Fidji Simo just dropped 3 big AI advertising insights in an OpenAI essay
Fidji Simo, OpenAI’s new Applications CEO, just published an essay that has important implications for advertisers.
In the essay, Simo -- a former Facebook and Instacart leader who joins OpenAI next month -- describes AI as the biggest force for empowerment in history.
Excerpt from Simo’s essay
Here are 3 points from Simo’s essay that will impact how marketers do business.
AI is making expert-level knowledge accessible to everyone.
Simo encourages us to think of AI as the new front line of consumer decision-making. People are using platforms like ChatGPT to research, compare and understand complex topics, and they’re expecting fast answers. “When we have the right knowledge at the right time, we can make better decisions, advocate for ourselves, and change our path,” Simo writes.
What that means for brands: Make sure your information is clear, useful and structured so AI can surface it. If AI is answering questions about your product, it's absolutely critical to get the answer right.
AI is saving people time and changing their expectations.
This is a big one for Simo. The essay reminds us of how Instacart turned grocery delivery into something mainstream, and that AI is doing the same for activities like researching purchases, planning events and managing tasks. “Time-consuming activities like researching decisions, planning vacations, scheduling a tutor, and more can be done by an AI agent that anyone can access,” Simo writes.
What it means for brands: If your path to purchase takes too long or is hard to navigate, you’ll lose people. Assume consumers (or their AI agents) have no patience for friction.
Creativity is no longer limited to trained professionals.
“… if AI gives everyone access to the tools to transform their ideas into images, stories, or songs, it will make the world a much richer place,” Simo writes optimistically. AI is powering image generation, writing tools and video editing, and more people are expressing themselves with those tools. And some consumers are now expecting brands to play along.
What that means for brands: The impact of AI on advertising creation is impossible to ignore. Whether you create fully AI ads or just use AI as part of the process, you'll want to start thinking about how you can still control the narrative but use AI as part of the story.
What I think Simo left out in the essay (and what many people will jump on) is the negatives of AI, such as the ethical challenges of granting control to AI or the risks when AI is used for bad rather than good. But then again, you wouldn’t expect an incoming OpenAI executive to focus on the less positive aspects of AI.
