Top AI Pain Points that Challenge UK-based Marketers in 2023

The AI Safety Summit is one of the most awaited events of the year. This is speculated to be very different from the traditional technology trade shows and conferences that we have attended so far. The talks at The AI Safety Summit in the UK will be heavily influenced by the recently issued Executive Order by the President of the US, Joe Biden yesterday. As we near the first anniversary of the ChatGPT-3 launch, the upcoming AI Safety Summit is the perfect opportunity for international governments, leading AI companies, investors, and research experts to discuss the safe development and use of frontier AI technology at a common platform. AI safety is a tricky topic, especially for countries that have yet to draft a legal framework for AI adoption and its applications in critical areas of public and national interest.

Universities Are Adopting Generative AI In Their Work

In 2023, we have witnessed a remarkable year of growth and adoption of AI-based technologies such as GPTs, LLMs, and cognitive intelligence. However, the pressing issues regarding data privacy and AI risks continue to impact civil society and general users who see AI falling into criminals as a major hazard in 2024. Yes, there are wider issues regarding AI development and its applications — but currently, safety is one topic that all major democracies of the world want to tackle head-on. This safety scenario surrounding the Frontier AI explains why Joe Biden’s EO and UK PM Rishi Sunak’s recent speech ahead of the AI Safety Summit are important events in the history of technology advancements in the Gen AI era. From oceans to space research, and everything in between, would be influenced by the decisions taken by these two superpowers in the coming months. With AI safety guidelines, it might just consolidate the position of the US and the UK as leaders in AI regulations and safety protocols. Could we see an NTBT-like for AI soon? Only the future will tell. For now, we understand that Elon Musk is also planning to attend the AI Safety Summit in the UK this week.

For now, the marketing team — the leading group that uses AI the most in the business world, has big hopes from the government. UK marketers, in particular, think that focusing on safety and trustworthiness can help them get better results from their current investments. We spoke to leading marketing leaders who lead their projects with AI’s assistance. In this article, we have mentioned their insights and their outlook toward Rishi Sunak’s speech on AI safety and what UK marketers could expect from the upcoming AI Safety Summit in the UK.

Why do Marketing Teams Face Challenges with AI?

UK Marketing leaders are among the foremost users of Artificial Intelligence technology.

Despite establishing a formidable grip on AI-based technologies, the UK marketing communities are facing immense challenges in this space. These challenges are holding back marketers from leveraging AI as a key differentiator in their competition. According to a survey by OLIVER, 47% of UK marketers are planning to set aside budgets for AI specifically. It is understood that financial backing in AI investments would provide the much-needed strength to marketers to get ahead in the competition. However, nearly two-thirds of the respondents feel they lack the expertise and leadership within their organization to utilize AI and ML capabilities strategically and effectively.

Heath Barlow, SVP of Revenue & GM for EMEA at SAP Emarsys, commented, “SAP Emarsys employs AI to empower retail marketers to anticipate shoppers’ next choices and engage them with relevant, in-the-moment content and offers – boosting personalization and allowing brands to focus on unlocking revenue. The rapid innovation we’ve seen in AI in the last year is exciting for marketers and businesses. Recent SAP Emarsys research found that 41% of UK shoppers believe AI is having a positive impact on their retail experiences. However, more than two-thirds (70%) claim to prefer bands that offer personalization – a common use case for AI in retail. The research suggests a conflict between consumer concerns about AI and their wanting to reap the benefits when shopping. There is a need here for retailers to educate customers, who say they value personalized content, custom recommendations, and speedy checkouts, but don’t always realize AI is behind these advancements.”

Heath added, “A value exchange is embraced by retailers like Gibson Brands to win that all-important true loyalty from customers. The personalized experiences that drive business growth and establish long-term customer loyalty as part of an omnichannel strategy, aren’t realistic without responsibly shared data. It is essential retailers strike a mutually beneficial balance for data sharing. Transparency here is critical; brands need to explain how data is being used, and the direct value it offers to consumers in terms of offering the personalization they want at every touchpoint – ultimately to get to know that shopper to win their loyalty through the best possible experiences.”

During the announcement of his company’s recent survey on AI, Simon Martin, the founder and CEO of OLIVER, said: “We’re seeing extraordinary results and positive reactions from brands to all the pilots and engagements that OLIVER is deploying with group Gen AI partner Pencil – but it’s understandable that there are parallel still-drag factors as organizations lean in fully to this game-changing technology. AI is disrupting the way all brands and their partners are working, and while it is challenging, disruption can also be hugely beneficial with expert support.”

Generative AI is a powerful application for marketing and advertising organizations. It’s very popular with these companies. However, it’s still very early to expect marketers to start testing Gen AI for their campaigns without any organizational support or leadership. This proves why we are seeing so many organizations trying to build their own GPT-like platforms using their first-party data or Co-Pilot applications provided by Microsoft or OpenAI. No organization can take the risk of being indicted for the perennial AI risks such as copyright, biases, and cybersecurity. It takes trillions of data points to build Large Language Models (LLMs). Every data point used in LLM training is a potential vector for risks that we know and don’t know about today. OLIVER’S report stated that 84% of respondents identified these safety risks as holding them back from a faster rollout of generative AI capabilities. Nearly three-quarters said they were being held back by the unclear regulatory aspects.

Why Is Machine Learning Becoming More Popular?

OLIVER’S recent report shows how UK marketing leaders are using AI, plan to use AI, and the challenges of working with the most disrupted technology ever developed in the new century.

Martin added, “Our clients’ concerns are an accurate mirror of what UK marketers across the board are facing. While they unanimously understand the potential benefits of AI, the bigger picture is that the speed of change with the technology is raising very real issues on whether they have the expertise to fully capitalize on it. Staying ahead of the AI curve will be invaluable in helping to embed it effectively into businesses’ marketing ecosystems.”

Crystal van Oosterom, AI Venture Partner at OpenOcean, said: “The rapid development of generative AI companies in 2023 has been a driving force in the enterprise automation market’s growth. However, despite OpenAI’s current dominance, we expect to see a degree of rebalancing in the sector. Generative AI has the potential to redefine the way businesses operate, and with the emergence of market-disruptive players, the competitive landscape is bound to change rapidly. Startup founders and early adopters stand to benefit the most by bringing innovative solutions and customized AI models to market at speed.”

Tom Henriksson, General Partner at OpenOcean said, “We want to help investors and founders understand the enterprise automation market and its various opportunities to a high degree of accuracy. Automation is a hugely dynamic market, with innovations that are revolutionizing the lives and livelihoods of people around the world. Whether it is faster customer service in retail, smoother appointment scheduling in healthcare, or tailored recommendations in cross-channel marketing campaigns, start-ups in this space are delivering a wide array of transformative solutions to drive better outcomes for businesses. We’re committed to a data-driven approach, and that’s why this year’s market map includes over 100 companies more than 2022’s. At OpenOcean, we’re looking for the green shoots of innovation: the most promising early-stage startups, poised to take advantage of the phase of growth the market finds itself in while optimizing their burn rate to withstand current tight market conditions.”

Mark Lubbock, Partner at EIP, added, to the discussion on Rishi Sunak’s speech. Mark said, “The Prime Minister’s enthusiasm for AI technology ahead of the first UK AI Safety Summit is positive, and I believe he is right to suggest we need to tackle the associated risks step by step while continuing to understand how it will impact society. There’s still a long way to go in understanding its impact and scope. He has gone as far as to suggest that there’s no rush to regulate, in contrast to the EU approach where the EU AI Act is seemingly being rushed through, notwithstanding the view that the legislators do not fully understand what they are trying to regulate and the risks of it potentially conflicting with a considerable amount of existing EU member states’ legislation, including in respect of copyright and GDPR!”

 “It will also be interesting to get more detail down the line about the world’s first AI Safety Institute that the Government is launching, particularly from an intellectual property and data law perspective. As companies are asked to give Government privileged access to their AI models, the extent to which they comply and the kinds of algorithms that end up being shared could have a significant impact on future AI regulation.”

We are covering this as a buildup to The AI Safety Summit.

[To share your insights with us, please write to sghosh@martechseries.com]

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