A few months ago, the AMA presented a daylong virtual conference entitled “The Year Ahead in Marketing”. I was especially interested in any new trends in supporting B2B and ABM marketing with AI applications. I watched a couple of talks and a few days later received an email with the link to watch recordings of the ones that I had missed. As the email got farther and farther down in my inbox, I despaired that I would ever catch up on the latest marketing ideas.
AI to the rescue?
Having read a bit about how to best implement AI, using applications to create summaries and find direction in large amounts of data are often mentioned. I thought this could be a perfect chance to find a new productivity tool. First, I tried using AI tools, and then I read the slide decks and watched the videos to compare. Here is how it worked out for me.
Paywalls are a barrier
First, I needed to figure out which free AI apps could help me. I had heard a lot of buzz about using AI to summarize videos and Zoom meetings. I researched several free services that summarize videos. These services either require the actual video file or a link to YouTube. The AMA conference was on a password-protected site – so unfortunately, these services weren’t something that I could use for a conference behind a paywall.
ChatGPT can give basic summaries
I was able to download the slide decks from each presentation and use ChatGPT to summarize. I had to engineer my prompts quite a bit and it wasn’t easy to get information beyond a basic summary. The first slide deck I loaded was from a talk entitled “Mastering Marketing Strategies with Video in 2024: Latest Content, AI & SEO Trends”. I prompted ChatGPT to use the file and entered the prompt, “What are the key trends in video marketing for 2024?” I received a list of 24 bullet points. The list was mostly just a reprint of the slide deck in text form. Notably missing was any information that was present in the slide as part of a graphic or image. The list was accurate, but not really more helpful than scanning through the slide deck on my own.
ChatGPT struggles to pull information with additional context
Since I was mostly interested in how the latest marketing trends could be applied to B2B marketing, I tried to prompt ChatGPT to pull information from the slides in this context. Using the slide deck as the information base, I asked ChatGPT, “How can video help B2B Marketing?” The result was a list of seven ideas that were highlighted in the video. It did a better job of summarizing, but it really applied to all marketing, not just issues that are specific to B2B marketers. One amusing result was the bullet, “According to the document, 200% of marketers say video helps them generate leads.”
Being too specific can backfire
I thought being even more specific might help and tried a new prompt, “Does this document contain information about how to use AI in B2B marketing campaigns?” Based on the title of the talk, I expected some information, however, the reply was, “No, this document does not contain information about how to use AI in B2B marketing campaigns.” However, this was not entirely true. While the presentation was somewhat light in addressing AI, there was one slide with some general details and best practices. This slide didn’t specifically mention B2B but the ideas were applicable.
Using AI vs DIY to stay ahead on marketing trends – 4 Takeaways
- Plan for the initial time investment. Researching what can be used and how to use it can be a learning curve.
- Finding something that works well can save a lot of time. Loading files and refining prompts took me about 10 minutes. Watching each video was nearly an hour.
- Make sure you actually need AI. I gained the same level of information using ChatGPT to summarize the slide deck as just visually scanning the main bullet points. Both actions took about 10 minutes.
- Don’t expect nuance. Using AI to filter through an outside lens may not capture the information you’re looking for.
Stephanie Peacock, VP of Communications, AMA Colorado
