Persado was using AI to create marketing content when ChatGPT was still learning to sing Daisy. They haven’t had much attention recently but did just release this interesting study that found senior marketers do no better than chance at picking the winner among three possible email subject lines. The key is less that AI generates better content than that Persado tests many alternatives to find which performs best.
Excitement about ChatGPT and friends is already being replaced by doubts it can live up to the hype. (Here’s a Gartner take, for example.) What’s good about that is vendors are already building tools to address those concerns. For example, Credo AI, an AI governance software vendor (yes, it’s a category), just released GenAI Guardrails, which helps companies minimize the risks of AI misuse and build the most valuable applications first.
Retailers continue to struggle for access for complete customer data. A CommerceNext survey of ecommerce managers found that only web analytics (95%), behavior (89%) and email/SMS interactions (83%) are used by more than half the respondents. Underused sources include loyalty data (47%), point of sale purchases (44%), and customer service interactions (42%). An impressive 64% said they do incrementality testing but many fewer capture customer IDs (46%), do predictive scoring (25%) or attempt ID resolution (22%).
Procrastinators of the world can throw a party whenever they get around to it: Google has once more pushed back complete third-party cookie deprecation. The new target is “early next year.” Reasons for the delay include concerns expressed by U.K. data regulator Information Commissioner’s Office, an ongoing inquiry by the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority, and widespread discontent in the advertising ecosystem.