Generative AI, when used thoughtfully, is helping marketers work faster and more effectively than ever. These tools can be a content creator’s dream, but to ensure they don’t become a nightmare for you or your brand, we’ve put together a few basic guidelines for creating a Generative AI framework that works for your organization.
Note: This is not an all-inclusive list. Each industry and each business has different considerations for the use of Gen AI for marketing and PR, and these tools are evolving constantly. There will certainly be new factors to navigate along the way, but this is a good place to start.
1. Bring all the stakeholders to the table up front:
Content creators, marketers, developers, sales teams and many other functions can benefit from using Gen AI, but your leadership, legal team, and regulatory compliance experts will have an important perspective on how to do so in a way that doesn’t create problems for your business or your customers.
Be sure you have a seat at the table, as these experts identify guidelines that meet the needs and requirements of the business as a whole. Then, collaborate on how best to apply those guidelines to your PR or marketing use case. What makes sense for sales, marketing, or PR work may not apply to writing code or fighting fraud, for example.
2. Create an agreed-upon list of acceptable uses and what is not an acceptable use within your organization:
The first thing on every marketer’s list should be human oversight. No matter how you use Gen AI, none of it should see the light of day without detailed review and verification from real people.
Examples of acceptable uses in marketing and PR may include brainstorming or other ideation to support the creative process, such as draft creative briefs and plans; administrative and tactical support, such as researching media coverage or summarizing content; and creating first drafts of content, such as outlines, social media posts, blogs etc.
3. Privacy and confidentiality: Never share private or confidential information in a Gen AI model. Ever.
This requires careful planning and consideration of what is defined as confidential within your organization. Your organization and the customers you serve should already have detailed policies on what is considered confidential and how your business complies with state, federal and international privacy laws. All of those policies should apply here, so consult your experts before sharing. And it should go without saying but, when in doubt, don’t share it.
4. Intellectual property and copyright rules:
As with all content creation, it’s imperative to properly attribute and credit others’ work, including copy, graphics and images, audio, video etc. Be sure your team understands that all intellectual property and copyright rules apply to AI generated content.
5. Editorial and ethical standards:
It is well-documented that Gen AI models don’t always get it right, and sometimes their outputs are shockingly bad, incredibly biased or downright offensive. This ‘hallucinating’ can create major issues for your brand, so never assume AI has it right.
Some tools automatically provide sources, which can make it easier to confirm facts and data. Beyond checking for basic factual accuracy, is your role as a protector of the brand(s) you serve to ensure your outputs maintain the editorial and ethical standards you would use in any other marketing or PR content.
You can use well-constructed prompts to teach an AI tool about brand voice, but you must also review all outputs for acceptable brand representation. This includes not only brand voice but also avoiding narratives and points of view that are discriminatory, offensive, inappropriate or otherwise unfit for publication. Consider yourself personally responsible for reviewing, editing and verifying anything that comes from Gen AI.
6. Be transparent with clients (internal or external) in how you use Gen AI.
This includes citing the use of AI when original new content is created with AI, such as creating an original image. Be sure to follow any client policies, which may include a prohibition on using Gen AI in certain scenarios.
As Generative AI tools continue to evolve, there will be numerous opportunities to make the most of these incredible tools. But they come with risks that must be carefully managed by the people using these tools.
