Coinciding with Valentine’s Day last year, the match-making service company, Bharat Matrimony(BM) introduced a perfect Valentine, Aditya Iyer. With his chiselled look and affable demeanour, Aditya stole the hearts of many matrimony prospects. Aditya’s Instagram following swelled to 10K in no time. But here comes the heartbreak. On Valentine’s Day, the company revealed that Aditya Iyer is not real but an AI creation. But by then Aditya had already achieved his objective (brand promotion). Though an old story, it could be a case study for MBA / Online MBA students reflecting the transformational shift of Generative AI(GenAI).

What is Generative AI?

Generative artificial intelligence (generative AI or GenAI) marks the creative face of Artificial Intelligence. It facilitates new ideas, content and visuals by realistically mimicking human intelligence (e.g. creating a write-up or even a poem using the ideas and vocabulary inputted to it). Sounds incredible? But this potential of GenAI makes it a wonder tech for businesses (especially marketing) and its popularity is in the rise.

According to Goldman Sachs, generative AI could drive a 7 per cent (or almost $7 trillion) increase in global gross domestic product (GDP)every year. The leading marketing data and analytics company, Kantar anticipates AI to be a $1.3 trillion market by 2034.

Use Cases

What endears GenAI to marketing is its creativity. Curricula of Regular and online courses for MBA highlight this. The innovative technology enables a marketer to offer the right offer at the right time for the right person in the right environment (e.g. a voice-modulated bot). The content reflects customer insights and delivers customer value.  

Harvard Business Review talks about 4 C’s of marketing GenAI –  Customization, Creativity, Connectivity and Cost of Cognition.

• Customization:  Customers prefer exclusivity and often support the brands that they identify themselves with due to their unique preferences and requirements. Generative AI brings this grail of personalization close to reality. E.g. VEGA a beauty care accessories brand utilises generative AI to understand consumer behaviour and requirements and creates personalized content for promotional campaigns. Spotify is experimenting with AI-driven voice translation in podcasts in which the original voice is retained but the language changes.
• Creativity: What is Generative AI without creativity? Creativity is believed to be the exclusive faculty of human brains. But the machines are now mimicking human intelligence and produce close-to-creative outputs. In the above example of Aditya Iyer, Generative AI tools like ChatGPT & Midjourney have together created a persona, which many believed real. Like a human, Aditya shared his interests, experiences, and deeper thoughts.
• Connectivity: Deep connectivity avenues are another upshot of GenAI. It facilitates more active role to the customer in the brand initiative. Every consumer can now be a designer, a storyteller, and an influencer. A case in point is Bigbasket’s grandma’s recipe contest.  Customers are actively involved in the brand narratives with an emotional connection with the grandmas. Winners were featured in brand promotions.
• Cost: Another significant advantage of GenAI is cost. AI can generate an ad copy in significantly less cost and time. So is the case with personalized initiatives like e-mail campaigns. 

The Flip Side

Language barriers: A widely discussed inadequacy of GenAI is language barriers in vernacular inputs (accuracy and relevance of words).

Wrong context: The confabulation gets extended to biased or contextually unsuitable content (e.g. gender identity).

Emotional Insensitivity: Another drawback is emotional insensitivity (e.g. content with religious overtones)

Intellectual Property Claims: The availability of copyright and other protection of AI-generated material is uncertain.

Wrapping Up

Technology like Generative AI is inevitable for businesses. By considering technology as an opportunity rather than threat to human capabilities, organizations can establish new competitive advantages. Regular and online MBA degree courses are emphasising the relevance of Generative AI in their study plans. 

Discussion Question

Do you consider technology a threat to human capabilities? Why?

Source Article

1. https://hbr.org/2023/12/a-practical-guide-for-marketers-who-want-to-use-genai
2. https://brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/marketing/generative-ai-is-changing-the-ways-brands-advertise
3. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/growth-marketing-and-sales/our-insights/how-generative-ai-can-boost-consumer-marketing