Should AI be blamed for marketing pitfalls? Expert says not really

It’s unfair to blame AI for the mistake because it relies on humans to train it. 

Think of artificial intelligence (AI) as a three-month-old human, who is reliant on other humans to survive. This is the reason why you cannot use AI if you don’t want to think; rather, you must train it alongside humans, Kate Chernis, CEO and co-founder of Lately.AI, said.

Chernis pointed out that companies may be using AI to save money on manpower, but relying on it too much is not realistic.

“For people who are looking to save money, I get it, that’s great. But they want magic and magic hasn’t been invented yet,” she told the Singapore Business Review in an interview on the sidelines of HubSpot’s INBOUND 2023 in Boston, Massachusetts.

“[AI] is a misnomer. It doesn’t exist,” she said matter-of-factly. “Hollywood built it up in our minds as this thing that isn’t real. It has to only pull from data and patterns and reason, and the results that come out have to be examined by a human before they’re published because they’re not going to be perfect.”

It is also unfair to blame AI for marketing pitfalls as it only relies on human input.

“Because artificial intelligence relies on humans to train it so it’s not the AI that would make the mistake; it’s the humans that make the mistake,” said Chernis.

According to Lately.AI, AI content creation results in 84% less time spent writing and 98% sales conversion but these results will only happen when humans are there to evaluate the output.

Businesses and language

When asked about a successful example of using AI to improve business earnings, Chernis cited one practice of their Lately.AI, which can generate content in multiple languages even in Japanese.

Chernis also talked about how different nuances and casual messages should be incorporated into marketing campaigns instead of creating a generic output, especially when dealing with customers in other countries.

“What we’ve been seeing the last few years in the last decade is the more colloquial you are, the better you’ll be able to reach the people you want to reach, instead of having a boring brand talk to other people,” said Chernis.

Standing out as a good campaign with the use of localisation is Kentucky Fried Chicken. The fast food chain has employed a marketing strategy that diversifies and translates its food menus to match the country it serves.