Innovation Highlights at the AI User Conference in San Francisco

Wrap AI User Conference
​At the same time rain-laden clouds were approaching the Pacific Coast the AI user conference in San Francisco was bringing forth a whirlwind of innovation for marketers designers and developers. The conference took place over three days the end of January 2024 with Day 1 AI + Marketing, Day 2 AI + Design, and Day 3 AI + Development.

Data Analysis
The first day kicked off with a workshop on data analytics for marketers using ChatGPT-based prompts to analyze data sets. I used a data set for an election campaign I was working on with a ChatGPT Data bot to analyze and predict election results, build multiple scenarios, and tally results. I learned that having clean data was essential and could use data in various formats such as Excel, CSV, SQL, VBA and Power BI. It wasn’t perfect on the first try, but I could see the potential. It eliminated the tasks of creating formulas within cells and the manual errors that often accompany those kinds of ever-changing Excel spreadsheets.

Repurposing Content
Another workshop discussed how to repurpose content using video transcripts.  A summarization tool from a Chrome extension called YouTube ChatGPT and Claude enabled me to obtain a full transcript of a video on YouTube with timecodes. I prompted ChatGPT to expand upon the topic of YouTube Summary and it provided me with a detailed description of how to add the extension and the full capabilities of this Chrome extension to repurpose the content for social media, social media posts, blog articles or presentations.

Brand Management
New doors are opening for brand marketing with AI helping to ensure consistent brand voice and guidance using brand books and AI models. The most compelling solution I saw at the conference on this topic was demonstrated at Simplified, an all-In-1 Suite for Ecommerce Stores, Marketers, Businesses, Content Writers & More.

AI-generated Video
Probably the most exciting highlight of all was how AI was streamlining the producing,  publishing and distributing video. There were a number of generative AI for video applications presented including AugX, Rizzle, InVideo and Simplified. I observed that most of the examples were animations or supported with B-Roll from integrated licensed stock versus live action recorded corporate interviews, original-filmed B-Roll from factories, industry scenes, though all had the capability of uploading custom content. I decided to experiment with one of these applications using a ChatGPT integration with InVideo and though it did a good job of text-to-voice, selected B-Roll from licensed stock, and added music, the end product was not acceptable to me as it lacked the right tone, emotion and visuals. Human directors and producers still need to be involved to direct, produce and refine.

Design for App Development
There were many exciting design capabilities using AI. One product called Buzzy.buzz with its Figma plugin enables the design of a mobile app by using prompts using natural language processing. It allowed the user to design nearly 80% of an app, then transition to Figma to further refine.

Generating Images
There was hands-on exploration for creatives using DreamBooth, Stable Diffusion and DALL-E. AI Design is extremely useful for coming up with ideas, artwork, photo realism, and so much more using simple natural language prompts. 

Product Marketing and Development
On Day 3, the focus was on development. Product marketers saw the possibilities with UserDoc, an app used by product marketers to define and develop personas. The tedium of creating product requirement documents and briefs for developers is also getting streamlined using simple prompts to create personas for specific roles, interests and even personalities. And common code modules are being identified by business users, then assembled for faster app development. We even learned how to create and train a chatbot using Simplified's AI Chatbot product. 

Wrap Up
Learning all about these AI tools isn't something you learn once and then you’re done. It's an ongoing evolution. Now is the time to embrace AI for your area of expertise.