Is AI revolutionising financial marketing?

AI is undoubtedly changing the way companies operate. Does it have the capabilities to transform day-to-day marketing activities, or is it just an idea generator?

Artificial intelligence should be recognised as an umbrella term. Still in its infancy, the vastness of its capabilities and effectiveness is yet to be understood, but it has taken the corporate world by storm.

The daily headlines placing AI front and centre means that it literally can’t be ignored. In financial marketing, the questions to be answered are: how we can employ AI as a tool, can we afford to underestimate its value, and how are others using it?

With bespoke AI tools – such as in-house ChatGPT – being crafted to meet in-house requirements, AI is no longer an up-and-coming phenomenon to be feared, but rather a part of day-to-day lives.

According to the AI Marketing Institute’s State of AI Marketing report, 98% of all marketers surveyed say they are already personally using AI in some way, with 64% of these reporting optimistic feelings towards the technology.

In 2023, the financial services sector has seen an inconsistency in AI-led headlines, from “AI is revolutionising finance” to “AI brings mediocrity to the sector.”

But, despite dabbling in a bit of ChatGPT, financial marketers are not seeing the revolutionary effects that underwriters or tech departments are – at least, not yet.

Content ideas, unrefined press releases, and elements of data processing are among the day-to-day tasks financial marketers are using AI to undertake, despite claims that it is going to transform their working overnight.

Among the community, there are legitimate concerns too.

“We add value as communicators, as experts in our field, having the voice of our business, and knowing how our spokespeople think and might say things,” Alastair Fairbrother, head of communications and positioning at AllianzGI, tells Financial Promoter.

“I would be a little bit nervous about seeing press releases or social media posts become automated and given over to a bot.”

However, Fairbrother agrees that AI can “lift some of the load” by collating initial insights and drafting standardised materials.

Generating creativity

According to consultants McKinsey, “the productivity of marketing alone due to Generative AI could increase between 5% and 15% of total marketing spend, worth about $463bn annually.”

Generative means to reproduce and, through algorithms, the technology learns and evolves based on what’s fed into it. According to McKinsey, the “gen AI era” means that the previous extensive planning needed to execute creative campaign content is no longer necessary.

EY launched its own AI platform in October, which is readily available to its clients, to aid product development and design and increase speed to market.

The launch of EY.ai saw the consultancy firm utilise its own technology for October’s “Face of the future” video campaign, an ever-changing animated face of 200 of its employees.

Using AI visual and voice technology typically used in blockbuster movie productions, each photographed employee was placed against an animated face, creating the moving visual.

The sound of the video took one employee’s voice and augmented it, using voice AI, to create infinite voice variations.

This campaign showcased the need for human collaboration with AI, emphasising that it is the connection between people and technology that can spark a marketing revolution.

However, this example represents a tiny amount of what this future-facing technology is truly capable of. For content creation, automated images can be created by AI in an instant, based on a company’s market data and consumer insights.

The McKinsey report, “How generative AI can boost consumer marketing,” frames the ever-evolving tool to have the capability to establish a marketing sphere that has no creative constraints.

Allianz Global Investors already views AI as an opportunity for marketing professionals working under a budget.

For example, instead of the need for far-flung photography locations, AI can generate a perfect image instantly – increasing the efficiencies of both time and budget.

Stuart Breyer, CEO at Mallowstreet, put ChatGPT to the test to answer Financial Promoter’s first question: how do you see AI affecting a marketer’s day to day? “It came back with this,” says Breyer.

“Overall, AI is likely to transform the marketing landscape, making processes more efficient, personalised, and data driven. Marketers who embrace AI technologies can gain a competitive edge by staying agile and responsive to the evolving needs of their audience.”

Breyer responds: “I must say, I agree. In our firm, we are seeing AI help with content generation and optimisation, as well as dynamic delivery. The efficiency gains have been meaningful.”

AI takes the crucial components of content creation – consumer targeting, idea generation, image production, and delivery – and rapidly executes them, much faster than a human being could manage.

However, as Breyer adds, the one aspect that AI cannot perform better than a human is creativity.

“While human input, creativity, and strategic thinking remain crucial in marketing, AI complements these efforts by providing data-driven insights, automating tasks, and optimising marketing processes,” he says.

“The synergy between AI and human expertise allows marketers to make more informed, timely, and effective decisions in today’s fast-paced and data-rich environment.”

Making sense of the data

The frequently changing mind of a consumer means that sales and marketing segments and current trends are far from static.

Financial organisations collect an immense amount of consumer data that piles up faster than a person can manage efficiently, and marketing is where much of this data is housed and analysed.

AI provides a way to streamline the analysis process and hyper-personalise content for a particular segment.

Joliene van Grieken, VP of marketing at technology firm Bud Financial, explained during an interview with Financial Promoter that the move away from a mass-market approach requires both recent and specific data.

“AI is such a great tool to enhance marketing; it can help with personalisation, and if you look at the future of marketing, everything will be personalised; mass marketing is gone,” says van Grieken.

“Social media has too much supply and not enough demand; the thing we have to get right is target our audience with content that will resonate, consistently and persistently, and AI is the tool to do that.”

Each campaign a marketing professional creates assesses the segment it is trying to reach. The futuristic approach to this is implementing an AI product such as Bud’s AI-powered and customer-driven data intelligence platform, “Drive.”

The shift to a personalised marketing approach means finding the right people at the right time with the perfect message, and Bud’s tool “Drive” is the way to perfect this process, van Grieken explains.

To remain competitive within this new landscape, making sense of these hurdles of data is a necessity – allowing for a perfectly crafted message.

The negative connotations associated with AI are being debated everywhere, as experts and the uninitiated alike grapple with what it could mean for the world and its development.

Amie Stankiste, chief marketing officer at LSEG, says the group – which includes the London Stock Exchange – is being cautious around AI by using it only within its own governance frameworks.

“We have to think about risk management and resiliency and using AI responsibly. For example, we need to be mindful of data privacy and confidentiality of information throughout the process,” she says.

Another standout fear around the technology is the loss of jobs.

In PwC’s Global Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey 2023, the firm found that while only 30% of respondents feared losing their job to AI, 39% feared that they were not receiving efficient training on it.

A successful approach to marketing AI should be filling the skills gap.

“A lot of people are scared that the marketing function will cease to exist, but I don’t think that’s the case. AI is only as good as the brief you are giving it – you are still responsible for the story, narrative, and creativity,” van Grieken.

“The way I believe marketing will change is a shift towards brand and creative marketing, delivering a hyper-personalised message with the help of AI.”

Training and education around the inner workings of AI will allow marketers to intertwine their current skills with the new technological ecosystem that is undeniably unfolding.

Van Grieken says AI can automate and produce much faster than we can alone, but it cannot conjure ideas by itself. Generative AI learns only from those using it.

It’s important to remember that authenticity cannot (yet) be realised by technology.

AI is only as effective as the brief it is given, and the best briefs are created in the human mind.

This article is taken from the Winter 2024 print edition of Financial Promoter. Click here to subscribe.