We all know that AI is now a steadfast tool with growing adoption rates for marketers. Such rapid innovation and increasing usage mean things can change quickly and there are lots of new revelations happening all of the time.
Here, we’re rounding up some of the most important, exciting and innovative updates from the past month regarding AI and its importance for or potential effects on the future of marketing.
A November 2024 Study from IDC and Microsoft Revealed the Proliferation of Generative AI
Generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Google Gemini are a couple of top examples of the tech — and some of the most popular. Marketers have been using these tools for at least a couple of years, with adoption growing steadily.
IDC’s 2024 AI opportunity study revealed some interesting Gen AI statistics relevant to the marketing world:
- Generative AI Adoption: Usage of generative AI has increased notably, with 75% of organizations reporting that they use it in 2024, up from 55% in 2023.
- Return on Investment (ROI): On average, companies are realizing a 3.7x ROI for every dollar invested in generative AI. Leading organizations are achieving even higher returns, with an average ROI of 10.3x.
- Deployment Timelines: AI deployments are becoming more efficient, with organizations implementing solutions in less than 8 months and realizing value within 13 months.
- Future Plans for AI Solutions: Within the next 24 months, a majority of organizations plan to move beyond pre-built AI solutions, aiming to develop advanced, customized or custom-built AI workloads. (AI frameworks, anyone?).
Statistics like these hint at a future where AI isn’t just a nice-to-have, but a necessity to streamline business, generate greater ROIs and solve even more complex operational problems. Whether you believe that’s ultimately a good or bad thing, it’s definitely a thing. As the landscape continues to develop, we’ll be keeping a close eye on any big revelations, general opinions and, of course, controversy.
Will AI adoption reach a plateau? Will it increase indefinitely until there’s no one left to adopt it? How will the ways businesses use Gen AI evolve as the technology gets better over time? Only time will tell for questions like these and we intend to continue delivering the answers as they become available.
The European Union Established Its Inaugural Guidelines for General Purpose AI
On November 14th, 2024, the EU published the first draft of the General-Purpose AI Code of Practice. This marks the conclusion of the first of four planned drafting rounds, which are planned through to April 2025.
The draft outlines guiding principles and objectives, focusing on transparency and adherence to copyright laws for AI model providers. For providers of advanced general-purpose AI models that could pose systemic risks, the Code proposes a taxonomy of these risks, along with assessment methodologies and mitigation strategies.
Upon the document’s eventual completion, the goal is to have it guide the development and deployment of trustworthy and safe general-purpose AI models.
An Expert Looked on the Dark Side of AI In Marketing (and Encouraged Others To Do the Same)
Lauren Labrecque, Professor and Area Coordinator: Director of Ph.D. Programs and Research at the University of Rhode Island spoke out about how the “dark side of AI in marketing is often ignored.” She published her study back in July but wrote an article about it for The Conversation in late November.
Here are some key takeaways from the study and the article:
- Only 33 of the 290 marketing journal articles Labrecque studied wrote about the ethical considerations for AI adoption.
- Transparency, misinformation and manipulation are top concerns.
- Consumers should lead with “healthy skepticism” about what they see from marketers now that more professionals are using generative AI to support their campaigns.
I couldn’t agree more that it’s important to examine all sides of something, especially AI where it has the potential to fundamentally change not just marketing, but our everyday lives. In the marketing world, though, humans have an important role to play when it comes to generative AI; it’s not just a set-it-and-forgot scenario. Similarly, the discussion of AI disclosures is equally contentious, but an important one to have.
When in doubt, be ethical, responsible and reasonable when using Gen AI.
OpenAI Released ChatGPT Search
OK, the public release of ChatGPT Search actually happened on October 31st, 2024, but I’m counting it in this roundup because of its significance and the fact that most people truly got to experiment with the feature throughout the month of November (me included!).
If you weren’t aware, here’s a brief refresher:
OpenAI’s new Search feature on ChatGPT claims to deliver fast and timely answers to more complex user questions. With the ability to search the web in real time, ChatGPT has access to more information than ever before. Ahead of the Search rollout, ChatGPT was limited to information contained in its most recent updates and datasets, but now, it can fetch things from all around the web, link back to the source, generate interactive maps and more.
But there was some controversy to cover here, too, which we discussed in our blog dedicated to this topic: ChatGPT Search: Cool Tool or Foolish Feature? Namely, some users are accusing ChatGPT of giving higher priority to paid partners of OpenAI. For the full scoop, check out our blog about it!
A Big Month for AI In Marketing and Beyond
November marked the beginning of some significant AI and Gen AI shifts, both at a technology and legislation level. Will the EU’s General-Purpose AI Code of Practice spur action from other nations to develop and expedite similar guidelines? How will folks feel about ChatGPT Search a month from now? Or, what new features will OpenAI introduce?
From here on out, these AI industry roundups will be a part of our monthly blog cadence, releasing on or around the end of each month. If you can’t bring yourself to keep up with all the craziness (I don’t blame you; there’s a lot, all the time), these entries aim to filter out the excess noise to bring you a handpicked helping of significant AI-in-marketing news, so check back each month and look for a headline with “roundup” in the title.
