- Are the machines coming for us?
(eerie whirring)
Well, they're already here.
They've changed your life and they've changed mine
and they're going to keep changing our lives,
personal and professional for the foreseeable future.
What does this mean
for marketing folks like you and I in 2023?
Why should you care?
Well, to answer that, first we need to talk
about what AI is, how it works, and why it's here.
Here's a quick dictionary definition.
Artificial intelligence is a simulation
of human intelligence
in machines that are programmed to think
and learn like humans.
Involves the development of algorithms
and computer programs that can perform tasks
that typically require human intelligence
such as understanding natural language,
recognizing objects and images, and making decisions.
Now, here's the thing;
That wasn't a dictionary definition.
(people gasping)
Not a book in site, people.
I know you see the bookshelf back there,
wasn't from one of those.
That was from an open source platform that's taken the world
by storm right now.
Open AI's, ChatGPT.
I asked AI to define itself
and it gave a pretty good answer.
In fact, you can ask ChatGPT virtually anything
and it'll give you a strong answer immediately
and in any tone of voice and structure you want.
That's really impressive.
But if you got a slightly anxious tug
in the pit of your stomach, you're not alone.
AI technology has been aggressively accelerating upwards
for years.
2022 and 2023 have been the biggest leap so far
and you've already heard about open AI's ChatGPT.
Now, companies like Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud
and IBM Watson are all leveraging AI to
do incredible things.
There are things you've no doubt seen in your personal life.
Voice recognition, voice impersonation, predictive texts,
bots, web crawlers that can pluck information
from anywhere around the net.
While at the same time, companies are using AI to
do the heavy lifting when building huge applications.
For example, IBM Watson helps non-technical users scale
from quick prototypes to the large scale processing
of unstructured data use cases all
through a simple drag and drop interface.
It's amazing.
Seriously, the people that work on this; wizards.
All of these things signal a real change
in how we do things and who does them.
Projects and disciplines that were once inaccessible
to many are becoming more open than ever.
So yeah, a lot's changed and some
of it may seem pretty scary
that tug in your tummy isn't unjustified.
Let's get clear on the AI basics
so you can tell yourself where the opportunities lie and
if slash when the doom mongering might actually
be appropriate.
So what is AI?
The term was first coined by John McCarthy
in 1956 who simply defined AI as the science
and engineering of making intelligent machines.
In 1969, Shakey was the first purpose-built AI robot.
He could only really push boxes around, but it was a start,
and that's basically what I do in the gym.
So we're not too different anyway.
In 1997, Deep Blue defeated Grand Master Gary Kasparov
in a game of chess.
Then in 2002,
the world's first guided vacuum cleaner went on sale.
As you can see, AI is great at methodical logic-based tasks,
which is great for everyone unless you're one
of those people who actually enjoys vacuuming.
And now we're here.
AI has come on a huge amount
in a pretty short amount of time
and now the innovation is skyrocketing
in a way we haven't seen before.
All of this is possible because we've created
intelligent machines that can recognize human speech,
objects, can learn, plan for the future,
and solve problems like humans, like you and me.
AI mimics the neurons of a human brain capturing information
and passing it through a series
of layered neurons to create a specific action.
Right now, there are four main types of AI.
The most basic is reactive.
Like the friend who's had one too many drinks
on a Friday night,
this AI has no memory and doesn't plan ahead, whoopsy.
Instead, it purely reacts to stimulus
in the same way again and again.
It observes an acts.
This makes it perfect for specializing in one field.
Sounds simple
but this is the AI that defeated our friend Gary
back in '97.
Next is limited memory.
These machines capture previous data and use it to
inform future recommendations for future actions.
So if you need a good movie recommendation,
the AI will look at previous films you've watched
and recommend based on your activity.
If you have Spotify,
you know that your Discover Weekly isn't always
something that you want to discover weekly.
You know what I'm saying?
That's limited memory, my friends.
Theory of mind.
All right, now we're getting into movie territory
but this is coming.
Theory of mind is when a robot has the capacity to respond
to emotional cues from a human.
If you've seen iRobot,
you'll know what I'm talking about.
If you haven't, it's essentially robots manifesting
alongside humans to attend to their emotional needs.
Self-aware.
Okay, now we're in full-blown sci-fi territory,
think Skynet and the Terminator franchise
but hopefully less scary.
You may have heard of the singularity,
a machine that is super intelligent and sentient,
that's the closest to what we call consciousness.
None of us can be quite sure what'll happen when
these guys first turn up.
Those first two AI types are already at work in factories,
online, and in your home.
Reactive and limited AI are what we call weak AI.
They can imitate a human, but can only ever act
like a human.
Theory of mind and self-aware AI are strong AI.
They have genuine agency over their own minds
and can process information like a human can.
And I'm sure you're thinking to yourself, but Jamal,
what does this all actually mean for marketers?
I'm glad you asked 'cause great marketing
comes from a blend of creativity,
the right brain, and analytics, the left brain.
For a long time, humans had to run on both.
You know what I'm talking about
looking up duplicates in your leads list,
fixing typos everywhere, the list goes on.
Did you enjoy doing any of that?
Probably not.
It's the vacuuming and washing dishes
equivalent of being a marketer.
As we've seen, AI is brilliant at these repetitive,
mundane tasks.
It loves it.
That's why factories are using AI machines to carry
out the same tasks day in and day out.
They don't complain.
They don't get sick.
They just do.
Now, AI is freeing up marketers
and a lot of other business folks to focus
on decisions at the strategy level.
That means you can tackle tougher problems
without taking the time to do the dishes, so to speak.
It's also giving marketers access
to previously untapped information,
which can help you deliver more targeted
and smarter messaging.
Things like predictive analytics, clustering,
recommendation engines,
natural language processing, psychographics.
All of these tools are helping marketers be better
at their jobs and unleash their creativity more
effectively and consistently.
That's a win for you and for your customers.
So what's next?
Well, first, the bad news.
AI is leading to more jobs being lost than created.
This is becoming more true by the day.
Factory workers were the first to suffer
and professionals are beginning to feel the squeeze.
AI is brilliant at breaking
down complex tasks into tiny, repetitive tasks.
The likes of ChatGPT are starting to impinge
on creativity, copywriting, voice automation,
even filmmaking.
Now, a lot of this work is shaky at best, but
at the rate of improvement, that won't be the case for long.
That's why marketers remits are going to start to
change, exactly how remains to be seen.
But we're already seeing an evolution
in things like workforce management.
When assigned to a project, the AI analyzes where
automation is needed and where people are needed.
It then analyzes worker productivity
and hires and fires accordingly.
Yikes. There's also workflow optimization.
AI watches the most productive people work
and then learns to do it itself.
Essentially, people are teaching the machine how
to do their jobs.
Again, this leads to a bunch of people
probably being replaced by AI.
It's inescapable.
There are machines and programs
getting as good or better than humans.
So look, I won't sugarcoat it.
AI is profoundly changing the world that we live in.
It underpins how businesses
and customers interact every single day.
It's going to change how you communicate with people,
how you buy things, how you teach,
how you learn, how you travel.
The list goes on.
Well, that can feel intimidating
and the future is far from certain.
It's important to figure out
how we can use it to get the most out of our lives.
We're gonna be sharing a lot more
about the latest in AI and marketing trends.
So if you wanna stay up to date, hit that subscribe button.
Until next time, my friends.
- I can find this client info.
- Have you heard of HubSpot?
HubSpot is a CRM platform
so it shares its data across every application.
Every team can stay aligned.
No out sync spreadsheets or dueling databases.
HubSpot, grow better.
(upbeat music)