Stop Serving Dogfood, Invest Strategically In Artificial Intelligence

After years of pragmatic denial of the need to invest in AI, tools like ChatGPT seem to have finally proven the value of AI to high-level execs around the world. The result is a message heard in every board room over the last six months—“We need this now!” The results have varied from astounding to lackluster, with the majority categorized as the latter.

The widespread frenzy to implement Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) reminds me of times when news stations jump on the same story with blind passion because the story is trending on social media and they don’t want to be last to report. What ends up happening is a snowball of false information, a distraction from what needs attention, and a loss of credibility.

While it’s tempting to jump on the newest, shiniest trend with blind passion, this isn’t always what’s best for your business. I recently spoke to the team at marketing and sales automation provider ActiveCampaign, who is just starting to implement generative AI into their product. While they were not the first to market with some of the work they’re doing, they’re doing it in a way that serves their business model and, most importantly, their customers.

How ActiveCampaign Is Doing It Differently

Rather than rush to the prompt screen, ActiveCampaign decided to watch the market and identify responsible uses of GAI that also works well for their business. What some may say has them behind, I say gives them an advantage. By sitting back and watching the market ActiveCampaign had the time to see the gaps and limitations in the market.

Based on what they saw, ActiveCampaign understood that content generation alone is helpful but rather gimmicky, and that the novelty wears off quickly. What they wanted to do is build a tool that helps people think with the machines, not get pushed out of work because the machine can “do it all.” Their solution allows users to iterate on their the system’s output and build their brand with standards, going beyond just first-pass copywriting.

Most other tools ask for a series of inputs and then provide one-time options based on those inputs, with little to no opportunity to provide feedback on the copy. If you want something different you have to shake the Magic 8 Ball again and hope it gets closer to your desired outcome. With ActiveCampaign’s AI Assistant users can generate three options to choose from (similar to Google Bard, but embedded in their platform) and further refine with specific feedback until they get the version that best suits the needs of their campaign.

Now in its email designer, this content system isn’t world-changing but it’s a step towards a future state I expect other companies to find. That being said, the company plans to make this technology available in 1:1 emails, SMS, landing pages, and forms, all within their platform so that users don’t have to leave to work with external tools like ChatGPT and Bard to iterate.

The power of AI combined with ActiveCampaign’s robust measurement and experimentation capabilities means that marketers can quickly build and test content variants for tone, structure and intent against different segments and lists, then refine their marketing strategy based on the outcomes.

When I was talking to ActiveCampaign’s team recently, they shared that eventually, their customers will be able to work with their assistant to autogenerate promotions offering a specific discount to specific targets until sales hit a certain measure—say $10k in sales—then have the system reduce and reconfigure the promotion to the rest of the audience(s), specific to the nuances of each cohort. Imagine the potential tools like this have for operational efficiency and budget management.

AI Does Not Stand For Act Immediately

Chasing the newest innovation without staying true to the value your company brings to its customers is a fool’s errand. Rapid internal iteration on a new feature set or product offering is great, launching dog food to your customers is not. Vision-driven companies do not get distracted by their competition and change their course of production as a result.

Additionally, focus on what’s sustainable. If introducing generative AI or other ‘groundbreaking technologies’ means your teams will be stretched too thin, shortcuts will be taken, and missteps will happen, then it’s not the right time or place. Saying “no” to the right opportunity at the wrong time is sometimes the smartest thing a company can do on its path to success. While it may seem counterintuitive to turn down growth opportunities, if that opportunity does not serve long-term goals or missions, it will not be worth the short-term gain.

Ask yourself: is this going to make my product/service better? Is this what my customers want? Have I asked them or am I making assumptions? What problems are they trying to solve that we can solve for them and what can they do with us that they can’t do with others? Within these questions, you’ll find the answer to the “we need this now!” exec’s demands.