Irritation Over AI Washing Peaks for Marketers in 2023

The breathless excitement around generative artificial intelligence since OpenAI introduced ChatGPT in November 2022 has spurred a crop of vendors and tech partners dressing up their tech as AI, causing frustration among marketers who are grappling to understand how best to meaningfully implement the tech. Gen AI is expected to attract investments of more than $1.5 trillion by 2033, according to Goldman Sachs economists. Unsurprisingly in digital marketing, nefarious actors are eyeing a chunk of that. And this form of AI washing is causing confusion and wasting time for brands and their agencies. Google’s AI Model Gemini Spurs Fresh Concerns Among Publishers “AI is in every conversation from digital product to staffing,” said Jonathan Waite, global managing director at Havas Media Group. “In every conversation, people label everything as AI.” The term AI covers a lot of ground, from basic automation—used in digital media buying for years—to smart algorithms, machine learning, large language models, and, the buzziest of all, generative AI, models that can generate text, images and content based on the data they were trained on. While AI washing might seem just an inconvenience now, it could end up damaging trust between brands and their consumers, not to mention future legal ramifications. Exploiting a lack of knowledge AI washing has attracted more attention this month after the Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler warned companies against the practice, suggesting the regulator has a close eye on companies falsely misleading investors and consumers that they are embracing the rapidly changing tech. The term follows the same logic as greenwashing and rainbow washing. Given its complications, some marketers have been hesitant about how to use gen AI. Regarding AI in marketing, “there is a lot of fear, there is not a lot of knowledge,” said Val Gabriel, Ireland managing director and vp, global head of in-house media buying and data science at HP. “I’m really tired of people trying to sell me automation and telling me it's AI. With more tech vendors saying they have gen AI capabilities, savvy marketers who know the right questions to ask will save time and hassle. Marketer trade body MMA Global’s AI Leadership Coalition has released frameworks such as “Is It Real AI?” and provides more clarity on demystifying the difference between automation, discriminate AI and gen AI. “Conversations are more productive when I have the literacy, the questions to ask, [and] when they know the maturity or the priorities I have,” said Joshua Nafman vice president of data and operations at Diageo. From a nuisance to breaking trust For now, AI washing is more of a time-wasting nuisance than anything more sinister. Gabriel gets roughly 20 emails a day from firms liberally applying window dressing to their tech. But the nuisance of marketers’ tech partners masquerading their tech as AI would eventually reach brands’ customers, potentially severing trust—and then impacting sales—around a tech that is already under increased scrutiny by people, regulators and business leaders. We've already seen how gen AI itself can be used awkwardly by publishers disguising content created by bots to damaging effects. “I don’t see the tide [of AI washing] receding any time soon,” said Nafman. “[but] there is a massive lift in AI literacy and what are the foundations needed to be productive. There are fundamental changes around what are the outcomes [we’re] looking for rather than tech solutions.”