Influence AI: Why Enterprise Marketers Are Shifting Their Focus to Generative AI for Driving Business Results

Generative AI has been around for decades (the first iteration emerged at MIT in 1966). However, the viral launch of ChatGPT in November 2022 made Generative AI an agenda item in every boardroom and living room. The Generative AI application landscape is vast and continues to expand. Much of this rapid expansion stems from the demand for special-purpose applications. These applications are built to serve specific functions, industries, or use cases. One of the most prominent functional uses of Generative AI is digital marketing. 

Even within digital marketing, not all Generative AI solutions are the same. As CMOs face pressure to cut technology investments, marketing teams must do more with less. The ¹Gartner® Hype Cycle for Digital Marketing, 2023 (August, 2023) outlines the evolution of Generative AI in marketing as it evolves from maturity to adoption to social application. This Hype Cycle also introduced marketers to Influence AI, which the advisory firm predicts will have a transformative effect on marketing using techniques that have “market shaping” influence over consumer choices. 

The growth and impact of Generative AI in marketing

According to the Gartner® Hype Cycle for Digital Marketing, 2023 (August, 2023), which maps new innovations on the path to delivering business value, Generative AI in marketing has progressed from its 2022 status just beyond the “innovation trigger” into its current placement at the “peak of inflated expectations”—which Gartner® defines as a “phase of over enthusiasm and unrealistic projections, a flurry of well-publicized activity by technology leaders results in some successes, but more failures, as the innovation is pushed to its limits.” 

Which use cases will help progress GenAI through the “trough of disillusionment” to the “plateau of productivity”? Gartner® explores the most prominent ones in the Gartner® Use Case Prism: Generative AI for Marketing (October 5, 2023). When assessed based on the dimensions of value and feasibility, the “content copilot” use case scores highest on both. The report states that the value of the content copilot use case is “productivity, variety, and velocity of content creation that improves customer engagement and response.” 

This points to the importance of seeking out GenAI text solutions designed for both productivity and performance. 

The vast landscape of Generative AI in marketing

By including Generative AI in the Gartner® Hype Cycle for Digital Marketing, 2023 (August, 2023), Gartner® acknowledges its relevance to the marketing ecosystem. However, even within marketing, there are countless categories, subcategories, applications, and use cases for GenAI. As large language models get smaller, more niche, and easier to build, the Generative AI landscape will continue to expand and evolve. One area to watch is the evolution of Influence AI.

What is Influence AI?

According to Gartner®, Influence AI is the production of models designed to automate elements of digital experience that guide user choices at scale by learning and applying techniques of behavioral science. Influence AI’s ability to drive business objectives is a game-changer. As speed and scalability become the new baseline for Generative AI in marketing, CMOs and CDOs will invest in Influence AI over volume-based Generative AI in marketing applications, despite budget constraints.

In addition to baseline GenAI capabilities, Influence AI provides organizations with a positive business impact. This places the technology in the Innovation Trigger stage of the Hype Cycle above. Gartner® defines this stage as when “a potential technology breakthrough kicks things off. Early proof-of-concept stories and media interest trigger significant publicity.” In the same report’s Priority Matrix, Influence AI is categorized as Transformational—with mainstream adoption five or more years away. But, is it in fact five years away?

The Persado Motivation AI enterprise Generative AI solution maps closely to Gartner®’s definition of Influence AI. Persado generates digital marketing messages that inspire customers to take a desired action that meets business goals. Our Motivation AI knowledge base is built on over a decade of performance data from Fortune 500 campaigns. 

Persado’s top 30 customers have achieved $1.5 billion in incremental revenue. Adoption of Influence AI is happening now. There are many early adopters, spanning iconic retail brands, to six of the top-ten U.S. banks, that have already been using Motivation AI for multiple years.

Persado’s models were from their start focused on understanding the roots of human behavior and thereby influencing that behavior. As such, Persado looks at language beyond relevance and intelligibility. Persado attempts to understand how language evokes emotion and how that emotion results in action. Pivoting to focus on influence versus intelligibility will be hard for many Generative AI solutions built on core models given their underlying technology is engineered for a very different output. The shift would be akin to asking a hammer to turn into a screwdriver.

Vipul Vyas, SVP of Go to Market, Persado and Adjunct Professor at University of San Francisco.

Quality over quantity

Enterprise brands have tended to respond to the high level of noise in their industries by generating more to gain customer attention. Their competitors respond by generating still more noise, and so on. Yet when it comes to achieving results, more isn’t better. It’s not the brand that posts the most that earns the conversions. It’s the one that delivers the right message to the right customers. 

Using Generative AI in marketing can be sufficient if a brand just needs content. When the ultimate goal isn’t just content, but instead, business results (sales, bookings, new accounts, etc.), Motivation AI–which as we noted aligns closely with Gartner®’s Influence AI–generates digital marketing messaging that inspires action. For example, a global retailer might need copy for a digital marketing campaign promoting a fall sale. Their ultimate goal isn’t to produce content quickly and efficiently. It’s to sell more sweaters.

As displayed in the example above from a Persado customer campaign, the digital marketing message generated by Persado Motivation AI achieved the goal of selling more sweaters. The copy was so effective that it achieved this goal with less of a discount. 

Productivity vs. performance: Why performance is more transformational for enterprise marketers

As marketing departments and corporations become more budget conscious and seek to break through market noise, executives and boards embrace AI to keep pace with competitors and take advantage of resource efficiencies. Some AI applications will help them do more, faster. Expectations should also be for AI to deliver better business and commercial outcomes.

Performance is paramount for enterprise marketing teams tasked with hitting KPIs and revenue goals. Though efficiency and scalability are important to enterprise teams, they are not as transformative as results. Luckily for marketers, Influence AI boosts both productivity and performance. So it’s no surprise that marketers, analysts, investors, and market intelligence platforms are taking notice of such GenAI solutions capable of driving engagement and sales.

Persado Motivation AI has been delivering global enterprise brands with both efficiency and effectiveness gains – just as Gartner® predicts Influence AI to do. General-purpose Generative AI is trained on language scraped from the internet and not optimized for performance or considerations about IP. Motivation AI is free from copyright concerns. It is compatible with the security and compliance standards of some of the most regulated industries. It also generates content that is proven to outperform the brand’s control messaging 96% of the time across industries, digital channels, geographies, use cases, and languages. 

Experience the efficiency and efficacy of Influence AI with Persado Motivation AI. Request a trial today and try it risk free. 

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