AI is the talk of the town these days, and depending on what side of the fence you sit on, it’s either the bell of the ball or the death knell for all our jobs - especially in the marketing-verse.
We tend to sit somewhere in the middle. Really, it’s not about the AI itself — it’s about the humans that use it and direct it. It’s about establishing good AI capability control in your organisation so that you can take advantage of the upsides and steer clear of the downsides. So, how do you do that?
Define clear objectives and boundaries
Before setting up AI within your systems, it is essential that you set specific needs that you hope to fill and goals you hope to achieve with the assistance of AI. At this stage, AI isn’t going to go and write you great, human-sounding copy, no matter how specific your prompts are. However, it can be extremely useful to pull helpful data from a sea of information when you develop a strategy, forecast or track results. For example, AI can generate and test advertisements aimed at specific target audiences, and with proper AI capability controls, marketers can gain the upper hand.
However, when it comes to AI in content production, you need to then set boundaries that ensure it is performing in the way you want it to. Add a layer of human oversight and determine where that sits in your content production processes. Ideally, before you publish any content generated with AI, ensure you do your due diligence:
- Fact-check and verify the accuracy of the content before hitting the publish button
- Ensure the content aligns with your positioning, brand voice and personas
- Seek stakeholder feedback to ensure the generated content aligns with your objectives
Monitor and review AI performance
As with any aspect of marketing, you should consistently monitor and review AI-assisted campaigns and strategies to ensure they are achieving the objectives you set out to accomplish. Do this early and often and you’ll be able to catch any issues before you can say they become serious problems.
These reviews should not be limited to only the performance of the AI-assisted campaign, but should also focus on whether the AI is acting fairly and ethically. Actively scrutinise the AI’s decisions for biases to ensure diversity and inclusivity in its outputs, and verify its compliance with your organisation’s ethical guidelines and regulatory standards.
Create a culture of ethical AI use and develop transparent policies
The key to good AI capability control is training and educating staff so they understand the tools they are using. Steps for ethical AI use can include:
- Develop an effective AI policy
- Invest in editorial guidelines that outline your rules about AI usage and make your use of the technology is clear to both employees and potential customers
- Review your company’s privacy policy to see how your use of AI will impact it
Consider hosting regular internal seminars and sending regular communications to keep staff up-to-date on how AI can be used in your organisation. Ultimately, staff should feel confident applying AI in situations that will benefit your organisation.
Embed AI explainability
For those who do not engage with it regularly, AI is the great mystery of our time. By making the use of the technology clear, marketing organisations can help build trust and accountability, both with existing and potential customers, as well as the public. AI explainability means making your decisions, usage and application of AI transparent and following the rules and boundaries you set for yourself. It should always be clear to everyone involved why AI is being used and how it works.
Establish accountability
Because the AI world is accelerating at such a rapid pace, a big part of capability control is ensuring that your brand or company has a human chain of command when it comes to decision-making. It is essential for employees to understand who they should turn to when something is not working as it should.
Other forms of AI accountability within companies should include:
- Checks and balances on all AI-related decision making
- Audits of the results of these decisions
- Third-party assessments of AI application
AI is here to stay
There is no denying AI is going to be a part of the future of marketing, and will probably have a very substantial role in it. If you review your use of the technology, be transparent about why and when you use it, and ensure there is accountability within your organisation, there is absolutely no reason that you shouldn’t capitalise on AI.
Streamlining content production and enabling creatives to focus on more value-driven work are among the many drawcards of AI marketing tools. But along with all the buzz surrounding these technologies comes questions and concerns of ethics. Watch our on-demand webinar to learn how to effectively and ethically use AI in marketing.
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