Parallel Universe

Welcome to The Beat by Rockstar CMO. I’m Ian Truscott, a CMO, trusted advisor, strategy consultant, and Chief Bottle Washer at Rockstar CMO. In this newsletter, I’d like to share a mix of what’s caught my eye, topics from our podcast, and our street knowledge blog.

Hello!

Listening to a Gartner podcast, I discovered that their analysts are not allowed to use generative AI, like ChatGPT.

The policy has been confirmed to me by talking to a Gartner analyst, but before I start to explore this, I should point out I don’t know the policy's details or motivation, or the extent to which it’s enforced.

On the surface, this seems like a reasonable policy; after all, if you seek advice from a Gartner analyst, you would not expect the synthesized opinion of the masses from a large language model but a little slice of a premium-priced human insight.

After all, we can all get the synthesized stuff at home.

I did ponder if this was like Canute commanding the AI tide, that as a knowledge business, they were resisting the inevitable, diving their heads into the sand, but on reflection, I suspect it must be a bloody minefield of concerns about IP, compliance, client privacy, potential hallucinations, and all of that, which makes a ban the safest option.

All very understandable.

But, those same issues, risks, and concerns that elicit a ban inside Gartner are issues that all large businesses face, especially for those whose product is knowledge.

So, it must be tricky to advise on all this without witnessing firsthand the wonder of ChatGPT creating an image of a plastic action figure of oneself. Sorry, I mean using ChatGPT to research a topic you know well - a great litmus test of how far these things have come.

We are used to analysts who have spent a decade or two away from the real work of doing the thing because they offer research-based insight, but getting advice from someone who’s never tried it?

Like getting intimate relationship advice from a religious leader sworn to celibacy.

Contrast this with the memo that I am sure you’ve heard about from the CEO of Shopify, Tobi Lütke, at the opposite end of the scale.

According to the Verge, quoting Lütke:

Using AI effectively is now a fundamental expectation of everyone at Shopify, AI usage questions will also be added to our performance and peer review questionnaire.

And the headline that has been getting a lot of attention:

Before asking for more Headcount and resources, teams must demonstrate why they cannot get what they want done using AI.

Which to me seems equally as problematic, I don’t mean the encouragement to use AI, or evaluate it as an option for a business challenge, but it just sounds like every problem in the business becomes a nail that the AI hammer can solve.

Plus, whenever you incentivize people to take a specific behavior, there always seem to be unintended consequences.

I’ll be honest, I haven't gotten a pithy conclusion or observation on this one, aside from we are all grappling with where AI sits in the people, process, and technology conversation we typically have about our organizations and there is something to learn from these two extremes.

And it seemed to me like Gartner and Shopify were in a Parallel Universe, which gives me an excuse to kick off the week with a bit of Red Hot Chili Peppers from the classic album Californication for today’s subject line.

Thanks for reading this far, and until next week.

Cheers!

Ian

Ian Truscott | Chief Bottle Washer Rockstar CMO

Please say hello by replying to this email or stop by our website.

PS - Marketing Profs invited me to do a webinar - be splendid if you could join.

This week’s street knowledge

What caught my eye on the topic and a bit more from me…

This week on the podcast…

Latest on the pod as I continue to publish twice a week…

Get your Monday Tuesday Marketing Mojo Working

It was a bank holiday here in the UK, so Tuesday needs the mojo…