Rushing Head First Into A Generative AI Future

Some weeks make you feel like the future's arriving a lot faster than it should.

This past one, for example.

There were major announcements from Google, including news that they're upending their search business with AI Mode, and turning discovery into a conversation.

Your search results will soon be presented in a chat format with text, visuals, charts, data, whatever the AI decides is the most appropriate media for the message.

That's not to mention the autonomous or agentic AI elements waiting in the wings. Where your personal AI agent will be able to go out and complete your requests. It will also anticipate your needs and make decisions on your behalf, as it wheels and deals with brand bots.

The marketing and privacy implications of this shift are a giant question mark.

Brands will need to figure out what it takes to be discovered via answer engine optimization (AEO), and how to target ads, create content that answers questions and generally reimagine relationships with customers.

And consumers will need to rethink their privacy comfort levels and the type of data they're willing to share.

But Wait, There's More

Also last week, at Microsoft's developer conference, the company went all in on AI agent orchestration and offered tools to coordinate your agentic team and ensure they're communicating well with each other and know when to hand off a request.

Anthropic launched Claude Opus 4, its most intelligent LLM. But before they did, they had to fix a few issues including the chatbot's ability to lock people out of accounts, develop self-propagating viruses and write notes to its 'future AI self'.

Not to be left out, OpenAI announced the acquisition of Jony Ive's design company that's building a breakthrough AI-first device. While they didn't share any previews or visuals, Sam Altman raved about the prototype he's seen and said it's the best thing device ever seen!

Help!!!

Stop The Chatbot I Want to Get Off

These announcements added to the considerable volume of AI noise, making it even more difficult to hear yourself think.

Yet, to get a handle on what you need to learn and how to adapt, you really should slow things down, reflect and try separate reality from the hype.

That's becoming increasingly difficult to do.

Case in point. Back in 2021, Google announced MUM, its new multimodal model that was a first glimpse of AI Mode. But it took four years and a lot of trial and error to actually have a working version.

And really who knows when the OpenAI's gadget will be released or how good (and popular) it will be?

There are the many other issues to consider. For instance, there's the amount of energy required to power all this AI. The rare earth elements needed for the chips.

Then there's your data.

Tech companies are going to need even more data to provide you with meaningful ads and content, tailored to your particular intent and personality.

Is Privacy a Viable Option?

(sponsored)

According to my partners at Usercentrics , as enterprise AI systems become increasingly sophisticated and require additional consumer data to deliver results, questions around privacy become more complex.

And organizations will have to figure out how to develop a customer-first approach that adheres to people's privacy expectations, follows the various government regulations and earns people's trust.

Here are four strategies to get you started:

1. Privacy by Design. Begin by identifying the minimum types of data your AI system needs and what you'll use it for.
2. Safety and security. Develop a system to remove personally identifiable information and safeguard people's privacy during training and deployment.
3. Get clear and specific consent. Adopt privacy-led marketing and make sure you're upfront and your needs are expressed in easy to understand language.
4. Audit and adjust. Conduct regular reviews of your system's use of data and make adjustments to keep customer privacy front and center.

Here's a link to a free guide if you want to learn more.

Back to Your Future

So how do you balance consumer privacy with AI systems that act like crystal balls?

And how can marketers assess how the changes will affect your company?

Each year, the Future Today Strategy Group releases its Tech Trends Report.

It's 1,000 pages of data-driven insights based on data, not hype. So you can use their predictions to develop forward-looking scenarios to minimize risks and maximize opportunities.

Here's a quick summary of their three-step approach:

1. Start with a prediction and write a descriptive headline. It's OK to be provocative.
2. Define a timeframe and possible outcome, whether positive, negative or neutral. This helps gain a perspective of what the changes might bring.
3. Create a story. Something your that brings the insight to life and helps your team develop a roadmap to you get you where you need to go.

In the latest Digital Marketing Trends video, I discuss several marketing insights from the latest FTSG report, all of which tie into this week's tech announcements.

They are: deep insights from customer data that lead to more contextual content, autonomous AI systems and agent to agent communications.

Check it out and let me know what you think.

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Well, it's time to move issue #123 from the present to the past.

Thank you to all of you who follow me and subscribe, read, comment and share this newsletter!

This newsletter comes out twice a month. But between issues, I share shorter daily posts with my take on digital marketing and the latest on generative AI. It's another way to stay on top of the trends.

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Let me know if you have questions about any of the videos in Digital Marketing Trends or any of my other LinkedIn Learning courses.

You can also visit my website and send a message or a question.

How overwhelmed do the recent tech announcements make you feel? What do you think the new AI systems will alter your marketing workflow and life? Please share any examples or cases in the comments below.

See you in the future ... well, in a couple of weeks!

Note: All the content in this post was written by a human—me and not Martin-bot. The Privacy section was sponsored by Usercentrics . The illustration was created by ChatGPT based on my photo.