E-commerce marketers recognize the advantages and disadvantages of GenAI

Generational AI has the potential to transform the way B2B and B2C e-commerce marketers do their work.

But understanding and implementing a GenAI environment, where tools and programs work and which don’t, can be difficult for e-commerce marketers, according to a new report from Forrester Research.

“The introduction of ChatGPT and the rapid proliferation of genAI tools have generated ongoing discussions and discoveries about their potential impact across multiple scenarios and use cases, as well as potential risks,” according to Forrester’s report, Generative AI Brings Superpowers to Portfolio Marketers. “The sheer level of opportunity it brings to so many different fields has created a whirlwind of confusion.”

Challenges identified in the report include:

Access depends on where you work. Organizational practices and guidelines for the use of genAI vary widely. “Many organizations continue to tread carefully and prohibit employees from using genAI tools.”
Companies are confused about the many ways to access genAI’s capabilities. “Organizations and employees do not know which tools to use, how and when – due to the multitude of tools and access paths.”
There are no defined processes and standards. Within organizational guidelines, many portfolio marketers are actively trying out genAI tools for a variety of applications. “As the number of genAI tools grows, portfolio marketers often rely on word of mouth to find tools that fit their needs and the requirements of their business.”

To use genAI effectively, e-commerce marketers don’t have to take a “one size fits all” approach, Forrester says. Instead, marketers need to find specific areas where AI can improve the speed, efficiency and awareness of branding campaigns and messages.

Areas where Forrester believes genAI can provide key benefits include:

Accelerating time to expertise. GenAI can summarize information from multiple sources, enabling portfolio marketers to quickly tap into the latest information.
Automation of repetitive or time-consuming tasks.
GenAI can automate mundane tasks such as data entry, note-taking, and reporting, thereby freeing up time and resources for more complex and strategic work.
Stimulating creativity and ideas. With a wide range of responsibilities and endless to-do lists, it can be difficult for portfolio marketers to constantly stimulate creativity.
Repackaging content for different uses. Portfolio marketers can increase their content creation productivity by asking genAI to develop short or long form content.
Enables large-scale personalization. The ability to communicate and engage a prospect or customer based on their industry, geographic region, functional responsibility, and even buyer role can pay dividends in terms of response and engagement levels.

“genAI content generation tools can be trained on the best content in messaging to help sales, marketing, and other teams as they create emails, ads, and landing pages,” Forrester says.

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