• by Barry Lowenthal , Op-Ed Contributor, February 1, 2024

There’s a lot of excitement around the limitless potential of AI, but there is also plenty of mistrust. Last year, a survey by Pew Research Center revealed 52% of Americans are more concerned than excited by the use of AI. 

Brands are already operating in an environment in which people are distrustful of the information they receive. This problem is compounded by the risks AI can pose, including deep fakes and other falsities that the technology can not only enable but supercharge. 

That concern has grown as we’ve entered 2024. The Iowa Caucuses launched with 58% of adults worried about the use of AI increasing the spread of false information during the 2024 presidential election.  

To counter this and similar threats, and leverage the very real benefits AI can bring, marketers need to understand how to deploy these tools in a way that builds and maintains trust. 

Ethics are key to creating that trust. 

A brand is a promise, so anything that compromises honesty or authenticity, compromises a brand. It’s essential all questions about how AI content is created are answered, or the brand will be eroded. 

How can marketers keep a brand's promise, while still making use of the tools offered by AI? Here are five considerations to incorporate into your workflow when utilizing AI. 

Disclose Use

The starting point is to be upfront. At the basic level, you need to tell your audience you’ve used AI to create your campaign. 

Humans don’t like to feel tricked. We require certainty, security, and a civil society to fulfill these basic needs. AI has already threatened these needs in several high-profile ways. 

Whether it’s through the early viral moments of misinformation, like the fake footage of a drunk Nancy Pelosi, or the faked photo of the Pope in a puffy, or the more recent deep fake ads using ‘celebrities’ to advocate products they’ve never heard of, AI is making people feel unnerved. 

Brands are experiencing guilt by association – with deep fake ads appearing on high-profile platforms, like X and YouTube. 

Marketers can fight back by making use clear, by attaching a disclaimer to every single piece of AI content. Be authentic, be transparent. And if you can make your AI use part of the campaign itself – celebrating its positive aspects, all the better. 

How Is Consumer Information Being Protected?

There’s a clear perception of AI technology being used without safeguards, but where online privacy is concerned, AI is actually helping. 

As third-party cookies are phased out, marketers are turning towards AI solutions to quickly interpret audience data on a wider scale, without the need for invasive tracking techniques.  

It’s important to communicate AI’s positive impact on key areas like privacy, to help build trust with consumers. What are you doing to protect their privacy? 

Disclose Sources

Just as we have ingredients on the back of food labels, there should be an ingredients list for AI. We must be absolutely transparent about what we’ve put into our models to fight the public perception that AI is a plagiarism engine. 

No shortcuts, no cheats, just open and honest information about the information fed into your campaign. 

How Are The Models Learning?

You’ve disclosed your sources, but how are your models using that information? What are the inputs, how much value is being assigned to the data, and how are the outputs being created? In other words, how is your model taught, and how is it applied? Talk to your engineers, find a way to communicate this fundamental information on behalf of your brand. 

Disclose Edits 

AI isn’t fully autonomous, especially when it comes to creative. Public fears could be easily assuaged by being upfront about the level of human involvement in a creative campaign. What was the raw material you worked with and how did you craft it into the final product? And if a human was your starting point, and you used AI to edit, disclose that too. 

If people see that AI creates jobs, or makes work easier, it’ll reduce some of the feelings of risk. Celebrate your team’s imagination and impact on AI use, and watch your audience respond. 

The bottom line: 2024 will be a transformative year for AI. Public perception can  be improved by marketers following ethical practices to change the narrative, celebrating AI’s positive potential.