Viewpoint: FOMO? Get into ChatGPT ASAP

Everyone, from large hotel brands to single operators can use ChatGPT for themselves, so what are you waiting for, asks Simon James

Unlike last year’s game-changer, Web3, generative artificial intelligence such as ChatGPT is much less likely to end up as tomorrow’s fish and chip paper.

There is undeniably hype around generative AI – its adoption is already high among consumers, with ChatGPT generating the same web traffic as Amazon. It can help you buy your groceries faster and even find availability at your favourite restaurant, so its benefits will directly impact how consumers interact with businesses, whether they are ready or not.

There is nothing new about AI – the industry is 70 years old – however, what has changed on the back of OpenAI’s decision to release ChatGPT is that this futuristic technology is now in the hands of more than 200 million people. Unlike many new technologies, consumers have their hands on it at the same time as big corporations do.

Rather than having to be convinced to use the technology, consumers have expectations that if they can use ChatGPT and its equivalents, then so should every business they interact with. This is creating a tension for businesses, where the fear of missing out is clashing with the fear of introducing new risks, from data privacy concerns to regulatory issues to reputational risk.

What’s in store for consumers?

A study by Nielsen once revealed the average US household spends an hour driving to the grocery store and an hour shopping at the grocery store every week. With the advent of e-commerce, that time was reduced to 45 minutes of online shopping and no driving.

Today, e-commerce represents approximately 30% of retail sales in the UK. Generative AI will eventually significantly reduce those 45 minutes to a couple of minutes, automating the creation of shopping lists, the adding of those items to a basket and checking out. Convenience is clearly a strong driver of adoption – giving people the most precious commodity, time.

A common complaint of navigating the internet today is the poor user experience. If you have ever tried to look up a recipe in the kitchen, hands covered in flour, you will have experienced the frustration of scrolling past three pages of search engine optimised-content to find the actual ingredients and method. Generative AI will ignore that and just give you the things that you want.

Automating the boring stuff is another ability of generative AI. While a human may struggle to find a free table at their favourite restaurant, a ChatGPT-style bot can reverse the process, identifying all the free tables and providing that choice to a consumer, all in the blink of an eye.

What does this mean for hospitality?

When it comes to digital marketing, businesses that rely on digital advertising and search engine optimisation may face disruption as consumers increasingly use chat interfaces to find restaurants and book tables. Imagine chat agents reviewing hundreds of options, bypassing digital ads and top search results, meaning the consumer will not be exposed to digital advertising. Additional effort will be required to reverse-engineer how to appear in ChatGPT’s preferred lists of options displayed to their human masters.

Driven by consumers who benefit from the convenience it brings, generative AI is a practical technology with low barriers to adoption. That hasn’t been true of many innovations in digital, where cool new technologies have seemingly struggled to find useful application. It’s for this reason we believe it’s not just hype and is driving fundamental changes in consumer behaviour.

Businesses that are early to experiment with this new technology and rethink how they do digital marketing will give themselves a much-needed window to steal a march on their competitors.

Simon James is group vice-president of data science and AI at Publicis Sapient