This is a conversation that keeps going and will continue for a while. AI is the new kid on the block, and has had a polarising effect on people. It's very similar to the reaction Tesla's Cybertruck got when it was announced. The Internet was flooded with nearly equal amounts of love and 'I don't get it' messages. It even trended in the meme world for a while.
AI, particularly Generative AI, is stoking a similar reaction. Businesses and marketers are no different. A recent Gartner poll found that roughly 55% of organizations are in pilot or production mode with Generative AI.
Then there is the other half that is sitting on the fence cautiously overseeing or simply overlooking it. AI is here to stay. Why the hesitation? Let's figure out…
Swaying perception of AI
For any product or service to be acceptable in the market, it requires a favourable perception in the target universe. The general public perception of AI technology, in this case, is significant for businesses to consider adopting them. In the 19th and 20th centuries, people opposed usage of machines for production. The later part of 20th century witnessed resitance to computing and the resultant digitization. And here we are, listening to a podcast on a smartphone connected to a car audio system or a bluetooth speaker, or through a smart speaker. AI is no different.
Biased knowledge has created space for misconceptions about AI that have pushed people between ignorance and suspicion. Listening to views shared on podcasts on AI in the recent past, decisions being made by AI is one of the prominent concerns has been voiced. Interestingly, we tend to forget how AI has been influencing our decisions for a while now.
Take the example of autocomplete feature in Google Search. An algorithm that utilizes machine learning to make suggestions based on your search keywords in real-time. It is estimated that nearly 75% of user search queries are affected by Google autosuggest. Marketers have been targeting and re-targeting consumers to push their products and services, and the users, have been clicking on the ads to accelerate their purchasing process. What technology do you think is behind it? The biased knowledged that persists amongst users has caused the perception of AI to sway between 'extremely bad' and 'extremely good'.
9 key areas of concern with AI
In the recent past, and the past 1 year in particular, my observations of such varying perceptions that have been shared over the Internet can be categorized into 9 key areas of concern that people have with AI.
Fear of job displacement tends to be amongst the prominent areas. Employees across functions, including marketing, fear that AI will render them obsolete as it can automate most of the tasks they perform. Today, there is a growing number of AI-based tools that can automate anything from data analysis to content creation.
Limited understanding of what AI is capable of doing and its limitations in current state. AI is an intricate and complex field. The associated terminologies can be difficult for most people.
AI heavily relies on data. Data privacy and security emerge as a major concern when it comes to AI utilization of the customer data for analysis and personalization.
There are many AI-based marketing tools that can bring improved efficiency, better customer experiences, and contribute to the top line. However, the ROI of onboarding AI-based tools is not clear-cut. Quantifying tangible benefits of AI can present a challenge for marketers when building a business case for adoption.
As is the case with any emerging technology, most of the marketers, and organizations, lack the required skills and systems to adopt AI. Plus, there is a shortage of finding the right talent.
From an operational point of view, integrating AI into existing marketing tools and platforms is not a linear path. As growing number of marketing tools and platforms are introducing AI-based features and functionalities, they may not support a third-party specialized AI system at all. In some cases, upgrading the existing marketing stack may also be required which may drive up the cost of acquisition and may impact the ROI which was already fuzzy.
Marketing is all about targeting and re-targeting people for creating or increasing brand awareness and generating leads. Regulatory norms for usage of AI in general, and marketing in particular, are still evolving. Ensuring that the AI tool fully complies to prevailing norms, and does not raise any concerns relating to discrimination, privacy violations, and manipulation is a significant challenge.
Depending upon which AI tool is being onboarded, the cost implications can be very high. Developing and deploying an in-house solution would require huge investments. Incorporating AI into marketing operations would require sizeable investments and can be hard for marketers to convince decision-makers to allocate funds, especially when the benefits are not immediately quantifiable.
Marketers are humans. And humans resist change. Implementing a new technology like AI would require significant shift in systems and processes. Learning and adapting to a new way of doing things can be challenging as it will need the marketing team to go through up-skilling or re-skilling.
What are the imperatives for businesses & marketers hesitant to adopt AI?
The pace at which AI, generative AI in particular, has taken the world by storm, it is expected to only grow stronger. AI has already deeply penetrated our day-to-day lives, and interestingly, we are not fully aware of it. The way we interact and transact with people through smartphones and social media apps today, we are already living in the AI age.
Transitioning to AI is inevitable, but it doesn't seem to be the Thanos we have made it out to be. Every new technology goes through three waves - play, break, and adopt. When ChatGPT became available to public a year ago, it became a new toy to play with. The Internet was flooded with content on this new cool kid in town. Very quickly, the naysayers came forward with content around how they managed to find flaws in the content generated by ChatGPT. They thought that they had 'broken' it, or at list found out cracks which showed that it was not as polished as it was made out to be. But the popularity of ChatGPT has grown from strength to strength. Low cost of acquisition and declining learning curve with availability of easily consumable materials and courses have increased its adoption rate.
In my view, there are 2 imperatives for businesses and marketers when it comes to AI adoption:
Learning - AI is complex. While interaction with AI-based tools and platforms will become more intuitive, the underlying complexity will only grow. This requires a learning mindset. Marketers will have to accept that they have to continuously learn more about AI and its emerging shape and form. Businesses will need to invest in up-skilling their teams to gain from the benefits AI has to offer. This doesn't mean that you have to become an AI engineer. The way we use interactive and UX-focused websites for user engagement and lead generation without being a web developer, we need to learn about AI the same way.
Change management - Successful adoption of any new technology requires informing, educating, and reinforcing its business needs and benefits to the teams. Businesses must develop and hone a system that encourages continuous learning and bringing it into practice. Using internal communication or enterprise social networking apps like Microsoft Viva Engage, Workplace by Meta or Salesforce Chatter for sharing information can be very effective. Only through continuous practice a newly learnt skill can become part of the DNA and true benefits of AI can be realised.
If you take a step back, the reason why businesses and marketers are hesitant to adopt AI appears more to be a human factor issue than anything else. Issues like quantifiable ROI, cost, and integration with systems are solvable business problems. The issues of ethics, change, learning, and up-skilling or re-skilling are bigger barriers. Then there is the well-founded fear of losing jobs. This is another human factor. People who will make the effort to develop the skill of using AI, will need not fear of being obsolete. People are unlikely to lose their job to AI. They are more likely to lose their job to people who will learn to use it. Moreover, the current skill shortage will go away if the businesses choose to enable the work environment that fosters continuous learning.
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