Partner Article

A warning on AI-generated trends?

Generative AI (or Gen AI) is a subfield of artificial intelligence that uses generative models to create images, videos, audio and other forms of data in seconds. 

Want to add a rainbow to your landscape photo? Gen AI can do that. 

Want to make it look like someone went somewhere or did something they didn’t? Gen AI can do that too, and infamously has.

After all, Gen AI is behind a lot of deepfakes.

It might sound a little outside of your daily realm, but it’s not. 

If you’ve seen the recent action figure trend emblazoned all over LinkedIn, then you’ve seen Gen AI in action. Maybe you’ve even used it yourself?

These applications seem innocent enough. It’s just a bit of fun. Plus, Gen AI means that brands and individuals can jump quickly on trending conversations — great news for marketing teams and professionals looking to build their personal brand. 

And yet, there are unfavourable implications of being able to create viral and trending content in such a short timeframe. 

Speeding through the viral curve?

Trending content, like innovation in general, moves through an adoption curve.

It starts slowly with early adopters, before reaching a peak between the early and late majority. 

By the time it hits saturation point, many people have seen and/or shared it, and it later decays as the audience loses interest.

Does Gen AI accelerate the curve? If the action doll trend is anything to go by, it certainly feels that way.

The gap between early adopters and the late majority felt shorter than ever. 

And, as a result, the decay phase will come faster too. 

That content you or your brand are producing to be part of the conversation? It could be irrelevant in just a few days.

This might not be a negative. But it arguably adds pressure to marketing teams, as they’ll need to create more content and more frequently. 

And Gen AI is good for that, so a self-fulfilling cycle begins.

Not stopping to consider brand fit?

Another warning around speed: brands and individuals must pause to consider whether a trending topic makes strategic sense for them.

Not every trend will be on-brand. It’s wise to think twice about your values and brand voice before you take part because your audience will notice if you don’t. 

A host of ethical and environmental concerns are being discussed around Gen AI. 

And if your brand has strong values in either camp, what feels like a good marketing move could end up quite the opposite.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Bdaily Publishing .