The Central Intelligent Agent: Enabling the next generation of marketers.

Here’s a short history of brands trying to deploy AI…

Step 1: Launch a “test and learn”

Step 2: Underinvest in marketing it because of fear it will be the next Microsoft Tay

Step 3: Write a case study and enter for a Webby Award

Step 4: Pull it down or leave it to rot

Step 5: Wait for the next shiny thing to come along and repeat

This unfortunately is all too common amongst brand marketing and CX teams - launching projects from “incubators” and Innovation Labs (disclosure: I did this too) and then never managing to scale these experiments into anything that moves the needle.

There’s been good reason for this historically speaking - AI for the most part wasn’t all that intelligent, and felt quite artificial. Beyond a splashy press release and a nice plaything - the AI tools we’ve had at our disposal have shown great promise but have done little to change how customers interact with the brands they already connect with through traditional channels.

The tide is turning - it’s time for a business-ready approach

But that history is changing, and fast. We’ve seen since the crazy explosion of ChatGPT at the end of 2022 not just a radical consumer shift but a business one too.

Let me be clear - there is a lot still untested when it comes to how easy it will be for tools like GPT4 and other large language models to be adopted into brand-safe, commercial spaces - but we’re seeing some very positive moves already from the likes of Duolingo, Expedia and many of the brands Open AI has partnered with on the launch of ChatGPT Plug-ins.

We have also seen that these new tools need to be launched in concert with NLP and NLU to help craft their responses, ensure alignment with brand personas and ensure we don't end up with a mass of copycat assistants all sounding like Shakespeare.

The biggest change however is not in the individual technologies, which will continue to evolve, stabilise and provide new capabilities over time - but it’s in the new wave of digital transformation that they will now spark inside the brands and businesses that embrace them.

Digital Transformation - Again.

The potential now exists in front of us for brands to start truly being able to talk not just to their customers but with them.

Sure we’ve focused grouped, run social listening campaigns and monitored calls for training purposes for decades, but never before have we had the ability to deploy a single hub of knowledge that can have spokes linked to every consumer touchpoint before.

This is the promise of the Central Intelligent Agent (CIA).

CoPilots, Executive Assistants, Partners.

However, we choose to personify and anthropomorphize them - what we are talking about here is creating a central logic engine that sits at the heart of the organisation.

For years now many businesses have seen that center as their data lake, their cloud, and their source of customer knowledge. The challenge we have seen time and again however is that simply amassing much knowledge does not automatically give you the ability to utilise it.

This is where we need a new paradigm - one that doesn’t just see knowledge as something to be gathered, but something to be used proactively, with an ethically sound mindset.

The Brain, The Gut, The Hands, and The Feet

Science is discovering all sorts of new and incredible things about how our human nervous systems work. For a long time, we thought that all emotion, thinking, reasoning, and knowledge were held in the brain.

We’re now about links like the gut-brain axis - this bidirectional relationship that allows the gut and the brain to exchange information and influence each other's functioning. The gut-brain axis plays a crucial role in maintaining overall health, regulating digestion, and modulating emotions and behaviour.

We also know that our central nervous system runs to all our extremities, to the hands and feet, using our skin as a sensor for the outside world, helping regulate our temperature

This is helpful for us to think about we deploy AI systems to aid customer service, marketing and commercial journeys.

The Brain - We need somewhere that stores, processes and manages the knowledge we collect.

The Gut - We need a set of tools to monitor the health of the system, cleanse it from toxins and manage behaviour

The Hands & Feet - We need touch-points to deploy our knowledge functionally - moving us forward and executing commands, but also to collect feedback and take the temperature of the environment around us

So it is with our CIA - if we are going to deploy such systems to change how we deploy our marketing, enable our customers to transact with us, and how we can serve them throughout the journey - we need all parts of the system working in concert with one another.

How LLMs and Next Gen AI enables the Central Intelligence Agent

At the time of writing, despite the “sparks of AGI” seen in the likes of GPT4 - we aren’t yet at a place where the LLMs and neural networks they are trained on are yet truly autonomous agents, and many would argue that is a good thing.

We do not yet know the potential utopia or chaos that such AGI (artificial general intelligence) in the world may unlock - but for now, we can see that the building blocks of LLMs, NLU/NLP, and the voice and chat interfaces we have today can now begin to truly power next-generation conversational AI systems.

So what are the components of a CIA?

It’s important to consider that each aspect of the CIA, much like our own central nervous systems to truly function, requires each element to be functioning well and cooperating with the other areas if you want it to remain healthy and operational.

We now know when our gut-brain axis is out of line we can experience anxiety - the same is true of our AI systems! When they are unaligned with the goals of the organisation, or missing the measures or controls needed to remain healthy - you can expect to see some organisational anxiety flaring up!

So let’s look at the steps you can start considering today to begin the journey to deploying your own CIA in your organisation.

The road to deploying your CIA

Step 1: Assess Organisational Readiness Evaluate the current state of your organisation's data, technology infrastructure, and in-house expertise. Identify gaps and areas for improvement to ensure a solid foundation for deploying a Central Intelligence Agent (CIA).

Step 2: Define Objectives and Align with Business Goals Establish clear objectives for the CIA, ensuring that it aligns with broader business goals. This will help secure organisational buy-in and support, and also ensure that the AI system is built to meet specific business needs.

Step 3: Assemble a Cross-functional Team Form a cross-functional team consisting of members from marketing, IT, data, and other relevant departments. This team will collaborate to build, deploy, and manage the CIA, ensuring a unified approach and addressing potential issues more effectively.

Step 4: Develop the CIA Components Construct the core components of the CIA using practical solutions and real-world examples:

• The Brain: Integrate business logic by identifying key decision-making processes within your organisation, such as customer segmentation or product recommendations. Consolidate customer data from various sources, like CRM systems and social media, to create a comprehensive view of your audience. Utilise APIs to connect the CIA to external tools and platforms, such as e-commerce systems, marketing automation software, or customer support platforms.
• The Gut: Develop system personas that align with your brand identity and tone of voice, ensuring the CIA communicates consistently with customers. Implement an ethical framework, such as guidelines for data privacy, transparency, and fair AI usage. Set up moderation processes to review and approve the AI-generated content, ensuring it meets quality standards and adheres to brand guidelines.
• The Hands & Feet: Choose suitable applications for the CIA, such as chatbots for customer support, AI-powered content creation for marketing campaigns, or virtual assistants for sales teams. Establish monitoring systems to track the CIA's performance across various touch points, like website engagement, social media interactions, and customer satisfaction ratings. Implement testing methodologies, such as A/B testing or multivariate testing, to optimise the CIA's performance and effectiveness over time.

Step 5: Establish Ethical Guidelines and Frameworks Create clear ethical guidelines and frameworks for AI use, ensuring responsible handling of customer data, adherence to brand values and standards, and transparency in AI deployment. Engage in open dialogues with customers and stakeholders about the benefits, risks, and potential concerns associated with AI technology.

Step 6: Integrate and Test the CIA Integrate the CIA into your organisation's existing systems and processes, ensuring seamless compatibility with other tools and platforms. Conduct thorough testing to identify potential issues, refine the system, and ensure a high-quality and consistent user experience.

Step 7: Monitor, Learn, and Iterate Once the CIA is deployed, continuously monitor its performance, gather feedback, and analyse data to identify areas for improvement. Foster a culture of innovation and continuous improvement within your organisation, allowing for regular updates and enhancements to the CIA based on lessons learned and emerging trends in AI technology.

Let’s get going

The advent of advanced AI technologies and large language models has unlocked unprecedented opportunities for organisations to transform their marketing, customer service, and customer journey experiences.

By leveraging the power of Central Intelligent Agents, businesses can now build a cohesive, personalised, and ethically responsible approach to engaging with their customers. Don't miss out on this revolutionary shift.

We’re here to help

If you're ready to embark on your own CIA journey and harness its potential to drive your business forward, get in touch with Vixen Labs today. Our team of experts will guide you through every step of the process, helping you craft the perfect AI-driven strategy tailored to your unique needs and objectives. Together, we'll turn your vision of a customer-centric, AI-powered future into reality.