AI Archives - TMW Business

14/11/2023 — Comments are off for this post.

Humans vs. Robots: How B2B brands can bring AI into their day-to-day

The second instalment of our ‘Humans vs. Robots’ event series revealed one clear reality - organisations are on their way to establishing generative AI within their day-to-day work.

And is it any wonder? Generative AI has accelerated far beyond the hype we discussed in our first event. We’ve all heard the claims - it helps you create more great stuff with the same resources, and can even improve the quality of your work - if only by enabling people to focus on the areas where human ingenuity brings the greatest value.

But if the thought of everyone racing ahead fills you with FOMO or anxiety, you are not alone.

One thing that has remained true is the uncertainty B2B brands are feeling about how best to proceed. Though most are motivated and willing, burning questions remain on the practicalities. Where should you start? How far can you go? How worried should you be about IP, legal implications, or bias? Should we expect marketing budgets to fall?

At our recent ‘Humans vs. Robots: The Alliance’ event, we asked an expert panel to share their practical examples of where AI is being put to work in B2B. Deftly moderated by veteran tech journalist Martin Veitch, we were proud to host Leila Hajaj, Executive Communications at Google DeepMind; Karen Quinn, Senior Director of Brand and Corporate Communications at Finastra; Liza Hicks, ex-IBM Social and Content Lead; and Unlimited Group’s own Technical Director, Tom Wilks on the panel.

Here are five of their top tips for getting started with GenAI:

Start Experimenting, and Fail Fast

“It’s like driving into an empty car park. You think, ‘hey, I can park anywhere’, and the choices are overwhelming. That’s what it feels like when you start using generative AI. The hardest part is often making that first choice,” said Tom Wilks.

Narrowing down the possibilities for AI implementation is the first step, but it’s where many B2B professionals admit to being blindsided. It’s also, according to our panellists, one of the more satisfying challenges to address.

“Block 45 mins in your calendars,” Liza Hicks suggested, “Think about what is taking up your time, and identify the tasks you don’t enjoy doing. That’s where AI can help.”

Tom Wilks agreed. “Start small,” he said, “with quick wins, things that are really competitive.”

That’s the business angle - but there’s a real human benefit to turning AI tools towards your least favourite tasks - and this has great potential to make your working life more joyful. “There’s a lot of people that still have this fear that AI is going to take their jobs - but in fact, it will just take their tasks,” Karen Quinn said. “Embrace it. See what joy it can bring to your day.”

Getting stuck in is also the best way to identify the places AI will have the biggest impact on your working life - whether that’s by taking over the tasks you dislike, or increasing overall efficiencies. It helps to be very intentional, Leila Hajaj advised. “Think about the tasks you want AI to do, and break them down into specific component parts. It’s about getting comfortable with experimentation, as well. You’re not going to get it right the first time - you’re going to need a ‘fail fast’ mentality.”

Work On AI Literacy

Once you start identifying use cases for generative AI, you’ll need to begin the next stage - getting it to do exactly what you want. If implemented correctly, AI can get you “70% of the way” with certain tasks, Liza Hicks said. That leaves a solid 30% still in your hands.

The more AI literate you are, the more you can influence those percentages - but you can’t assume an AI output is 100% accurate. Human oversight is vital, and will become increasingly so as you start implementing AI into your processes - especially with brand reputation on the line.

“There are inherent issues, especially surrounding things like DEI, within generative AI,” Leila Hajaj warned. “It’s a tool. Our success depends on how well we wield the tool. That’s why, in the future, everyone is going to want AI literate people in the workforce. You wouldn’t hire someone who refused to use the internet.”

Panellists spoke about how their companies were approaching the issue of AI literacy. Attendees heard how some, like Finastra, had implemented dedicated training time and even organised AI expos, while others were encouraging employees to experiment by taking a gamification approach to AI use.

“It’s not a tech skill, it’s a life skill,” Karen Quinn said. “We tell people - even if you don’t use it here, you’ll need it eventually. It’s not going away.”

Think About (and Implement) AI Policies - Now

“A lot of data is at play here. Get in early and set your policies.”

That was Leila Hajaj’s advice for B2B businesses. She continued, “We’re at this really interesting inflection point where AI is not particularly regulated - but this is coming. There are going to be more and more guardrails put in place about how AI is used in a wider society - it’s imminent, and businesses are going to follow suit and bring up their own AI charters.”

It’s a belief Karen Quinn shared. “For us, it’s about tempering enthusiasm in some areas, and encouraging it in others.” Exploration is good - but doing so safely is paramount. “We’re looking at Shutterstock AI and Adobe AI, so the ones that have commercial licensing in place, in order to protect against some of these regulatory changes. Otherwise you're potentially opening yourself and your organisation's reputation up to something that could harm you in the future,” she said. “It pays to be a bit cautious.”

And if that sounds off-putting, Liza Hicks was there to remind us that it’s not so dissimilar to the ways of working we’re already familiar with within the B2B space. “We’re used to working within frameworks in our jobs. This is really no different.”

Prepare To Spend (At Least a Little)

When ChatGPT first hit the web - and the public consciousness - it was the price tag which caused some of the biggest shockwaves: it was free.

Of course, in the time since, AI tools have been launching from every direction, and many of them come with a considerable charge. So, with cyber security and data safety on the line, how much should B2B businesses be expecting to spend?

“It's important to maintain a clear view of costs,” Karen Quinn said. “Computationally, if your engineers are using generative AI, using virtual environments that can be scaled according to the task and size of the model is one way to manage costs."

This kind of reactive approach to the business need is one Liza Hicks also recommended. She shared a process of “looking first at specific tools, and seeing what extra abilities they can offer you.” Then, only after CIOs can confirm whether these abilities don’t already exist within previous tools, should you make the purchase. “It’s about that business case for added impact.”

But that financial impact may not be immediately visible, Tom Wilks cautioned. The immediate business case in the short-term is more about the time that AI can help you to reclaim. “It won’t always be financially tangible right away - instead, you’ll see benefits like more delivery, higher-quality execution, and more innovative thinking over a period of six, nine, twelve months.”

And Leila Hajaj went one step further. “It’s a red herring to focus on how AI can drive ROI alone,” she said. Instead, think about how you can repurpose the time saved by AI tools into something really exceptional. “In the long term, it’s going to help you deliver bigger, more exciting, more creative programmes. The value will be in the long term, and what you can produce, not what you can save in the short term.”

Think About What You Actually Need - and Get Tailored Tools

The ‘buy versus build’ debate is collecting momentum as larger brands begin experimenting with generative AI, and more and more of them, (like Amazon), are announcing intentions to develop their own LLMs.

But Leila Hajaj cautioned that this shouldn’t be the route all businesses take. In fact, she said, you shouldn’t even be worried about buying into a large AI platform unless your business is sufficiently large enough to get use from it. “When you’re a big business, platforms as a service integrate easily. But these are costly. So think - what do you really need?”

She continued, “If you have a niche use case, just get a small, specific tool.” That’s why experimenting at first is so important - because you’ll only know what your specific needs are when you’ve given yourself an opportunity to explore potential use cases are within your day-to-day working life.

The kind of content you need to produce should also influence the tools you choose. Some tools will have language models more suited to your end-goal than others - and so it’s worth experimenting to see which is better at addressing your specific challenge.

Don’t Lose The Human Element

One thing is clear: there is no battling against the robots. “Don’t fear AI. Don’t be afraid to dip your toe in the water and see where it can take you,” said Leila Hajaj. “It’s not a question of if, but of when you’ll implement AI.” In other words - avoid starting now and you’re simply risking falling behind.

Even for the risk-averse, there’s no reason for concern - humans are still going to play a vital role in an AI-powered future. Just as our panellists predict that humans are going to grow to depend on AI tools, the AI tools in question are just as reliant on the people using them to produce good work. “Much like an understudy, they’re there to make you better,” said Karen Quinn.

And Liza Hicks agreed, “AI can’t uncover the individuals who will bring brands to life. That’s up to us.” AI can’t come up with unique angles or compelling stories, even if it can help you craft the way you tell them. Getting the best results from the tools requires human input. Whether through prompt engineering, or quality control and fact-checking - generative AI is not perfect, and neither can it add that extra-special human touch.

Towards the end of the session, one audience member queried how much longer we will have to babysit AI tools with human moderation and supervision. The response from the panel was almost unanimous: forever. Liza Hicks explained how, although AI is adaptable, an algorithm can’t (yet!) pick up on a cultural moment. That means it will potentially miss out on creative opportunities, and issues of bias will likely remain for as long as the data AI draws from is itself imperfect. “We should never take our eye off the ball,” agreed Leila Hajaj.

“Until AI tools are able to purchase and check other AI tools, there will be space for the human element,” said Tom Wilks.

So, at least until then, let’s keep working together - in an alliance that promises to revolutionise the way B2B professionals work.

Interested in hearing more? Join our ‘Humans vs. Robots’ LinkedIn community, created to bring like-minded B2B professionals together, to learn, share and progress with GenAI. It is an open forum to support us all in putting AI into practice. Please follow the group at this link, and we’ll see you there.

Tags: AI, B2B, Content, Generative AI, Unlimited Group

26/07/2023 — Comments are off for this post.

Bigger and better – How AI is changing our design possibilities

There’s no doubt that the most important element of Unlimited B2B is well-thought-out, creative output. For many years, we’ve developed and refined processes to produce the best results, while celebrating the distinctly human trait of creativity.

However, with the accelerated rise of AI, it’s time for this process to change. Now, new tools and approaches are becoming available all the time. And while they certainly won’t replace human creativity any time soon, they can certainly be beneficial in delivering better results, faster than ever before.

One tool we’ve been getting familiar with recently is Runway. This AI-powered creativity tool is helping to streamline many elements, so our designers have more time to make refinements and perfect their work. It’s already gained significant acclaim for its role in the creation of Everything Everywhere All at Once and, frankly, if it’s good enough for an Oscar Best Picture, it’s good enough for us too.
So, what are we using it for?

Time saving

Instant green screens, rapid image adjustment, even quick custom animations from static imagery. Runway is helping our creative team to build a solid base for assets so much faster. Using Runway almost feels like using a custom piece of flatpack furniture. You have your basis; you just need to put it together and make it as great as possible. You don’t have to carve all the pieces out yourself. That saves us time, money and genuinely leads to better overall results.

Concepting

Creating a range of interesting and varied concepts is one of our favourite things to do. With Runway, we can create more outrageous, exciting, visually different and challenging concept imagery than ever before. And we can do it in half the time.

Whether creating visuals from text, converting imagery to a different art style, or making simple refinements, Runway allows us to create concepts that capture imagination in a fraction of the time. And while these creations might not be refined enough for a finished product, they get the message across to clients quickly and efficiently, while also enabling new possibilities for our design team.

Pushing boundaries

Some design techniques simply aren’t possible within constrained budgets, or limited time. That was true, but it’s now being challenged by AI tools like Runway. Now, previously cost-prohibitive techniques are becoming available for some of our clients, while the upper limits of what’s possible are also on the move. That’s simply down to the time-saving nature of Runway, combined with the features that encourage our designers to think differently. You can try different art styles and mediums in a fraction of the time it’d otherwise take to develop alternatives. That gives us more options, and our clients better results.

Fun

When you’re working hard, it can be easy to forget that the core of good creativity is often having some fun. Runway has proven to be a great way for our designers to cut loose and try something a bit strange. For instance, they could use it to imagine Kermit the Frog in renaissance paintings, or turn their colleagues into claymation creations, all from their desks, without days of extreme effort. That’s entertaining, it develops new skills and helps with creative thinking. We enjoy the results, and so do they.

What’s next?

It feels like we’re on the cusp of something very exciting with AI. It’s enabling new possibilities and evolving at an incredible rate. To be at the cutting-edge of creative design, you need to embrace that and make the most of it. Which is why we’ll continue to do exactly that. I can’t wait to see what the future has in store.

Tags: AI, B2B, Content, Creative, Design, Marketing, Runway, Studio

17/07/2023 — Comments are off for this post.

Humans vs. Robots: 5 key takeaways from the Unlimited B2B AI content event

An overwhelming show of hands closed out our AI event. Host Martin Veitch had asked the room of assembled B2B marketers to raise them if they had started to introduce generative AI tools at work. When he asked the opposite - if anyone was planning on steering clear - all hands remained in laps.

Clearly, AI is more than just a news story. Unlike the Metaverse, tech’s last big ‘disruptor’, AI is actually in use, now, by real people doing real work. Its adoption is only going to accelerate, but brands aren’t uniformly confident about how to proceed.

As more AI tools are launched, and campaigns like WWF’s AI-generated Future of Nature make headlines, B2B brands are left wondering what they should be doing, what they need to know, and what pitfalls they need to avoid.

Unlimited B2B hosted an event to discuss just that. Our panel was composed of UNLIMITED’s technical director Tom Wilks, the antagonist speaking on behalf of the robots, while neuroscientist Dr Cristina de Balanzo from the Human Understanding Lab argued for the ongoing benefits of the human touch. They were joined by Susi O’Neill from Kaspersky, and Cristina Tudorascu from Canon Europe, in a panel moderated by acclaimed tech journalist Martin Veitch.

The fast-paced discussion lasted for an hour and a half, and generated lively interactions from the gathered B2B professionals. For those who couldn’t make it, or those who want to reminisce, here are five of the key takeaways:

Brands Have Started Experimenting

Along with contributions from several attendees on the floor - who are already using SEO-driven content for websites, and adopting tools like Copilot for Microsoft Office 365 - we heard from panellists about the progress they’ve made so far in implementing AI tools.

“When it comes to content creation at Canon Europe, we have already started to incorporate AI technology as part of our content journey,” said Cristina Tudorascu. She spoke about how the company has introduced both a translation AI tool, and a voice-to-text generator to capture insights from SMEs in the business.

Neither, she pointed out, are perfect. “The system is still struggling with some elements that are quite important for us - like people’s names, product names - and there is a little bit of difficulty around different accents.”

These initial struggles aren’t putting them off from expanding their AI toolkit, though.“We understand that this is only a little bit of AI technology that we’re currently using, but this is the first step - and we’re looking forward to understanding even more, and making these tools work for us even better.”

The Compliance Question is Looming

One term in particular seemed to haunt the discussion: compliance. Never mind what AI can do - how useful is it? What can brands actually, legally, use it for? How does copyright work? What do lawsuits like those being waged by Getty Images against Stability AI, and Sarah Silverman against OpenAI mean for the use of AI in branded materials? Is there any such thing as brand safety with generation AI?

“Technology is moving much faster than regulation,” said Susi O’Neill. “It’s a totally grey area.”

Brands have to balance the potential risk against the possible reward. She went on to add that, “right now, if you’re using generative AI, even if you’re taking those images and manipulating them, changing them, you don’t own the copyright on that. So it’s about where you are on your journey.”

And this ‘risk versus reward’ debate looks very different for businesses of different sizes - especially given the limitations of AI creativity. “I don’t want to feed out a content mine of a trillion different formulaic pieces of information that have already been covered. For me, generative AI isn’t going to generate anything new that’s worthy of an award.”

“If you need to scale, and you don’t have very much legal risk - say you’re a start-up, or you work with very niche audiences - maybe it’s fine to go ahead. But if you’re a big corporate, you’re taking on a lot of legal risks. Now is maybe not the right time.”

Collaboration is Key

Good news for creatives - most attendees were in agreement that while AI is likely to be useful for undertaking menial tasks (like transcribing event recordings, for example), it can’t generate truly creative ideas. At least - not yet.

What it does have is “66 billion different data points, able to be retrieved within seconds.” Tom Wilks pointed out how AI “can democratise access to technology. You don’t have to figure out the best way to search any more, you type the question however you want it - and you’ll still get the information back.”

Finding the right question, or prompt, is likely to become an incredibly valuable skill, and one developed entirely in response to the rise of AI tools: prompt engineering. Dr Cristina de Balanzo spoke about the importance of human insight to this role, and explained how “the power of context will massively influence decision-making.” The context within which a question is asked is vital to getting the correct answer. This, she explained, is something AI tools - which function “more like a two-and-a-half year old” - don’t have.

What they can do, however, is provide a starting point. Susi O’Neill explained, “If you’re a business and you can’t hire the best talent, say you don’t have the best budgets, can you use prompt engineering to get to certain styles with the right kind of training? Yes - but you still need that human edge. You still need those senior writers and creatives to twist things and say ‘that word isn’t quite right’, or ‘that doesn’t sit well in the advert’, ‘that works in one language, but in another is not quite edgy enough’.”

“It’s about using the tools that are out there when we have gaps in resourcing or can’t hire the best people to get us a bit further along.” If that thought still fills you with dread - you’re not alone. Our resistance to fully embracing AI isn’t particularly unexpected, according to Dr Cristina de Balanzo. “Human beings are very resistant to change, because it’s physiologically painful - but if machines can do the jobs that we don’t want to do, they can make life better,” she explained.

Beware the ‘Brain Drain’

Working together with AI to check its work and build on its foundations seemed a popular approach amongst attendees, who largely agreed that AI could be put to good use in creating first-draft content, or providing a starting point for a human to then adapt, edit and improve.

But Susi O’Neill warned that, if we allow AI to take the position of entry-level creatives, the industry could soon find itself with a lot of high-level workers and nobody rising up to replace them.

She explained, “You need junior writers to learn from the seniors, and be able to build up their craft. When I see some of the first passes of ChatGPT, it reminds me of the junior writers I’ve worked with. It’s no worse - but it’s also no better. We still need people to come into our industries who are going to learn crafts and learn how to improve. But potentially, some of those roles are the ones which may be made redundant.”

AI is Only Young

Given the vast impact AI has already had on the market, you might be forgiven for forgetting that it’s still a young technology. Every day, new tools are released, and those that exist become smarter and smarter.

According to Tom Wilks, we haven’t even started to touch on the full range of AI’s capabilities. Soon, he said, AI will even learn to mimic human creativity - which he was confident will happen “probably quicker than most people expect it to. In some creative mediums, we’re already pretty close to being there.”

“The scale and the scope of what we are on the cusp of being able to achieve is unlike anything we’ve been able to see before,” he said. “We have to be open to the point that we may not be the top intelligence on the planet in some of these areas for much longer.”

One thing that all of the experts could agree on was the fact that AI is here to stay - and it’s us humans who’ll have to adapt to deal with it. But whether that’s by creating and implementing robust data protection and copyright policies, or via the creation of entirely new roles (such as prompt engineering), the road to embracing AI will be far from smooth and straightforward.

And it’s only just begun. Martin kicked off our session by reminding attendees that ChatGPT has only been live since November 2022. In just shy of eight months, it has already upended the way many B2B brands think about content creation.

What developments could the next eight months see?

To derive the most value from an AI-powered future, B2B brands must establish clear guidelines for when, and how, to use AI tools - and when to revert back to the human element.

Watch out for our event recording, coming soon!

Tags: AI, B2B, Content, Generative AI, Human Understanding Lab, Human vs Robots, Technology

23/01/2023 — No Comments

Copywriter vs The Machine

What AI writing means for marketing

By now, you’ve probably heard about some of the amazing new AI chatbots popping up across the internet. As a result, plenty of headlines have emerged, claiming this AI is the beginning of the end for copywriters, paralegals and more.

As a copywriter myself, you might assume that I’d view tools like ChatGPT as the metal devil, an insidious tool here to tear my job away from me. However, let’s be realistic. While AI writing has come a long way in a short space of time, in my opinion, we’re still a long way from it being able to do everything as well as a human can.

So, where does AI shine, and where does it struggle in comparison to humans?

How can businesses make the best use of it?

Let’s answer that question in a way the machines of the future will understand. A head-to-head versus match. Two will enter, one will leave.

Creative concepts

As far as copywriting goes, concepts and new ideas are the main event. From short overarching headlines to brand tone of voice, this is the area where we primarily earn our keep.

And it’s a strong start for the humans. While AI like ChatGPT has proven itself capable of generating certain options from an uploaded brief, it doesn’t have the lateral thinking or creativity to quite make the grade, just yet. Think I’m alone in this opinion? Just ask Nick Cave.

Winner: Human

Asset development

The initial concept has been approved, now it’s time to turn that idea into social posts, eBooks, video scripts and more. Let the hard work begin.

There are two types of humans to consider when evaluating this section; the ones who worked on the initial concept, and the ones who didn’t.

If a human has worked on the initial creative concept, they’ll be in a great position to get going. They’ll already be familiar with the idea, and they’ll be able to quickly produce assets that all share the same tone and overarching purpose.

All of this can be true for a human who hasn’t worked on the initial concept, it just might take a little longer to get things sounding consistent.

So, what about AI?

ChatGPT has proven itself to be a capable asset developer. However, it’s worth remembering that these assets will need to be, at the very least, checked by humans. More likely, they’ll need to be edited to ensure they do what they’re supposed to.

Draw

Proofreading

We all make mistakes. We also become so familiar with our own work, it’s sometimes hard to see them. That’s why proofreading is so important. It allows people to spot errors and inconsistencies that might otherwise be missed. The problem is humans get distracted. That means things get missed, and errors slip through the net. On the upside, humans can use lateral thinking and varying interpretations to make suggestions for improvement, rather than simple error identification. That’s before you take their knowledge of brand, client preferences and previous work into account.

So, how does AI get on here? Well, there should be fewer typos off the bat. However, there could still be a few bits of weirdness that need to be dealt with. Maybe a phrase that’s a little awkward, or a sentence that doesn’t work very well.

But in general, ChatGPT excels here. It can spot errors in everything from computer code to prose. That, in turn, makes lives significantly easier for the humans working with it.

Winner: AI

The conclusion?

It probably comes as no surprise to you when I say that no, copywriting is not dead.

ChatGPT has grabbed a lot of headlines recently and there’s no denying it’s an astonishingly capable tool, but at the moment, it’s more of an assistant to copywriters than our replacement.

Think of it this way. Autopilot is a massively capable and reliable tool that helps planes fly exactly where they need to. It doesn’t make mistakes and it doesn’t get tired. But would you get on a plane that didn’t have a pilot?

Copywriting obviously doesn’t carry the same risks. However, your business’ reputation is on the line.

Would you really put out content AI had produced without at least checking it first?

Would you trust it to make decisions about how your business looks to the world, or how you present yourself?

In most cases, the answer is no. And while this might change in the future, for now, human intuition is still #1 for most people. And in a profession as subjective as copywriting, intuition is everything.

Sorry ChatGPT. You’re a brilliant assistant that will make lives easier, but until you go full Skynet and start the nuclear apocalypse, the writer is in charge.

Tags: AI, ChatGPT, Copywriting