What Apple's AI Means for Marketers

Hey, welcome back to AI Marketing Brief, the newsletter that’s more refreshing than a cold soda at the beach. Get ready to sip on Apple’s AI announcement, and the latest buzz from OpenAI and Amazon. Let’s pop the top and dive in.

Here’s what’s on tap today:

• How Apple's personal AI revolution changes marketing

• Elon Musk's bold move against Apple

• What’s behind OpenAI's recent revenue surge?

• Amazon's $230M bet on generative AI startups

Apple's AI Revolution Gets Personal

Apple's AI game just went nuclear with "Apple Intelligence," integrating AI into every nook and cranny of its ecosystem. Unlike the generative AI giants, Apple’s deep-dive into hardware-software synergy is creating a seamless, experience. From Siri's proactive magic to AI-driven photo enhancements and health insights, Apple's not just catching up—it's redefining the race.

Elon Musk warns that integrating OpenAI at the OS level will lead to banning Apple devices at his companies due to security concerns.

What Apple’s AI Means for Marketers

Kipp Bodnar, HubSpot’s CMO and Kieran Flanagan, Zapier’s former CMO say Apple's WWDC keynote signals a seismic shift in AI adoption for marketers. Their takeaways:

• Apple is pioneering AI agents, transforming marketing from targeting individuals to AI.

• AI embedded in iPhones and Macs offers unmatched user context, challenging startups who don’t have as much data.

• Apple's AI will filter marketing emails, emphasizing quality content.

OpenAI Doubles Revenue in 6 Months

Apple and OpenAI's partnership involves no direct payments, but future revenue-sharing deals could change that, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.

Contrary to popular belief, OpenAI's recent revenue surge is not largely from Microsoft sales or other high profile deals, but from direct sales of ChatGPT and other offerings.

My take: OpenAI’s revenue growth is a decent barometer for AI product-market fit and adoption. If you’re on the fence about improving your AI skills, this is probably a sign that despite some bumps in the road, AI is here to stay.

AI Jargon Decoded: What’s an AI Wrapper?

AI wrappers rely on LLMs like OpenAI to power their applications. They bring the LLM into their own user interface via API and build custom technology to improve their performance for specific use cases like copywriting. Many wonder whether AI wrappers are defensible or add enough value to customers.

Viviana Faga says technical moats in software are as extinct as dinosaurs. With AI building quality software at warp speed, the game's changed. Instead, competitive advantages come from shipping velocity, network effects, GTM motion, community, brand, story, data, ROI, customer love, and positioning.

Nico Jeannen’s analogy: AI wrappers are like bread—most people prefer buying ready-made rather than making it themselves.

My take: I’m still unsure whether the best play for marketers is to use AI wrappers or build custom solutions in-house. Probably a combination of the two makes sense for most companies.

Here's a few more stories and hot takes:

• Krishna Nandakumar says the term "Agent" is bad marketing because it’s too solution-focused and doesn't effectively communicate the problem it solves for buyers. AI agents are closer to employees than software, so we probably need a new category name.

• Amazon is investing $230 million in generative AI startups through AWS compute credits and direct investments.

• Tatiana Tsiguleva highlights the impact of Midjourney's new personalization feature, allowing users to apply their preferences to customize images.

• I wrote a post on why you should use ChatGPT for AI Assisted content, not fully AI generated content.

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