Why AI should only ever be your ‘sous chef’

Performance Marketing: Ginger Pickle

Of course, it usually starts with the client asking: “I need to increase sales, how can I do that?”

And that is when we begin to work our magic.

We look at where they sit in the market, their messaging, what problem they solve, the kind of person they are selling to; all that research is vital. Then once we all have a good understanding of the brand, we can determine what their strategy might look like and what tactics will work for them.

That bespoke, professional service hasn’t changed and it will always be the foundation of our work here at Ginger Pickle. What has changed, however, is the technology available for use, and those tools can be both helpful and a danger.

Trust but verify

We sometimes use search engines and language learning models like ChatGPT to determine a client’s potential audience and how to reach them. It might also occasionally be used for highlighting problems, finding solutions and even creating draft proposals.

But a word of caution.

Some people think that they can just go to AI and ask it to do their marketing for them. And yes, it can do that (sort of), but there is a lot of risk. Because you have to understand how AI actually works, how it’s trained and why it can cause issues in terms of misinformation. In short, AI is often simply wrong. It can have ‘hallucinations’ as the tech companies (rather romantically) call it. And even more worryingly, because language learning models are then trained on that incorrect information, there’s an argument that over time they are going to get progressively worse.

So, if you want a marketing strategy that is going to be long-term sustainable and give you growth, you need to use real people; people who have experienced going through the various marketing processes and can therefore put together a solid plan built on solid research and then execute it.

The human touch

I think it’s really important to continually challenge yourself and improve your own knowledge, so if you do use AI as a support tool, you can also challenge whether it’s correct or not.

I’m always learning and my social algorithm is all about the marketing industry, so I can continue to understand the marketplace and see how it’s evolving. That is how we consistently get results for our clients. Through ongoing engagement with the industry, we can understand the constant changes and adapt strategies in order to get the best outcomes. And if something is not going well, our experience allows us to look at campaigns and make the necessary adjustments. It is fair to say that AI does not have the same appreciation of nuance!

I always say you should treat it like your sous chef, not your head chef. Yes, it can be of help, but you always need a real professional to take the lead and ensure the work is of a high standard.