I sat down with ChatGPT — the newest AI language model taking the world by storm — to interview it about itself. I wanted to find out just how useful it is at helping finance professionals and other businesses with their marketing tasks. While some limitations were discovered, there are some pretty awesome ways this chatbot can be used!
To turn this into a real interview with the artificially intelligent chatbot, I’ve included its answers to my questions below. The text in italics was generated by ChatGPT, and I’ve corrected spelling and grammar where needed (to be honest, not much correction was required!).
What is ChatGPT?
“ChatGPT is an AI language model developed by OpenAI that is capable of generating human-like responses to natural language input. The "GPT" in ChatGPT stands for "Generative Pre-trained Transformer," which refers to the model architecture that it uses.
ChatGPT is trained on a vast amount of text data and can understand and respond to a wide range of topics and questions. It can be used for a variety of applications, such as answering customer support inquiries, providing information or recommendations, and even generating creative writing, such as poems or stories.
ChatGPT works by processing input text, analysing the context and meaning of the words, and generating a response that is relevant and appropriate based on the input. It uses machine learning algorithms and neural networks to continuously improve its performance over time and generate increasingly accurate and human-like responses.”
What marketing tasks can ChatGPT help with?
“ChatGPT can help with several marketing tasks, such as:
- Customer support: ChatGPT can provide 24/7 customer support by answering frequently asked questions, handling inquiries, and providing assistance to customers, which can help improve customer satisfaction and reduce the workload of customer support agents.
- Lead generation: ChatGPT can engage with website visitors and initiate conversations to collect information and qualify leads, which can help generate new business opportunities and improve lead quality.
- Content marketing: ChatGPT can assist with content creation and distribution by providing writing prompts, generating headlines, and suggesting topics and keywords for articles, blog posts, and other marketing content.
- Personalisation: ChatGPT can use customer data to provide personalised recommendations, offers, and messaging, which can help increase customer engagement and drive sales.
- Social media: ChatGPT can engage with customers on social media by answering questions, responding to comments, and providing personalised recommendations, which can help improve social media engagement and increase brand awareness.
Overall, ChatGPT can help automate many marketing tasks and improve customer engagement, which can lead to increased sales and revenue for businesses.”
It’s pretty clear that the chatbot values itself highly when it comes to customer engagement, but it’s failed to mention it’s not a bad copywriter!
It mentioned it could help generate keywords and title suggestions, but if used cleverly, ChatGPT could be used to write long-form articles, email copy and social media posts. And of course, I tested this out:
Create 100 words of copy explaining why people should use a finance broker
“Finance brokers are licensed professionals who act as intermediaries between borrowers and lenders. They help individuals and businesses find the most suitable loan or financing option based on their unique financial situation and needs. There are several reasons why people should consider using a finance broker:
First, finance brokers have access to a wide range of lenders and loan products, which means they can often find better deals and terms than borrowers could find on their own.
Second, finance brokers can help simplify the loan application process and reduce the time and effort required to secure financing.
Third, finance brokers can provide valuable advice and guidance on financial matters, helping borrowers make informed decisions about their borrowing options and overall financial strategy.
Overall, using a finance broker can help save time, money, and hassle while providing access to valuable expertise and resources.”
It’s gone slightly over the word count at 142 words, but it was pretty close! Whether this piece of copy will improve your conversion rate is open to be tested.
I ran this copy through a plagiarism checker (because no one wants SEO penalties or lawsuits), and it received a clean bill of health!
For anyone who is particularly conscious about compliance, you may pick up on some small compliance red flags in this copy, but for the purposes of whipping up some text fast, it’s done a great job!
What are the limitations of ChatGPT?
“ChatGPT, like any other technology, has its limitations. Here are some of the main limitations of ChatGPT:
- Lack of common sense: ChatGPT does not have the common sense and general knowledge that humans possess, which can lead to misunderstandings and inaccurate responses.
- Limited context awareness: ChatGPT can struggle with understanding the context of a conversation or topic, which can result in irrelevant or inappropriate responses.
- Bias: ChatGPT can reflect biases and stereotypes present in the data it has been trained on, which can lead to unintended biases and inaccurate or offensive responses.
- Inability to provide specific information: ChatGPT can struggle with providing specific information, such as personal or confidential information, and may not have access to real-time data or information that is not available publicly.
- Dependence on language input: ChatGPT relies on language input, so it may struggle with tasks that require visual or other sensory input.
Overall, while ChatGPT has made significant advances in natural language processing, it is still a relatively new technology and has limitations that need to be considered when using it for various tasks.”
Well, at least it’s honest. But to be fair, I think it was a bit too humble!
ChatGPT’s context awareness has proven to be far superior to other language software I’ve used. Context awareness is especially important in the financial services space because there can be a lot of jargon and homographs used (two words with the same spelling but different meanings, e.g. wind and wind).
Other grammar-checking or language software doesn’t have the intelligence to differentiate homographs based on the context they are used in. For example, if you talk about super being held in a trust, other software might suggest you use adjectives like excellent or great instead of super, or faith or confidence instead of trust.
So when I asked if my super is held in a trust, using the word “super” in place of “superannuation”, I thought I might trip ChatGPT up. But it was smarter than I expected!
Is my super held in a trust?
“Superannuation (super) is a retirement savings scheme in Australia, which is typically managed by a superannuation fund. Superannuation funds are usually set up as trusts, with the trustee of the fund holding and managing the assets of the fund on behalf of the fund's members.
So to answer your question, if you have a superannuation account, then your super is likely held in a trust. The trustee of the fund is responsible for managing the investments and making decisions about how to allocate the assets of the fund, in accordance with the fund's investment strategy and the legal obligations under the superannuation laws. The purpose of the superannuation fund is to accumulate savings over time to provide an income in retirement for the fund's members.”
And to check its context awareness with a question that doesn’t make sense, I asked, “is my excellent held in a faith?”
“I'm sorry, but I'm not sure what you mean by "excellent held in a faith." Can you please provide more context or clarify your question? That way, I can try to provide a helpful answer.”
Again, I tried to trip it up by asking a question about LVR. And again, it came through with flying colours.
What LVR can I have when purchasing commercial property?
“The Loan-to-Value Ratio (LVR) that you can have when purchasing commercial property may vary depending on the lender and the specific circumstances of the transaction. Typically, commercial property loans have lower LVR limits than residential loans, as commercial properties are considered higher risk.
As a general rule, most commercial property lenders will offer LVRs between 60% and 80%, which means that you will need to provide a deposit of between 20% and 40% of the property's value. Some lenders may offer higher LVRs, but this may depend on various factors, such as the type of property, its location, and your financial situation.
It's essential to consult with a financial advisor or a commercial property lending specialist to determine what LVR is suitable for your specific needs and circumstances. They can assess your financial situation and help you determine what deposit you will need to provide and what LVR you can get to secure a commercial property loan.”
Summary of ChatGPT’s strengths and weaknesses
If you’re thinking about using ChatGPT for your marketing tasks, it has a few limitations, but depending on the task, I’m confident it would do a good job.
Strengths
- Seems to have great context awareness — especially in regard to financial services, which is very rare for software.
- When running the copy through a plagiarism checker, it appears to be original.
- Can produce accurate information and copy extremely quickly.
- Ability to understand and generate natural language.
- Continuous learning and improvement.
- A great way to make a start on social media captions, articles, and email copy.
Weaknesses
- Uses US English rather than British English.
- The grammar used may not follow your marketing guidelines (for example, placing a full stop at the end of each dot point).
- Lacks personality and persuasiveness — I wouldn’t recommend it for sales-purposes copywriting.
- It is a language model and not a replacement for a strategic marketing plan.
Overall, I was extremely impressed with ChatGPT and think it will find a home among the tech stacks of many businesses and finance professionals for the foreseeable future!
To try ChatGPT for yourself, visit https://chat.openai.com/chat