WFA research has found that three in four of the world’s largest brands are already using generative AI in their marketing or are planning on doing so soon. From content creation to personalised customer experience, search engine optimisation and product innovation, generative AI is poised to play a significant role in driving marketing creativity, effectiveness and efficiencies.

Nevertheless, its use in marketing has already raised legal, reputational and ethical challenges for brands. And while major brands are optimistic about the potential of AI to drive business growth, over 50% of them are also extremely concerned about the risks of the technology when it comes to intellectual property and copyright, privacy and brand safety. This is accompanied by a lack of proper understanding of how these challenges can be addressed.

WFA Primer: opportunities and challenges in generative AI seeks to provide an overview of generative AI and how brands can use it safely. It puts forward a framework for assessing risk across the entire use cycle of a generative AI tool, categorising risks into five buckets:

1. The risk from the use case.
2. The risk from the information sources upon which the model is trained.
3. The risk from algorithmic processing arrangements and how the tool takes decisions.
4. The risks for end users (such as brands) who are engaging with the tool and want to keep their own information secure.
5. The risks from the outputs, which may inadvertently create work that harms both the brand and society.

Critically, it also offers potential solutions for both brands and AI providers to the six priority risk areas identified by our members: IP and copyright, data protection and privacy, company confidentiality, reliability, safety and integrity, and diversity, equity and inclusion as well as the broader societal considerations.

In the coming weeks, WFA will also be launching an AI Task Force, bringing together senior marketing, legal and policy professionals to help brands develop practical solutions to propel safe and suitable use of AI across the industry. There will be more details on that initiative soon.

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Please note that this Primer is WFA member content only. If you'd like to know more about WFA membership, please contact membership@wfanet.org.