threat as we are making it out to be? That's a pretty big scope to cover in a single post. However, in this post, we will discuss about the possible influence of ChatGPT on Marketing, in the coming years.

Microsoft bought a huge stake of OpenAI, the company that developed ChatGPT, and this obviously worried google. They came up with their own version called Bard. However, it is said that it still lags behind ChatGPT. Infact, earlier last month, Bard was given its first demo to the general public, when it made a factual error regarding James Webb telescope identifying exoplanets. This resulted in Alphabet's share prices dropping by a whopping 100 billion dollars! On the other hand, OpenAI just came up with GPT-4, an enhanced version of GTP-3.5, that was being used in ChatGPT. Users can now provide inputs not just in the form of texts, but via images too. Interesting, right? Anyways, is ChatGPT really set to take out google, a market giant, in the near future??

To understand this, we first have to understand about the differences between google as a search engine and ChatGPT as a conversational AI-powered Chatbot. Both are unique to their own use case. While they might share the same use cases in certain instances, inherently, they were designed for different purposes. Google serves as a directory for all the webpages out there on the internet and allows you to retrieve the most accurate search result according to your search intent. Whereas ChatGPT on the other hand analyzes the data it's been trained on, and then provides you the most accurate answer.

The problem is ChatGPT as a standalone application doesn't stand a chance with google, which is the largest search engine on the internet. Google has access to much more data than ChatGPT, given that they have been a pioneer in the search engine field for almost two decades now. However, with ChatGPT integrated into Bing, the second largest browser in the world, the scenario does slightly tilt to Bing's favor. And it was not just me who felt it. Even ChatGPT itself seconded it. (Though it gave a very diplomatic answer at first about how Google and ChatGPT caters to different consumer segments, after a couple of prompts, it finally admitted.) Now, this might be a complication, for this might have an adverse effect on the digital marketing landscape we see and perceive today. So, here are a couple pointers. ?

1. With the introduction of AI-powered conversational bots that provide you with a personally curated answer for your prompt, the organic traffic of a site might decrease, affecting businesses in a serious way. Marketers will have to figure out a way to come up with more reliable and efficient ways to reach out to their customers. While long form content might still be very much relevant to your marketing efforts, businesses will have to come up with innovative short form content too, that might help increase their organic traffic.
2. Marketers will have to further optimize their content for featured snippets, and other forms of short form content, as mentioned above.
3. Google might lose out billions in revenue if Bing were to dethrone it as the most used search engine, given that a major chunk of its revenue is from paid advertising.
4. Most of the B2B companies only focus on SEM, and not SMM. Businesses will have to approach the marketing process even more holistically and take into account all the constraints associated with the same. Businesses will have to leverage all forms of possible communication to reach out to potential prospects.
5. Search intent will matter way more. With the introduction of RankBrain in 2015, google has been using AI and Machine Learning algorithms to evaluate pages and filter them out to display in the SERPS. But the emphasis on search intent will be even more high, with the introduction of AI-enabled conversational bots like ChatGPT.
6. Marketers might have to get themselves acquainted with the basics of Artificial intelligence and Machine Learning techniques in the longer run, whether or not this situation were to arise. ChatGPT just accelerates the process. ?

What are the bottlenecks?

Well, this might sound too good to be true, doesn't it? Well, that's the thing. The road to being the most popular search engine is not filled with rose petals. Google, being a forerunner in the field of Search Engine marketing, has conveniently positioned itself as an ecosystem. From your mobile's OS versions to the mails you send, google is everywhere. And this sort of brand affinity cannot be wiped out in an instant. It is a long haul process. Moreover, Google has access to abundant resources that Microsoft cannot even come close to.

Ever wondered, why when you search for a particular product, at times you won't be redirected to the exact product but to a somewhat extended product range. This is because, we as humans, have an inherent urge to be in charge of our own decisions. When's the last time you ever went to a shop, saw a dress you liked and bought it at the very instant? You might eventually buy the same dress due to lack of options but that doesn't mean you won't try. Same concept. Instead of looking for an instant product suggestion, we like to get our hands dirty, and select it ourselves from the wide array of options, after a careful evaluation of reviews. (This can also be inferred from the survey summary mentioned above.) So, users might not always turn to ChatGPT for product suggestions.

ChatGPT does not create content of it's own. It tries to give you an accurate version based on its understanding of the matter at hand. The inputs will still be taken from relevant webpages. (There might arise a situation where marketers might have to optimize their content not just for search engines but for such generative bots too.) Moreover, there might be ethical, security, and privacy concerns involved when it comes to AI.

So, what's the verdict?

On the one hand, we have the most successful search engine in history. Google pretty much invented Search Engine Marketing. On the other hand, we have Microsoft, who will show no mercy to wipe out their competitors using their monopoly, like they did with IBM. (I'll try to come up with a post regarding that later) It is going to be an interesting business battle between two of the most influential organizations of the decade.

It is also important to know that just because a system has the potential to disrupt the conventional ones, doesn't mean that it always will. So, will Bing dethrone Google? Well, like ChatGPT I will have to reply with a diplomatic answer. Only time will tell.

(PS: However, much like ChatGPT, after a couple of prompts, I might slide to Google's favor. Can't wait to see how everything pans out!)