Australian marketers looking to improve outcomes with generative AI

New research reveals that Australian marketers estimate generative AI will save them almost six hours of work per week the equivalent of over a month per year.

Yet, while they see the technology as transformative to their role, marketers also note the need for human oversight, trusted customer data, and training as critical to successfully use it.

Salesforce surveyed 342 Australian marketersas part of its Generative AI Snapshot Series, and found that 71% are currently using generative AI, with an additional 14% planning to use it very soon, totaling 85% of marketers using or about to use the technology.

Demonstrating a lack of confidence, only 18% say they dont know how to safely use generative AI (compared to 39% globally). Those concerned are worried about its accuracy and report a need for human oversight, as well as proper training and trusted customer data, to leverage the technology effectively at work.

Australian marketers using generative AI are already targeting the basics, such as content creation (74%) and copywriting (73%). However, many see a wholesale overhaul of their work on the horizon, with 66% saying generative AI is a game changer.

Respondents cite reasons for this, including its ability to transform how they analyse data, personalise messaging content, build marketing campaigns, and build/optimise SEO strategy.

With generative AI, marketers also say they expect to save time and be able to focus on more strategic work:

• 86% say generative AI will eliminate busy work
• 87% say generative AI will allow them to focus on more strategic work

Leandro Perez, Chief Marketing Officer, Asia Pacific, Salesforce, comments, "Generative AI is completely reshaping our world and revolutionising how marketers work. Marketers looking to reap big productivity gains need to focus on getting their data in order by unifying their first-party data sets and leveraging trusted AI innovations to ensure safety and accuracy."

Marketers report accuracy and quality as top concerns say, trusted customer data and human oversight are required to use generative AI successfully at work. Accuracy and quality depend on data.

However, 67% of marketers say their companys data is not properly set up for generative AI despite 79% saying trusted customer data is important for the successful use of generative AI at work.

This is a sentiment echoed by experts. According to Clara Shih, Salesforce's CEO of AI, "Data is fuel for AI without high-quality, trusted data, it becomes garbage in, garbage out. AI pulling from data sources that are irrelevant, unrepresentative, or incomplete can create bias, hallucinations, and toxic outputs."

Many (76%) marketers also believe generative AI's lack of human creativity and contextual knowledge is a potential barrier to successfully using generative AI in the workplace. As a result, 78% of marketers say human oversight is needed to successfully use generative AI in their role.

Another key finding is that while Australian marketers are excited about the opportunities of generative AI to transform their work, some feel unprepared to take full advantage of it, with more than one in five marketers saying they don't know how to get the most value out of the technology.

In addition, while 68% of Aussie marketers believe generative AI training programs are important for them to successfully use generative AI in their role, 69% say their employer does not yet provide generative AI training.