AI has exploded…

With the exponentially increasing use of tools such as ChatGPT and its somewhat disconcerting humanlike conversational dialogue.

Considering the growing accessibility and popularisation of AI models, we have attempted to provide some advice for everyone under One Consultancy Group on both its uses and its limitations. We highly suspect that most of you have encountered these tools and that some of you even use them on a daily basis. In marketing, we have compiled some tips from our own experience of the chatbots.

IMPORTANT NOTES

• The default version of ChatGPT when you search for it is not the most up to date and advanced version! Depending on the frequency of your need for it and the kind of information you are seeking, it may be useful to investigate the merits of using the GPT-4 version, rather than the standard GPT-3.5 version.
•  Chat GPT-4 is used for more analytical purposes, having eight times more memory than GPT-3.5, so you can submit larger queries.
• ChatGPT can be useful for marketing purposes, whether that be asking it to reword and improve your own content, or whether you are asking it to produce new content for your own use.

Since starting the marketing and website design for OCG Mortgages, I have found online AI tools to be very useful and efficient for creating content talking points. Therefore, as it is such a hot topic, I decided to share what I know, what I have discovered, and what other One Consultancy Group employees think of it.

MY RESERVATIONS

If I am being entirely honest, when I became aware of the increasing use of these tools during my penultimate year of university, as an aspiring writer, I was horrified. Giving in and creating my own account to explore these tools a few months later only increased my mounting horror. How can I pursue a career in which a robot can best me in a matter of seconds? In which a robot can produce text at a rate that I could only dream of? But that is just it. It is not a dream – these tools are designed to be utilised to our advantage – must be utilised to our advantage – as they are just that – tools.  In fact, I could ask ChatGPT, even version 3.5, to write me an article or guide on the uses of AI tools within the financial planning/advising industry and it would likely produce something useful and informative to insert here within ten seconds. Whilst that feels a bit too meta and inauthentic to do right now, I think it is an important example of how the process of sales and marketing can often be streamlined and automated with the support of these useful online tools.

TIPS

• To use ChatGPT, you must make an account, which is an extremely quick and easy process, so for anyone who perhaps hasn’t used it, do not be daunted by that fact. This is the chatbot which, for marketing, I have found the most beneficial.
• It is also important to note that ChatGPT is owned and developed by OpenAI, a San Francisco based company, and therefore if you are asking it for information regarding financial planning, UK laws, UK housing, or UK market updates, it is crucial that you specify in the request that you are inquiring about the United Kingdom and that you specify to the chatbot to output the spellings in British English.
• Another issue to be aware of has arisen with the options I have listed above, as the standard 3.5 version of ChatGPT’s sources end with 2021 data, and even the newer version – ChatGPT-4, is limited to knowledge up to March 2023. Therefore, when seeking a market update, a better AI tool to use could be Google Bard, as it continually draws information from the internet and will present you with up-to-date material to present to clients and staff alike. However, because it uses the internet, the information will require factchecking and proofreading.
• WHICH IS BETTER? Does this automatically make Google Bard a more useful tool than ChatGPT? The short answer is no. Knowing how and when to use different AI tools is crucial to using them effectively and productively. Google Bard is ideal for quickly sourcing recent information and shifts within the market. However, you may find that the responses it generates lack eloquence and require significant editing. ChatGPT, on the other hand, requires factchecking to ensure that the information is correct and up to date, and yet is capable of producing writing which is articulate and professional. Thus, I would recommend using these chatbots in tandem with one another for the best results. Moreover, with the ongoing training and development of these chatbots, in which users submit feedback, which is implemented, these discrepancies between the tools are subject to change and destined to improve.

Confession: after writing this article, my own curiosity got the better of me, and I entered ‘How can ChatGPT be utilised by financial advisors?’ into ChatGPT – 3.5, to see what it would come up with. Unsurprisingly, I was humbled by being presented with a more thorough guide than I have produced above, within the space of five seconds.

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