Sunday Shuffle v. 5

Hello Marketeers! Yep. We're deep into event season now. From now until December, tech giants like Salesforce, Apple, Oracle, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta and many others will host their annual user conferences. Not surprisingly, AI will dominate the spotlight, particularly at Dreamforce this week where OpenAI's CEO, Sam Altman will deliver the keynote. Yet, there's been a lot of chatter recently about waning interest in Generative AI and the luster starting to wear off. But is the hype truly waning or has it become so woven into our lives already that it's essentially becoming digital 'dark matter'? Let's Shuffle on and see!

Inside this week's Shuffle:

• AI Hype or Not?
• Marketing Leadership & AI Survey
• Framework of the Week
• Top Headlines

Has Gen AI Really Reached the Peak of Inflated Expectations?

In Gartner 's latest Hype Cycle for Artificial Intelligence, Generative AI is perched at the "Peak of Inflated Expectations," on the verge of falling into the "Trough of Disillusionment" -- a phase marking declining interest when the technology doesn't meet the hype.?

Other studies echo this waning enthusiasm for Gen AI:

• This Pew Study found that most Americans remain unfamiliar with ChatGPT, with many fewer that have even tried it.
• The time visitors spent on ChatGPT has been declining steadily since March, according to Reuters, but Similarweb sees that coming to an end soon.
• WSJ wrote of an AI Reality Check, with investors more hesitant to bankroll AI startups "given the uncertain path to profitability and heavy competition from well-funded rivals such as Google and Microsoft-backed OpenAI."

The Takeaway:

Gen AI's perceived decline actually mirrors a predictable transition from "early adopter" to "early majority." While startups continue to innovate, tech giants like Google and Microsoft - along with all the legacy mar-tech suppliers - seize the spotlight as they integrate AI into their solutions. Marketers should explore these tools but choose judiciously, as they might disappear as quickly as they arrived.

How Marketing Leaders Are Using AI

Search firm, Heidrick & Struggles just published the findings from a Leadership & AI in Marketing survey fielded over the summer to Chief Marketing Officers on how they're using AI to support their work and teams.

Findings:

• Marketers are using AI for more activities than leaders in any other function
• Creating content is the most common use case at 65%
• 57% reporting finding AI talent is "scarce"; choosing to develop internally

The Takeaway:

As many of us already know, marketing is at the tip of the AI adoption spear, leveraging it mostly to crank out content for hungry growth engines. But talent is scarce, so the fastest path may be to find AI enthusiasts on your team, develop them, and let them run!

Framework of the Week: AI Tech Stack for Marketeers

If you've spent any time at Product Hunt or ClickUp, you've seen the dizzying array of AI-powered tools out there for us marketeers to play around with. Similar to my other standard marketing tech stack, this one organizes many of the tools I've tested and used in my own work as a marketeer. Click here to download it and modify for your own needs!

In Other News

• Elena Verna and Andrea Wang published this helpful piece on how to hire your first growth team
• Hubspot announced last week the launch of HubSpot AI, its portfolio of AI-powered features to help marketing, sales, and service teams
• Elon Musk recently updated Twitter's (er, X) terms of service, allowing him to use our data to train his new AI startup, xAI
• X also published its "recommendation algorithm." This piece simplifies it for us marketeers to help expand the reach of our content
• Digital Markets Act (DMA) will go into effect early next year in the EU, putting tougher regulation on Big Tech's tendency to favor their own services
• Google posted this quaint retrospective on their blog in recognition of their 25th Birthday. Who knew JLo was the inspiration for Google Images?
• If you didn't think waving your phone at the checkout scanner was easy enough, Amazon wants us just wave our paw to pay for **it!

Before you Shuffle away ...

If you like what you see:

• Please take a quick moment to LIKE, COMMENT or SHARE with your network. It helps get the news out to others and keeps the dialogue going.
• LMK if you want to include anything in future Shuffles. Just email me at [email protected].

Have a great week and let me know how I can help!