inking content governance at the dawn of generative AI

This is the third part of a series of four articles on how AI can be integrated into marketing automation platforms. Here are Parts 1 and 2.

According to your role and the level of your experimentation in the last nine months, you may view generative AI as “just a shiny thing” or “transformational opportunities and challenges.”

Most of the conversation this year has focused on generative AI applications as standalone applications. These can be accessed via web-based chatbots or AI-driven third party applications.

This is changing quickly. Microsoft Office and Google Workspace, as well as CRM and marketing automation platforms (MAP) vendors, are embedding genAI into their existing applications.

Infusing genAI will impact many campaign processes including marketing and sales alignement, field marketing, and reporting/analytics. The most disruptive process will be the campaign content management.

• Ensure brand consistency. Tones/style guides are built into previous templates and editor abilities.
• Changing content workflow processes — from speed of revisions to version control. What is a version in generative AI? When prompts are changed and resubmitted, each output is different.
• Evaluation of the continued use applications like Writer.com or Jasper, when genAI capabilities (at least beta) are offered by vendors such as HubSpot and Salesforce.

Milton Hwang, Mike Kaput from the Marketing AI Institute, and Theresa Kushner from Business Data Leadership will discuss topics related to this post at The MarTech conference on September 26, 2018. Register free.

Content ops: Redefining roles of martech, content and creative teams

Remember the initial shift in work processes that occurred when MAPs were at their peak in the early-mid 2010s.

Teams had to choose. Either train the content/creative lead on how to use your marketing automation platform, or design a flow for content operations where these colleagues “stayed” within their native platforms and created copy/assets. Next, the martech/operations team tested and loaded creative assets and copy into templates.

This led to a series of martech innovation. MAPs integrated third-party content management tools, such as digital asset management and content operations applications. These applications were often deemed more “fit for purpose” by content teams than the standard MAP templates.

The agencies were able to access the MAP of their clients if they had responsibility for digital production. This allowed them to increase efficiency by enhancing their client’s team directly, rather than shuffle versions between agency and internal tools.

Years later, MAP’s drag-and drop capabilities and richer text editor improved. Martech testers and loaders made changes without consulting their design or copy colleagues.

Dig deep: AI powered marketing automation: How can it help you?

Directly infused generative abilities

We’re now poised for more disruption with the integration of AI-generated content directly into CRM/MAP capabilities.

Take a look at HubSpot ‘s Content Assistant for a working example infused genAI. Even their free CRM features are accessible as beta versions. HubSpot uses OpenAI’s ChatGPT Model.

Clicking on the lightningbolt after you have highlighted the draft version will bring up a menu with options such as rewrite expand shorten and change the tone.

It has been well documented the strengths and weaknesses of genAI’s writing capabilities, so I won’t go into them in this article.

Prepare for disruptions in content governance caused by genAI

The governance changes that will be required by introducing genAI capabilities for content and marketing operations teams have not been fully explored. Start planning now for these five issues.

1. Training

The content/creative team will need to either be trained or re-trained on how to use MAPs. If legacy content loading processes remain intact, then a new guardrail will be needed by the martech team.

It should be possible to disable the embedded genAI functionality for content testers and content loaders.

2. Direct access bans: End-runs

Teams that are prohibited from using standalone genAI tools can take advantage of the infused genAI capabilities. It may be considered that having access to the functionality is a permission to use it.

The embedded genAI capability may also unwind “tone” guidelines enforced in tools such as Office, Google, or digital asset management software. This drove investment into a large set of AI platforms, like Jasper and Writer, earlier this year. Directly embedded capabilities will force you to make trade-offs.

3. Version control

Content operations management tools today include workflow and approval capabilities to ensure that the correct version is delivered to customers. With infused genAI teams can track infinite versions without leaving the inline editor. Imagine how many red lines there would be in a “track-changes chat” mode with AI.

4. Controls on data and security

Many genAI systems allow users to share their responses and prompts with vendors in order to improve the system. HubSpot’s ChatGPT guidelines for integration are brand new and have not been tested in this context.

This creates serious IT and data security issues. You might have thought that your data was yours alone. HubSpot is upfront about their policies. However, you can still help a competitor succeed by using their software.

Data management is disrupted by the fact that prompts now form part of the data.

5. The core martech tools and other content foundational tools

It’s no wonder that genAI has received so much attention. However, I would recommend reinvesting your money in the applications you already use.

You are likely to be familiar with CRM and MAP providers as you have been working with them for the longest. It is important to know the genAI capabilities in your core applications, especially given the rapid pace of new releases.

It is important to remember that genAI impacts the tools which are not usually included in a martech stack. For example, Office 365 and Google Workspace, productivity suites.

Google Labs “Help me Write” was a feature that many of us were experimenting with. Google has just announced that this feature will be part of Duet AI – the competitor to Microsoft 365 Copilot.

These announcements were made before the release of ChatGPT enterprise, which is expected to further disrupt these roadmaps. These trends have a far-reaching impact on all business content.

Dig deep: Are you ready for AI as a marketing leader?

Create or re-create your team for managing the campaign and content changes.

This brings me to my final recommendation on where to begin discussions with your team. Content management processes are at the core of campaigns and marketing automation platforms (MAPs) and will remain so. They sit at the intersection between creative and martech teams.

We must dust off processes that have helped us navigate previous martech disruptions with best practices: designate a leader or champion to experiment, train and plan new capabilities.

The disruption that we are about to experience from the introduction of genAI in our core applications is unmatched by previous rounds of innovation. Now is the time to begin the discussion of how we will manage this change.

The first article Rethinking Content Governance in the Era of Generative AI was published on MarTech.