AI chatbot, ChatGPT has taken off in record-breaking fashion since launching in November 2022, accumulating more than 100 million users in the first two months. With its vast capabilities, Al has the potential to revolutionize the way we work. Despite fears of AI replacing humans, some beauty brands are already embracing the possibilities of AI tools like ChatGPT to increase productivity and generate new ideas for future marketing campaigns.

Brand Agency London, home of global beauty brands Ciaté London, Lottie London, and I Am Proud, recently implemented the use of generative AI across their marketing team to great success. BeautyMatter caught up with Nora Zukauskaite, Global Marketing Director at Brand Agency London, to learn more about how the marketing team uses ChatGPT to streamline its workflow.

Speeds Up Brainstorming

ChatGPT’s capabilities are vast and varied, but it’s particularly useful as a brainstorming tool, which is where the seeds of great marketing ideas start to grow.

“The marketing team utilized the AI to brainstorm campaign ideation for the Lottie London Consent to Kiss campaign, the PR team utilized the AI to create a press release of the new Body Proud Smooth Talk Exfoliating Body Serum, and the social team utilized the AI to brainstorm content calendar ideation and caption writing for the new brand launch of Hair Proud,” Zukauskaite told BeautyMatter.

While not every answer from ChatGPT will be fit to print, it serves as a decent starting point that the teams can tweak and “humanize” as needed. This ends up saving the marketing department time and gets the ball rolling on creativity and collaboration.

“At Brand Agency London, we see the advantages of utilizing AI tools such as ChatGPT across the marketing, PR, and social media channels to increase efficiency, productivity, and creative thinking across all marketing channels,” says Zukauskaite.

While efficient, there is somewhat of a steep learning curve to using ChatGPT in this way. The tool is capable of generating text on a seemingly endless range of topics, but if you want a detailed response, you have to get very specific with your question.

“While trialing the tool we found that when briefing the tool you need to be very clear, concise, and include as much detail as possible to get the best results,” says Zukauskaite. “The tool is not able to completely replace creative ideation but helps serve as a springboard for self-starting ideas. It is also able to pull a lot of information from other online sources, so it saves research time”

What ChatGPT lacks in creativity, it makes up for in utility. Marketing teams rely on creativity for growth, but the day-to-day duties and responsibilities can really tax that creativity, making it more difficult to generate new ideas. ChatGPT is an idea machine, throwing out a steady stream of suggestions. It’s up to the humans to decide what sticks.

“The key learning from utilizing AI tools such as ChatGPT across the marketing, PR, and social media channels is that it can assist in tactical tasks and serve as a springboard when it comes to ideation for campaign, product, and new brand launches; writing SEO-optimized captions; and drafting product press releases,” says Zukauskaite.

A Symbiotic Relationship

As ChatGPT started to rise in popularity, fear of AI replacing humans started to rise as well. While generative AI is incredibly powerful and poised to be a game changer across nearly every industry, it is not yet self-sufficient. It still requires a human to interpret and fine-tune its responses, and the technology is still in its infancy in many ways. As such, the marketing team at Brand Agency London takes an optimistic view on the role of AI in digital marketing.

“We embrace change and see ChatGPT as a positive technological AI advancement,” says Zukauskaite. “The teams are excited to experiment and also learn to use it to their benefit―be it creatively or productivity wise.”

Generative AI relies on human input and insight, and there is still value in human experience and expertise. Currently, Brand Agency London has no plans to use AI as a replacement for any employee.

“With the introduction of AI tools such as ChatGPT, it allows the channels to perform more efficiently and with boosted productivity and work with the generative AI,” says Zukauskaite. “We don’t see at the moment that ChatGPT could replace anyone in the team but serve as a helping hand.”

AI-Based Personalization

The beauty and personal care industry is, for a lack of a better word, personal. Your brand voice and how you talk to your customers matters, and no matter how smart AI is, its responses still lack the personality that beauty consumers are familiar with. Brand Agency London uses ChatGPT as an internal tool rather than for external communications.

“At Brand Agency London, we know that the beauty industry and the perception of beauty is unique to each consumer your brand is speaking to. With this in mind, we are using AI such as ChatGPT as a tool to be utilized by our human team members of the marketing channels rather than talking directly to consumers,” says Zukauskaite.

As ChatGPT and other AI models continue to learn and evolve, it’s possible that brands may use the tool to improve the customer experience by providing faster responses to customer inquiries, automating mundane or repetitive tasks, and reducing resolution times. But Brand Agency London isn’t ready to make that leap just yet.

“Through the development and growth of generative AI, humans play an important role by providing valuable input in generating accurate and relevant content, assisting with training and improving the generative AI models, and providing experience relevant to the industry… that can inform the generative AI’s efficiency and results,” says Zukauskaite. “With both human input and AI-generated content, this can create relevant and personalized content that resonates with consumers.”

The Future of AI in Beauty Marketing

Currently, Brand Agency London is limiting its use of ChatGPT to its marketing department, but the brand hopes to find more areas of the business where AI technology could increase efficiency.

“We are currently testing and utilizing the AI tool ChatGPT in the front end of the business (marketing), using the technology in a positive approach to aid in positive change, and this is what we have witnessed thus far,” says Zukauskaite. “We are analyzing to see where further developments in the back end (e.g., warehousing, supply chain, etc.) can be utilized.”

Many tech leaders believe that AI is not a replacement for human intelligence, but rather an extension of it. Whether you’re ready for it or not, the AI revolution is here, and brands will need to adapt to a new economic reality powered by AI.

“Before introducing generative AI, I would recommend identifying the areas of your business where the tool can add value, making sure your team and business have a good working understanding of generative AI and the tool you wish to incorporate and the benefits to the role, and choosing the right generative AI that works for your business,” says Zukauskaite.

While there are still plenty of unknowns about the future of AI, the benefits are clear. From increased efficiency and productivity to cost savings, incorporating AI into your marketing strategy can improve ROI and boost performance—if you know how to optimize your AI prompts.

“You will be able to see a positive change across your business especially in areas such as efficiency and productivity with your teams where you can utilize the tool to boost and support business success,” says Zukauskaite. “I would recommend being mindful and monitoring the industry conversations and threats related to using generative AI.”