Everyone is looking for ways to integrate AI and chatbots into their web design, marketing, and online communication strategies. It has been a boon of increased productivity and a wonder for synthesizing massive amounts of data. However, where there is promise in the future of how AI will benefit businesses and organizations of all sizes and functions, there are some practical limitations to what AI and chatbots cannot achieve as well as a creative agency like STAUFFER; in some cases, AI and chatbots cannot complete these tasks at all.
THE PROMISE OF AI AND CHATBOTS:
The transformative potential of AI-driven web design and marketing will be massive. As seen in our other article, “GOOGLE ANALYTICS 4: WHAT’S NEW AND HOW THESE CHANGES WILL AFFECT YOUR COMPANY’S DATA ANALYZATION”, chatbots are game changers regarding customer service and personalized experiences. Chatbots utilized as customer service representatives actively serve valuable roles online, providing automated responses to customer queries and issues at a fraction of the cost of outsourced live agents. Data-driven insights powered by AI and machine learning have been a significant player in driving sales with algorithm-based product recommendations and highly detailed audience metrics pointed toward increasing conversions, which has supercharged UX research and implementation. There are limitations, however:
THE LIMITATIONS OF AI AND CHATBOTS:
AI is not creative, nor does it create- A few months back, we addressed the challenges of emotional understanding and genuine human interactions. If you haven’t read the article yet, we advise you to do so, but in short, chatbots cannot replicate the creativity of humans – they can merely copy it. It is still, and always will be, the role of humanity to make and innovate for other humans. Even if chatbots like Google Bard and ChatGPT make it to full sentience, commonly called AGI, we still talk about a digital being trying to relate to humans.
AI may result in copyright issues- As of where we stand today at the start of 2024, there are limitations in creativity and originality when generating content and visuals. Chatbots perform as quantum-powered mad-libs, placing words into a structure understood through intensely complex and somewhat unknown processes in a format similar to other examples within its database. Image generators like Midjourney face a similar issue in being unable to formulate an original image, merely a composite of multiple images. These also face uphill legal headwinds regarding potential copyright infringement and plagiarism.
AI can have a harmful bias- A critical limitation of chatbots and AI technologies is potential biases that, if unchecked, pose a threat to the perceived inclusivity of your organization. A great example of how AI can cause tendency can be seen in the TikTok video above, highlighting how the library machine learning tools draw from can skew to particular races, demographics, and dispositions that perpetuate harmful stereotypes within the sensitive diaspora. To create more concise and exact answers, machine learning tools (like chatbots) remove statistical outliers from the data pool they draw from so that they can model their results based on a family of clustered data points. This methodology is an essential function of machine learning to provide a wealth of answers to seemingly any topic. This process does create a limitation, however, when it comes to human identity and can make triggering content for those who fall outside the margins of what is deemed “normal.”
AI chatbots can flat-out make things up- Due to the inherent way that chatbots work, chatbots can present false information in the form of slight inaccuracy and straight-up balderdash. Out of general curiosity, I asked ChatGPT, “Who are some famous people from [my hometown] San Bernardino?” As it is where I spent the first 18 years of my life, I had a general knowledge of some of the greats from my city (pretty much no one) and was told that the author of Garfield, Jim Davis, spent some time in my hometown. Shocked, I did a little digging and could not find any information that the inventor of America’s favorite lasagna-devouring cat ever went to the small community college in my town; I had received one of ChatGPT’s infamous hallucinations.
In short: chatbots do not do any fact-checking; they just put one word in front of the other. While this is a small, foolish example, there are numerous examples of how chatbot hallucinations have created havoc in the professional world. Chatbots do not do any fact-checking because they cannot tell if the sources they are cross-referencing with are accurate either. Until they can parse factual data from untrue data, STAUFFER recommends that any prompts run through a chatbot receive rigorous old-fashioned human due diligence regarding verifying the factuality of the statements before publishing anything for public consumption.
FILLING THE GAPS: THE ROLE OF CREATIVE AGENCIES LIKE STAUFFER
AI and machine learning are already on their way to becoming tremendously valuable tools for every industry, including creative work. In the end, they are still tools, however, and as we all know, a tool is only as good as the person using it. Moving forward, emphasizing the “human” part of that idiom has never been more critical.
There is, and always will be, a unique value in human creativity. In the creative world, humans will always be the guiding force in crafting captivating visuals and engaging content. Humans will always lead creative agencies to tailor content to specific cultural contexts and break language barriers with harmonious, compelling content.
STAUFFER hangs its hat on being diligent problem solvers, providing tactical leadership and an intelligent strategy to tackle complex business challenges with gracefully integrated design and technological strategy. Without humans, no creative agency could bring empathy and emotional intelligence to their work. Customer interactions would become cold, lifeless, uninventive moments, and who wants that?
It will always be a human doing the job of bringing joy and innovation to other humans.
SYNERGY: THE FUTURE OF AI AND CREATIVE AGENCIES
We at STAUFFER see the potential for collaboration between AI-driven solutions and creative agencies. As a matter of fact, we utilize them in almost every phase of our process. What makes our work stand out is how we use them and the minds behind them. Our QA team uses AI to maximize efficiency in squashing bugs and optimizing UX. Our creative and strategy team deploys intuitive systems and components that drive conversions. We even use AI and chatbots to help formulate and structure messaging for our articles and email content.
AI-powered tools enhance STAUFFER’s capabilities and efficiency and, in turn, do the very same for our clients. By understanding the roles these tools play in our lives and finding how humans must work around their limitations, we can elevate ourselves to a world where mundane and complex tasks are simplified. We can express ourselves more creatively and deliver better products to the world.
Want to learn more about our balanced approach to AI integration and human creativity within our agency? Interested in leveraging both AI-driven solutions and the creative prowess of STAUFFER to optimize your organization? Explore with us by taking time with a STAUFFER consultant today.
