Really enjoy the articles Antony, always thought provoking. It's particularly interesting to become aware of innovative applications such as Historical Large Language Models, be 'blown away' by the concept and simultaneously nod and think "makes sense". That approach reminds me a bit of David Ogilvy advocating the "marinating" of our minds with a broad range of knowledge from which creativity can flourish.
In a less sophisticated but similar way to the HLLMs, Gen AI has transformed one of the modules I teach by helping students to understand and "walk in the shoes" of a target audience. It's been particularly helpful in revealing possible problems that the audience is experiencing and which an offer can solve. The level of perception, understanding and subsequent discussions in the classroom is on a profoundly different level.
The problem for undergraduate marketing students is that at their age it's not possible to have an evolved frame of reference for different types of audiences, the problems they face, or the life stages they are at (to be honest there are also agencies and other partitioners who do not consider these things are deeply as they should).
Linked to another of your points. In the classroom we always pause and "check back in" with authoritative literature (which also includes market research), just to see if the AI insights are plausible and sound.
Thanks for the thoughtful comment, Ken. “Walking in the shoes” and “checking back in” are excellent habits to form. We’ve been using both to bring data-supported personas to life with usable and useful insights as a result. It would be good to compare notes sometime.
Really enjoy the articles Antony, always thought provoking. It's particularly interesting to become aware of innovative applications such as Historical Large Language Models, be 'blown away' by the concept and simultaneously nod and think "makes sense". That approach reminds me a bit of David Ogilvy advocating the "marinating" of our minds with a broad range of knowledge from which creativity can flourish.
In a less sophisticated but similar way to the HLLMs, Gen AI has transformed one of the modules I teach by helping students to understand and "walk in the shoes" of a target audience. It's been particularly helpful in revealing possible problems that the audience is experiencing and which an offer can solve. The level of perception, understanding and subsequent discussions in the classroom is on a profoundly different level.
The problem for undergraduate marketing students is that at their age it's not possible to have an evolved frame of reference for different types of audiences, the problems they face, or the life stages they are at (to be honest there are also agencies and other partitioners who do not consider these things are deeply as they should).
Linked to another of your points. In the classroom we always pause and "check back in" with authoritative literature (which also includes market research), just to see if the AI insights are plausible and sound.
Thanks for the thoughtful comment, Ken. “Walking in the shoes” and “checking back in” are excellent habits to form. We’ve been using both to bring data-supported personas to life with usable and useful insights as a result. It would be good to compare notes sometime.