For E-Commerce Teams, Success Sits at the Intersection of Humans and AI

With all of the hype surrounding generative AI programs like ChatGPT, DALL-E, Midjourney and others, you’d be forgiven for wondering how AI fits into your content creation and execution workflows. But the recent survey from the Path to Purchase Institute and Vizit backs up what I hear in conversations with agency and consumer brand leaders: Professionals have high hopes for AI’s potential, especially as a tool to optimize the content creation and execution processes — and they’re ready to implement it in 2024. 

The survey responses include a number of professionals who are hopeful that AI can help them be more efficient with their team’s time, so creatives and strategists can do what they do best. While some teams are experimenting with generative AI, many are more curious to find how AI can complement existing staff and structures. Several respondents call out the opportunity for AI to reduce costs and allow team members to focus more on creativity in e-commerce imagery, packaging and advertising.

We saw this reflected in the tasks and functions that professionals are hopeful AI can assist with in the visual
content creation process. When thinking about how AI can enhance or support visual content creation and measurement, respondents saw most relevance in advanced analytics (80%), content testing & optimization (75%), content personalization & customization (74%), and content syndication selection (72%).

Applying AI to the measuring and testing side of content creation to free up time for employees is a far cry from the widely held belief that generative AI is coming for all writing and designing jobs. What’s driving the different opinions? Professionals may be wary of the quality of AI-generated content or could struggle matching generative AI outputs with brand guidelines. But an underrated factor may be the creativity and brand alignment that comes from your employees.

“AI is great, but trained creatives, writers and marketers bring unique, human ideas to the table that are valuable and personable,” one respondent said. Another respondent pointed out that younger generations today want authentic experiences from the brands they frequent, and teams aren’t yet convinced that generative AI can deliver in that way.

This matches the conversations I’ve had with peers and Vizit customers, many of whom are intrigued by AI, but are first and foremost focused on creating the best possible branded experience for consumers. They don’t need AI that will attempt to replicate their jobs. What they need is technology that gives them time and resources to focus on building and maintaining customer relationships.

We’ve seen this at Vizit for years. With AI providing the backbone of content analysis, e-commerce and design teams are free to spend their time doing what they love: creating, strategizing, designing and building out big ideas. If this is the future of AI — and it seems like a number of industry leaders want it to be — then weaving predictive AI into the fabric of your teams now is the best way to get ahead of the competition, win in an image-infused retail landscape, and retain and maximize your talent.

AI’s potential can only be fully realized when combined with the strengths of human staff. Bringing together AI’s efficiency and your employees’ creativity and emotional intelligence gives e-commerce teams a competitive edge by leveraging cutting-edge technology while ensuring customer-centricity, brand differentiation and ethical conduct. The future of e-commerce isn’t a battle between humans and AI — it’s about harnessing the strengths of both to drive success in the digital age.