AI

Questions marketers need to answer before choosing a GenAI partner

Marketers should ask a series of questions about how they want to use AI before deciding on a partner. The answers will provide clarity needed to use AI effectively.

Photo: Adobe Stock

July 29, 2024 by Cindy Chen — Co-founder, FancyTech

As of the beginning of this year, more than 60% of marketers have used generative AI in their marketing initiatives, with more than 40% using the technology to create new content. And with new Generative AI tools and options springing up constantly those numbers are certain to keep climbing. A recent McKinsey report revealed Gen AI could add as much as $4.4 trillion in global productivity each year, with marketing and sales being one of four groups that together could benefit most from those gains.

Increasingly, brands are learning about what is possible when they go beyond using Large Language Models to generate text. Marketing departments are turning text into images and images into videos, all to extend their brand's reach and find new ways to resonate with consumers.

The gulf that exists

But for many companies, there is still a gulf between interest and action. Partnering with the right AI company to create video from text or still images is challenging for many brands because the possible partnering options are proliferating quickly. The choices range from household names like Shopify and Amazon to bootstrapped startups that weren't even on the map six months ago.

There is a misconception among some marketers that Gen AI is something they can set and forget, or that AI will take all the work of marketing campaigns off their plates. But with the varied marketing goals that businesses have, and wildly different AI outputs coming from a large and growing number of AI partners, marketers should instead see it as an active process.

And for many, the process begins with finding the right partner. Marketers increasingly want to use Gen AI, and now is the time to do it because it can help them connect to customers in new ways and push the boundaries of brand identity.

Questions to answer

Marketers should ask themselves a series of questions about how they want to use AI before deciding on a partner.

The following are several that will help them get the clarity they need to partner for the future and use AI effectively:

What can AI achieve? Clearly defining your business goal is the critical first step in understanding what you can accomplish with AI – and who can help you make it happen. Many marketers simply want to see what's possible and experiment with different concepts. Some want to use AI simply because others are using it, and they do not want to be left behind. If this sounds like you, take heed: You are not ready yet for a major AI deployment, so conserve budget by finding a less expensive partner for this experimental phase.

What's your tolerance for inconsistency? Some businesses have multiple product lines, each with its own brand identity. When rolling out GenAI campaigns, how important is it that every product the company produces gets the AI treatment? This is an important question because only some companies that generate AI images and videos can offer consistency. Other AI companies are simply not outfitted for it, and their output will be uneven. If it is important to your business that AI campaigns include a range of different products, this should influence your choice of a partner.

Is your team ready for a new process and workflow? There is a lot of variation when it comes to how potential AI partners create campaigns. Some AI programs are so complex that a business needs a trained person in-house to use the necessary tools. Other AI companies ask little or nothing of their users and customers, performing all of the necessary steps to create new content as a part of their service. From the start of a campaign until the end, where does work by your team end and the work of AI begin? It's important to understand what your company can handle with its current team and what it cannot. To understand this, pilot testing various technologies is a useful step.

In assessing the quality of GenAI output, does the product shine through? AI-generated text, images and video all have the "wow factor." These things are new and exciting, and for many marketers they were undreamed of just a few short years ago. But that wow factor is something that fades with time. What marketers should really be looking at is how Gen AI portrays their brand, whatever channel the campaign is designed for. Are the important attributes of the product coming through? Is the product well-defined and well-represented when new content is generated? This might sound like a no-brainer, but it's a question marketers need to keep top-of-mind at every stage of the process.

Finding the right partner means finding the company that can put your product in the best possible light, and do this consistently across the various channels where brands interact with their customers.

About Cindy Chen

---

Cindy Chen is the Co-founder of FancyTech, where she leads global brand partnerships. A seasoned professional in the e-commerce and fashion industries, Cindy honed her operational and technology industry experiences at Alibaba and Moda Operandi. At Alibaba, she led major promotional campaigns such as Singles' Day, blending technology with traditional marketing to drive sales. At Moda Operandi, she ensured a seamless user experience through creating email campaign strategies and site content management.

Connect with Cindy: