From ‘hilarious hallucinations’ to a ‘text-to-anything’ tool for the future: Bango’s VP of Marketing shares his views on GenAI
Giles Tongue is VP of Marketing at Bango, the UK-based business behind the Digital Vending Machine® and a leader in bundling and the digital subscriptions economy. Here, he shares his thoughts on the rapid rise of GenAI, how it's shaping the future of marketing, and the opportunities it presents for businesses like Bango.
It’s two years since ChatGPT was unveiled in November 2022. What’s your overall impression of this technology?
I think ChatGPT, GenAI and AI are fascinating – and I mean, fascinating. As a marketer and a curious human being, the daily reveal of new use cases and quality increments is astonishing. The promise appears to be that no matter who we are — or what level of expertise — we can all benefit from AI-based tools to solve day-to-day problems. I think we’re at the point where our imagination is our only limitation. For those determined enough — and curious enough — the opportunities are endless.
So, it sounds like you’re a fan.
You could say that. One of the great things about ChatGPT is being able to ask just about any question — and get a sensible answer in seconds. It’s like a super-advanced search engine. For me, this feels like the dawn of the Internet again. But unlike the beginning of the Net, it doesn’t just bring information to our fingertips. It turns our hands into creative tools where our mind is our only limitation.
OK, so you’re clearly a fan. But are there any areas where the tech comes up short?
Of course. You still have to be careful when dealing with facts. Despite its growing sophistication ChatGPT is quite capable of regurgitating limited data as if it’s fact. In the post-truth world, this is quite a big flaw and is one I’d suggest we put in the ‘unfortunate consequences’ bucket.
Then again, the hallucinations it creates are hilarious. We’ve all had images of people appear with three legs, six fingers, and shared bodies from the waist down. Yes, there are shortcomings, but in reality, they’re simply the result of teething problems from this new technology.
Recently, I built the core of an app for a concept I’d been carrying around for months. I’m no coder, but it took me about five minutes with Claude, the chatbot from Anthropic. Amazing!
Can you draw any conclusions from your experiences so far about the direction of travel for GenAI?
The way I see things, text-to-anything is where we’re heading. So, if you can conceive it in your mind — and convey it in text — then GenAI can create it.
When combined with other evolutions such as synthetic data — where you can ask questions about products, concepts, and ideas without asking a ‘real’ human audience — I can easily imagine creating something as complex as an end-to-end marketing plan.
And before you ask, “No”, I don’t think that puts me out of a job. If I’m the one smart enough to use such a tool, then there’s always going to be a job for me.
Can you expand on that?
Of course. I went to a factory in China about five years ago. There were half a dozen people casually running huge production lines. Some people might look at this and conclude that ‘the robots have taken the jobs’. I disagree. What I saw was efficiency through automation. What I saw was progress.
Think about it. No child today is worrying that a machine is going to take their job in a factory. Or that the Internet — or AI — is going to take their jobs. Instead, today’s kids are thinking about how GenAI is going to make jobs easier, faster…better. They’re thinking about their role using GenAI, not being replaced by GenAI.
How do you use GenAI within Bango and how do you see it being used in the future?
I’ve been experimenting with things and posting what I’ve learned on LinkedIn. They’re usually tied back to some message I want to communicate such as an event, product launch, or announcement.
For day-to-day work, I’m using AI to help with desk research and to tighten up text. I use it when exploring a subject and to help create images. I use it a lot. And I expect others to be engaged with the technology as well.
Everyone at Bango is actively encouraged to find use cases for AI — that’s true right across the business — including our marketing team. If there’s a tool out there that can help us do our jobs better or faster, then we’re going to jump on that. Why wouldn’t we?