Episode #2 What Our Research Says About AI in Marketing Transcript

Mark (00:00):

This is how we create a competitive advantage in really reaching our customers. It's not just about the content, it's how we manage the customer journey. And AI is going to be critical in that.

Voice Over (00:10):

You've tapped into the Divine Spark Podcast from Paulsen. Join us as we explore a refreshingly human first approach to using AI in marketing, business development, and more in the ag, energy and rural sectors.

Sara (00:27):

Hi everybody, this is Sara Stever. I'm the CTO at Paulsen. And thanks today for joining us for the Divine Spark. I have two very special guests today. One's been a business partner of mine for 20 plus years. Mark Smither, who is our Chief Strategic Officer here at the agency.

Mark (00:43):

Hi, Sarah,

Sara (00:44):

Good morning. And Alicia Huen, who is our director of Engagement, and she has been with the agency for about three years now and brings wealth of experience from her career, which partly included being a marketing director at Landis Co-op. So wonderful background in both ag and energy, and they're going to bring all their experience to bear today on our research project, which is very exciting and super interesting. So welcome to you both.

Alicia (01:13):

Thank you. Excited to talk about this.

Sara (01:16):

Yeah, so we've been thinking about AI and especially generative AI for a long time now. I mean, it seems like it just happened, which it did kind of in the scheme of things, but lots of momentum behind it. And so it's a topic that everyone has been thinking about and wondering what to do. And so we thought it would be great to just dig in and figure out how are our clients feeling about it? How's the industry feeling about it? And what are the professionals in our industry thinking about this big sea change in the industry? So why don't you guys just dive in and tell us what you learned?

Alicia (01:48):

Well, at Paulsen, we like to start all of our messaging and all of our recommendations with strong foundation and research. So when we started to have conversations about how do we better serve our clients and how do we better serve the industry when it comes to offering solutions and insights for generative AI, of course the strategy and research team said, let's do some research. So Mark and I put our heads together and we wrote a survey that we sent out to our clients and our industry partners, so all agriculture energy and role facing marketing folks, marketing communications folks. And we asked them a variety of questions from what are your challenges to how do you feel about AI to how is generative AI working in your organization? And then we asked them some questions about what they think about human first ai. So we thought maybe we'd start there with how we talk about our results.

Mark (02:39):

Yeah, I think a lot of the same questions that we had were the same questions we wanted to ask the industry. And as it turned out, we saw some surprising results, but we also saw some things that really weren't that surprising. It kind of aligned with what we were hypothesizing, if you will. Yeah.

Alicia (02:56):

Yes, yes. So one of the questions that we asked was how confident are you that your industry expertise adds value that generative AI cannot replicate? And it always feels like if you do something in chat GPT or Ideogram or any of the generative AI platforms that has to do with agriculture, you're going to get a calf that looks really weird or a pig that has three legs or a farmer that's always wearing a cowboy hat. And you cannot get rid of the cowboy hat, six fingers,

Mark (03:27):

The six fingers or an ear of corn with ears.

Alicia (03:29):

And the soybeans look like potatoes and it never seems right. And so our hypothesis was is that agriculture and energy and rural America have a lot of nuance, and we wanted to know what our clients do. They recognize how important their experience is, and do they recognize how valuable what they know about agriculture is? And they came back with resounding results. So 47% of our respondents were very confident that their skills and knowledge could not be replicated by ai. So almost 50% said, I know more about ag energy in real America than AI does. And then 53% were somewhat confident. So you're talking 90 some percent, almost a hundred percent. That said, there is something about agriculture, rural America and energy that I know better than AI is ever going to know. And that's really inspiring because it's maybe not like that in every industry, but it is really important in our industry.

Mark (04:32):

And I think that goes back to the whole idea of the divine spark. What is that? What is that? And you think about bringing your expertise and your experience and your integrity and your judgment, and that's exactly why I think they feel confident that they still bring something of value to ai.

Alicia (04:49):

Absolutely.

Sara (04:49):

Yeah. Excellent. So we assume that our clients are facing some challenges coming up and some problems. Is that something that you explored in the research?

Alicia (04:58):

So one of the things that we wanted to know was when you start out asking a survey questions are just like, what are the challenges that you're facing today? Because we wanted to know if the things that we use AI for are even coming up on their radar. So we asked them a list of about 10 things and they could tell us what are the most challenging and the top challenges that they said that they're facing are analyzing data, which Mark and I use AI to analyze data all the time, and then customer feedback and research. And those were about 50% of our clients said that those things are challenging. So we have some things that we can offer to help them do that. But then they also said that creating content, so like writing articles and blogs, that that's a big challenge for them. And we're thinking, well, there's lots of tools to help with creating content and even a tool that we have that we've created to help create content for our ag and energy space. And then the other one is just managing social media. It can feel absolutely overwhelming. And so we had our clients say that those were the top four things that they feel challenged with on a daily basis, regardless of AI or not.

Mark (06:06):

And then looking ahead to the next 18 months, we asked them, what do you think your challenges will be? And it really aligns with that. But it's interesting, 80% said generating written content. And we looked at that and thought, well, perhaps that answers because that's what they know

Alicia (06:21):

AI

Mark (06:22):

Can do right now, and that's what they hear the most about in the media. But why do they look at that as being such a challenge that they're going to be using AI more in the future? And you think about what the digital ecosystem needs for content, it is a machine that it has to constantly be fed. And I think a lot of organizations are tasked or challenged with, how do we do that? It requires a special skillset. I don't have enough resources. The labor, it's pretty intensive and intensive, and they look at AI and perhaps taking away some of those tasks, but just feeding the digital beast, if you will, and keeping up with it. They see that as this might be a solution,

Sara (07:05):

But it can't be a volume game. And I think that's a danger in AI because it can crank out so easily. So if you're not putting what your domain expertise in there to make that judgment call and say, is this actually very good? And then do I have the prompting skills to actually prompt something that is information dense and doesn't have a lot of the fluff that we often see come out of generative ai? I think that can be a challenge too, is just making sure that it's actually worth reading or worth listening to.

Alicia (07:36):

I think that's where some of the disconnect is coming. So the challenge that they said is, I have a challenge writing content when they look to the next 18 months, they say generative AI can help me solve that challenge, but maybe they don't know how to do that. Maybe they don't know how to get there. Maybe they don't have the right strategy, maybe they don't have the right tools, maybe they don't have approval from their executive team or budget or whatever it is. And so just bridging that gap between, I know I have a problem, but I'm pretty sure AI can help me solve it, is where we see the opportunity.

Sara (08:08):

So some chicken and egg, right? Because you don't know what all the tools are, so you don't know what problems can be solved. So to your point, they fall back to the easy one, which is it can write content for me.

Mark (08:19):

And we asked the question, what do you see in the next 18 months? And we would make a prediction that if we did this survey again in I'd say six to 12 months, they're going to be more exposed to what else AI can do. And looking at the numbers that we see here, not a lot of clients are thinking, generating sales, lead customer feedback and research and really managing that customer journey. I would bet that in the next 12 months, they're going to see that it's not just about generating content. It is about really help optimizing their customer experience. And once that door opens and once that gets, I bet you're going to see these numbers just go from 20% to 60 to 80% to the next 12 months. Know this is how we create a competitive advantage in really reaching our customers. It's not just about the content, it's how we manage the customer journey. And AI is going to be critical in that.

Sara (09:12):

So maybe then they'll also be empowered by either leadership or their IT department to actually use some of the tools. And as we know, we're just starting to see them baked into workflows anyway. So if you're a Microsoft shop, you're going to probably be using copilot or one of the tools that comes along with that. And if you're not, you're kind of out there on the open AI path and you're probably chat GBT, but it'll be more in our workflows and that'll help, I think just get people used to it.

Mark (09:40):

Yeah, if everyone's focusing on developing content as being the end result of using AI right now, they're missing the bigger picture. If you think about it, if you've ever experienced output from a chat GPT or content generation, there is a certain sameness about it, a lack of humanness, if you will. And I think what'll happen is you'll see a lot of organizations realize that we're not really standing out in any way. We're creating the same type of content as everyone else. So as everyone gets familiar with the technology and they're using ai, they'll stop for a minute. They'll look back and go, this really isn't resonating with our audience the way it could or it should. And that gets back to the divine spark is how do we humanize that? So I predict that you'll actually see more value placed on the human aspect of this content that actually looks and feels like it's human, maybe has some mistakes in there, maybe looks like it is not perfect. I think that's the flag. The content looks absolutely pristine and perfect every time. I believe there'll be more value on things that look and feel and sound human.

Alicia (10:46):

You might use it to get started and then you'll put in your own experience or your own personal anecdote or a quote from a farmer that you talk to, and then it'll start to feel more authentic.

Mark (10:55):

Exactly.

Sara (10:57):

So what was your biggest surprise and takeaway and something that you thought, I didn't see that coming?

Alicia (11:03):

So Paulsen has had an AI council, and Sara, correct me if I'm wrong here for two years,

Sara (11:07):

Probably

Alicia (11:08):

A year and a half. Year and a half. So we've had a group that gets together every couple of weeks, talks about new technology, and when that council started, we implemented a company-wide AI policy. And it was kind of like our guardrails. How do we use it, how do we not use it, how do we use disclaimers about it? And it came with the help of our legal team. So it wasn't something we did on our own, but that's something that we use every day. So one of the things we wanted to know was how many of our clients have those guardrails? How many of our clients have that kind of internal policy, if you will, about how do we use AI and what does AI look like inside of our organization? And we were really surprised to find that only 14% of our respondents have an active policy.

(11:50):

We saw that and we were kind of like, Ooh, first step. That's a first step. Let's get our group together. Let's get it and legal and communications and at least get a little bit of a policy around our marketing communications. Now, I used to work at a farmer-owned, and if you said, let's make an AI policy, it would've felt overwhelming because you to have a agronomy involved and safety involved and it would feel like this big giant company-wide thing. And I don't think it has to start that big. I think an AI policy can start small. How are we going to deal with it just then our marketing communications team and what is our expectation? And let's get buy-in on that and then at least your small marketing team has the direction that you need. I don't think you have to wait for the larger organization.

Sara (12:35):

Well, because even maybe this is just anecdotal, but we know what's happening. People just go rogue and they use the tools anyway.

Alicia (12:41):

Oh yeah, we talked to a woman in a marketing department at a co-op conference, and she said that their policy kind of says, you can't use this kind of tool or you can't use that kind of tool. So she said, I just use my personal email address and I use it anyway

Mark (12:56):

Because

Alicia (12:56):

My IT team doesn't understand what I do. They don't understand what my job is. And so that's where even just bringing the information and showcasing why you want to use it is so important in creating a policy.

Sara (13:09):

Because one of the things that can happen is you end up with a bunch of sensitive information or your IP uploaded into an LLM, and that's no good. We got to make sure that's not happening. So communicating it super important. And to your point, that policy doesn't have to be complicated. It's just really very simply being transparent and what's ethical and appropriate use. It doesn't need to be more complicated than that. However, having an attorney look it over because things are going to end up in the court system. And unless you're, maybe you're building your own large language model, maybe you're to that point where you're literally investing millions in, it probably has crossed your mind already that you need to have an attorney look at this for you. But yeah, there are plenty of documents and attorneys out there now that have boilerplates that are perfectly fine and can get down the road.

Mark (13:57):

Yeah, I think a lot of anybody listening to this podcast would probably relate to this, but according to our research, nearly 80% had no, well-defined organizational goals for generative ai. They just don't have goals or objectives assigned to this. And I think it was only 51% said their organizations, they did not provide generative AI learning opportunities. So there's this huge gap of the technology is here, as you mentioned, Alicia, they're really using it whether you know it or not. And so it's better to get in front of it, take control of the situation, or else it will control you.

Alicia (14:34):

And I think that can feel really daunting. And so that's why that's something that we would love to help people talk through. I mean, we can't solve the problem for your organization, but we've at least been through it ourselves and seen it from the outside. So I think that's part of the value of the expertise that this team too.

Mark (14:51):

Yeah, I think we've actually seen or heard anecdotally, there are companies that don't want anything to do with it. They rather than address it or rather than try to, they just prohibit it. They just prohibit it. And that's a dangerous place to be. So it really is.

Sara (15:06):

Yeah, especially as the workforce moves forward and kids start coming out of school with either opinions on it or just ways that universities handled it as well. So

Alicia (15:17):

You got to be ready. Well, this podcast has different generations of number of years of work experience, and I know that one of the things that we always want to talk about in this podcast is your own personal experience with ai. And I felt like I was slow to the party. Everyone else was talking about chat g bt, and I was like, what is this? And so we were having an AI council meeting and they said, well, just go try it and ask it to do something silly, like write a poem or something. And so I wrote a poem with it and I thought, oh, this is really fun. It took me a while before I could figure out how to use it in my job, but I think that that's the evolution that everybody's going to go through, that all of our clients will too.

Mark (15:55):

Yeah, I think one of my first AHA experiences diving into some research, and I prompted chat GPT that I wanted to cite where the sources of information came from, what chat GPT came back were URL addresses that did not exist, made

Alicia (16:16):

'em up.

Mark (16:16):

They just made them up. So I spent the prompt and getting to the output that I needed, literally took a few minutes. It took me nearly all morning, nearly four hours to figure out and vet whether this was accurate or not. But because I had the experience to know that I should call Farm Bureau to see if they had that research and find out, no, they didn't, and that does not exist. Only then was I able to determine, oh my gosh, you have to be very careful. So having the experience again, the divine spark of having the human experience and the integrity to say, I'm not going to just accept that output. I have enough knowledge to know that I'm going to have to vet this or this doesn't seem right to me, but it's interesting. I thought it'd save time. It ended up taking me more time to make sure that it was correct.

Alicia (17:00):

I was just going to say it made us more efficient, but maybe it doesn't, sometimes it doesn't always.

Sara (17:05):

I think if you get better at prompting, although if you are prompting the way that I've seen what you would call a prompt engineer, do it, holy cow pages going to that prompt, and that's why you save it in a library and you come back to it again because it actually works and it has a good output, but it doesn't, I think it can do some stuff really, really well that you couldn't do on your own that quickly. And other times it's like, this is taking me twice as long.

Alicia (17:30):

And I think that's where our survey results come back to in terms of people want to learn about it and they want opportunities to learn about it. And so asking your organization for it or seeking out those educational opportunities is really important. Some of it is trial and error on your own, but there's a lot of resource out there today to make that process go faster too.

Mark (17:50):

To that point, I think one of the last questions we asked is, are you likely to make an investment in the future? And 80%, nearly 80% said they were somewhat likely or likely to make that investment in AI in the future. So they know that they're going to have to do this. It's not a matter of if it's a matter of when and how they do this correctly.

Sara (18:10):

So is the barrier to that the strategy isn't in place and maybe they don't know how to approach a strategy to bring it in or even why? So is that something you explored?

Mark (18:22):

We didn't explore that in this research, but from other things that we've seen, a lot of third party data that we've looked at and our own experiences too, Sarah, just fluency, I think more companies need to begin with just understanding what this is, and you don't start with implementing anything right away. You start with understanding and just organizational fluency really.

Alicia (18:43):

Yeah. We asked what are the primary barriers to implementing generative AI in your organization? And we actually use the same question and response that gets used in a all industry marketing survey. And so we wanted to kind of break that down and see what it looks like in agriculture, energy and rural America, lack of education and training. Number one, barrier, lack of awareness or understanding. It's daunting. I don't know how to use it. I don't even know what the tools are, which ones do I pay for? Which ones do I not pay for? And then lack of strategy. Those are the top three barriers. And so it's just kind of getting the wheels turning, getting started, and that's where it always feels like you're slipping and sliding a little bit as you start on your path.

Mark (19:22):

And I think anybody listening to this podcast, that's the first step of understanding fluency. It's just diving in learning, listening and

Alicia (19:32):

And kind of auditing your day, auditing your week, what are the things that take you the most time? What are the things that you really dislike doing that you wish were more efficient? And then start searching for tools that help solve that specific problem. If you really like writing copy, well then don't find an AI tool that makes writing copy easier, something that you love and brings you joy and fulfills you. If you really hate doing budgets or looking through customer feedback and you're just like, you dread that, then try to find an AI tool that helps you solve that problem. And to me, that's part of what the human experience is, is like keep the joy and the things that you love and try to find a tool that help you do the things that you really don't like to do.

Mark (20:17):

You're saying, I need to find a tool for dieting

Alicia (20:19):

Now. Oh man, if that existed, we'd all be in Tahiti on a beach. We got to know.

Sara (20:25):

I think what's become abundantly clear over the last couple of years is that the tools are going to continue to change, but we need to have a concrete mindset about how to approach that. And then that's the divine spark. That's the human first piece of it, because knowing that you've got a process and a method where you can move through this and as an organization move forward, helps us all, helps us all as a culture, helps us as rural America, right?

Alicia (20:51):

Yeah.

Sara (20:51):

Near and dear to us.

Alicia (20:53):

Well, mark and I obviously love doing research. It's a favorite part of our job. We love kind of digging in and taking our anecdotes and making them come to life and our survey results, so we're happy to share those with people. Those are on our website. We ask for your email address. Just we want to know how many people are downloading it, so it's available at Paulson Agency slash Divines Spark. And you can find, oh, we turned it. All of our survey results into a white paper. So kind of a fun little way to take a look at what everybody else in the industry is saying about generative ai.

Sara (21:22):

Absolutely. We'd love to have everyone join us in this effort to keep it human first, and that's I think one of the best ways we can all grow and learn is having each other to bounce these ideas off of.

Alicia (21:33):

Yeah, you don't want to do it by yourself. Nope, I learned

Sara (21:35):

That. Any final thoughts on the research?

Mark (21:40):

No. Like I mentioned before, the research was I think somewhat surprising, but there were some things that really affirmed what we were thinking internally and just listening to our clients and the industry, it was pretty clear that a lot of people are in the same space. And the idea that there are opportunities to help organizations really understand what this tool can do and not to be afraid of it, I think there's a lot, the research shows that there's a lot of companies out there thinking the same thing, but I am really excited about the future. I mean, this is an exciting space to be really is.

Sara (22:18):

Absolutely. Well, thanks for joining us today on The Divine Spark. Alicia and Mark, thanks for being part of this journey and thanks everyone for joining us.

Voice Over (22:27):

Thanks for listening to The Divine Spark. Be sure to subscribe using your favorite podcast platform and visit us @paulsen.agency with any questions or ideas for future episodes.