Generative AI in Marketing: Friend, Foe or Frenemy?

In fewer than three years, generative AI has fundamentally altered the marketing industry, drastically accelerating the speed at which organizations react to evolving market trends.

Generative AI enables today’s marketers to target, optimize and personalize their content to specific segments in real time. Moving forward, generative AI technology is sure to continue its rapid evolution, offering both untapped opportunities and new challenges to the marketing professionals who adopt it.       

Addressing GenAI’s Data Privacy Problems

Even as AI promises to add anywhere from $240 to $460 billion in value to the high-tech sector, it also poses significant data privacy risks to unwary users.

In a 2024 Cisco report, 36% of consumers polled said they have submitted work information into GenAI applications. Furthermore, 37% said they have submitted health information and up to 29% have provided financial information. Despite this, 84% said they’re concerned their data could be shared.

Enterprise users generally understand that what they type into GenAI models becomes available for the model to use, unless special considerations have been taken. Leading firms like Microsoft, Google and OpenAI are working towards finding a sustainable balance between knowing too much about their users and not knowing enough. Going forward, I suspect we’ll see a number of new products and platforms acting as ancillary tools to help keep proprietary information proprietary.

It’s about finding the balance between utility and security — everyone’s waiting for the native applications that they already use to adopt AI rather than rely on third-party solutions. I think the largest companies will be able to achieve this in 2025, but it’s going to be another year before we see similar applications that don’t come from powerhouse technology manufacturers.

Related Article: Data Mongering is the Silent AI Threat to Privacy and Personal Autonomy

GenAI Marketing Roles Will Require New Skill Sets

As more companies deploy GenAI tools across the enterprise, employers will seek out new skill sets from applicants. I’m interviewing right now for an open position at Wildfire and one of our favorite candidates is somebody who said, “Whatever it is, I can figure it out. And if I can’t, there’s always ChatGPT.” That was a really good answer, knowing the tools you have at your disposal and not being afraid to say, “I use this thing to bounce ideas off of.”

I think that’s a higher ability, to not be afraid to roll up your sleeves and use whatever tools around you in a scrappy environment like this. It’s an important skill. I think that hiring people who have the skill to interface with AI in an appropriate way is critically important.

Depending on the job, I think you can only be at an advantage by learning and interfacing with these tools. I think the demystification of GenAI will help a lot of people learn those skills, but it’s for the curious person right now. It’s not for everybody.

Consumer Protections Will Continue to Evolve

Generative AI’s halcyon days of unchecked growth could soon be coming to a close as federal, state and international regulatory systems come online. Here in the US, I suspect we’ll see regional governments — most likely California and New York — lead the charge in creating GenAI consumer protections to defend against growing privacy threats.

Where there aren’t any protections, I think we’re going to see disruption. People thought the Nigerian Prince scams were bad — it’s about to get so much worse. This is a big shift for people, it’s happening really quickly and protections need to be put in place beyond what companies are willing to do.

The most significant and comprehensive new regulations will likely be delivered by the EU Artificial Intelligence Act, as its provisions apply to any AI system affecting EU citizens, regardless of where the service provider is located. This means American companies will be required to follow EU rules if they want to retain access to the European market.