According to a new survey by Salesforce which surveyed over 1,000 marketers as part of its Generative AI Snapshot Series, 51% of marketers are currently using generative AI, and an additional 22% plan to use it very soon, totaling nearly three-quarters of marketers.
However, over a third (39%) also said that they don’t know how to safely use generative AI. As per the survey, marketers have raised concerns about its accuracy and reported a need for human oversight, as well as proper training and trusted customer data, to leverage the technology effectively at work.
Stephen Hammond, EVP and GM, Marketing Cloud, Salesforce said, “Generative AI has the potential to transform how marketers connect with their customers by powering more personalised, automated, and effective campaigns — quickly and at scale. But as companies look to adopt the technology, they need to unify their first-party data and leverage trusted AI innovations to ensure safety and accuracy.”
The survey further added that marketers using generative AI are already targeting the basics, like content creation (76%) and writing copy (76%). But many see a wholesale overhaul of their work on the horizon, with 53% of marketers said that generative AI is a ‘game changer.’ Respondents also cited reasons for this that include its ability to transform the way they analyse data, personalise messaging content, build marketing campaigns, and build/optimise SEO strategy.
The survey also revealed that with generative AI, 71% of marketers said they expect to save time and be able to focus on more strategic work. In fact, marketers estimate that generative AI will save them over five hours per week – the equivalent of over a month per year at work.
Accuracy and quality depend on data. However, 67% of marketers believe that their company’s data is not properly set up for generative AI — despite a similar number (63%) saying trusted customer data is important for the successful use of generative AI at work.
According to Clara Shih, Salesforce’s CEO of AI, “Data is fuel for AI — without high-quality, trusted data, it becomes ‘garbage in, garbage out.’ AI pulling from data sources that are irrelevant, unrepresentative, or incomplete, can create bias, hallucinations, and toxic outputs.”
Additionally, 71% marketers also believe generative AI’s lack of human creativity and contextual knowledge is a potential barrier to successfully using generative AI in the workplace. As a result, 66% percent of marketers said human oversight is needed to successfully use generative AI in their role.
While marketers are excited about the opportunities of generative AI to transform their work, many feel unprepared to take full advantage of it, with 43% saying they don’t know how to get the most value out of the technology. Furthermore, 54% of marketers believe generative AI training programs are important for them to successfully use generative AI in their role, 70% say their employer does not yet provide generative AI training.