Tell us how generative AI is changing your job.
In November 2023, OpenAI rocked the world when it released ChatGPT to the general public. The chatbot set imaginations on fire, promising to create articles, screenplays, poems, and other works without human intervention.
But when news organizations began experimenting with it, the results were mixed. Generative AI’s tendency to hallucinate has led to some embarrassing episodes for publishers. And, publishers are rightly concerned about large language models (LLMs) using their content as training data without compensation or credit.
But one part of the news organization finds generative AI extremely useful, and in some instances, transformative: the AdOps team. AdMonsters has begun interviewing AdOps folks across several organizations to see if and how they’re using it.
If you’re in AdOps and are using it, we’d love to hear from you (contact us at [email protected]).
We will publish our findings as part of our Publisher Pulse series. In the meantime, we thought our readers would find some initial findings interesting.
AdOps + Generative AI: A Perfect Match
First and foremost, AdOps professionals aren’t just dabbling in generative AI; they’re diving in deep and successfully putting it to work. This isn’t a surprise; as tech-savvy people, AdOps folks are well aware of the limitations of generative AI and take active steps to mitigate the pitfalls and problems.
To begin, they’re versed in the emerging field of prompt engineering (some have even taken the Coursera class in it), so they know how to query the LLM tools in ways to receive accurate and appropriate responses for the task at hand, whether that’s generating code for an ad fix or creating emails that speak more directly to the background of the recipient.
They also double-check all responses to ensure accuracy. The prompt bar of every LLM includes a warning against incorrect information, and AdOps people heed that warning.
Elevating the AdOps Team
We anticipated the interviewees to describe how generative AI helped them manage their time better, taking on the grunt work and freeing up time for big-picture thinking. To be sure, that’s happening; AdOps team members use generative AI to glean insights from campaign data, troubleshoot ad issues, create HTML templates, and insert campaign data into matrices for reports, among other repetitive and time-consuming tasks.
AdOps folks also use AI to create training tools and resources for new hires. For instance, users can upload a training deck to Claud.ai, and it will create a script that explains things like how to create a deal ID.
Elevating the Individual
AdOps teams also use AI in ways we hadn’t imagined, such as polishing their communications to coworkers and clients to elevate themselves, as well as their teams. For instance, ChatGPT is helping a harried analyst sound less brusque and overly direct in emails to clients, and a director of programmatic ad sales we interviewed uses it to get a deeper background on a client’s industry so that emails come across as more dialed into the recipient’s needs.
In both of these instances, AI helps AdOps sound more human, relatable, and empathetic. We love the irony of people using machines to sound more human.
An Omnivore Approach to Generative AI Tools
We asked the interviewees which AI tools they use, and their answers are pretty much anything they can get their hands on: ChatGPT, Gemini, Claud.ai, Perplexity.ai, among others.
What’s more? They can explain the subtle differences between each, such as when each model was last trained and which has the most recent data. They also have tips for using these tools to get the best results (which we’ll share in the Publisher Pulse so stay tuned).
The AdOps Team of the Future
While generative AI has been largely overhyped, it will undoubtedly transform the AdOps team in significant ways.
As Jared Collett, Sr. Director of Ad Operations and Analytics at Major League Fishing explained, “Generative AI drastically reduces the mundane tasks of writing and rewriting proposals, emails, procedures and so much more. It is an amazing assistant to bounce coding solutions off of as well. With all this (and more) I can focus more on revenue growth and product development, while my team can focus more on being proactive and doing more for our direct sold clients.”
We Want to Hear From You
Are you using generative AI to help you work more efficiently? We’d love to hear from you. Please send an email to [email protected] and we’ll schedule a 15-minute interview.