Generative AI, which uses machine learning to generate new and unique output, has been on the rise in creative and marketing industries. This technology allows for the creation of personalised content, such as videos, images, and written copy, at scale, opening up new possibilities for the way businesses engage with their customers. For example, it can be used to generate product descriptions, generate artworks and even music, providing companies with a cost-effective way to drive creative campaigns. Additionally, generative AI can also be used in new product designs and help in researching for new product concepts. As the technology continues to improve, we can expect to see even more use cases for generative AI in the creative and marketing space.
And now this blog post really begins, because that first paragraph was entirely generated by the latest AI sensation ChatGPT. I asked OpenAI’s ChatGPT tool to write me an introductory paragraph on generative AI and use cases in creative and marketing settings. It took seconds to create the paragraph and gave me the option to ‘regenerate response’ and learn about the bits I do and don’t like about the way it composed the sentences. As it’s a contextual dialogue format, I can even casually ask it to include or not include certain things, or even add in a joke! So, how can you be sure that the rest of this article is written by a human… well, you’ll have to take my word for it as the lines between what can now be real or artificially generated are becoming more blurred by the day.
Appearance vs. Reality
Back in September 2022 the art world was in uproar as an AI-generated work won a US art fair prize. Behind the work was a real person of course – Jason M Allen – but the imagery constructed was entirely AI generated with Midjourney, taking textual input from Mr Allen and through various revisions/prompts, arriving at the image that Mr Allen eventually approved. Art generated in this way is naturally controversial as none of the art in the image was penned or painted by a person. But like a Pandora’s Box, there’s no stopping the world of AI-created art now and the implications and opportunities of that are enormous.
The AI creative market itself is a hotbed of tech start-ups, covering imagery, music, writing and much more. But tech giants like Microsoft are already taking note, with strong rumours that Office apps will soon have generative AI capabilities to rival other creative tools.
Below are just a few of the new tech companies beginning to dominate in these emerging markets, with more contenders entering the fray regularly.
ART
MUSIC
WRITING
But whatever the media, whatever the tool used, content creation is certainly entering a new era, one that has an application is almost any industry.
Embracing AI in your marketing efforts
Purists of all artforms may decry the use of AI in this way, but by pushing the boundaries of what’s possible and democratising creative output, it’s opening up more possibilities for more people. AI is the perfect assistant to taking creative things further and faster. Take creative concepting as an example. Where creatives would often rely on sourcing examples for inspiration and sketching out ideas on paper (or digitally), with generative AI art tools they can sidestep trying to find examples of ideas that might be in their head and use text inputs to start the concepting journey in seconds. Companies like Mattel and Heinz have already shown how they are embracing the possibilities of AI for their creative teams.
From writing blogs, social media, or longer form essays, to design concepts using art, video or music, generative AI will touch almost anything we see as a creative industry. The personalisation and convenience of using text-based inputs is perfect for marketers needing to work fast and eliminate early concepts, as much as advance other ideas.
Ask yourself how AI can take your creative into new areas and empower teams to be more adventurous… and no, in case you were wondering ChatGPT didn’t write this conclusion. To use generative AI to best effect, you still need a human!
