Hello Fringers,

Today, we’re going to switch things up, and try a new format. We’ll start by focusing on relevant tech news, then curate a list of must-read brand experience (read more about BX here) articles or headlines to could be relevant to you TODAY or in the near FUTURE.

Let’s kick things off with some tech news:

Fringe Tech

What CEOs should know about Generative AI

From McKinsey, a helpful primer on what you and your team needs to know about generative AI (not the more “narrow” forms of AI that have been around for awhile).

To get started with generative AI, you don’t have to do some big splashy move or adopt it en masse to realize its benefits. Start small. For example, let your team play around with AI tools that make their jobs easier.

In this context, think of AI as augmented intelligence, not artificial. It’s there to enhance your creativity, your perspective, your ability to code and write—not to replace it. AI replacing humans still has a long, long way to go.

The AI arms race

Believe in good versus evil? Right versus wrong? Using the latest tech to exploit opportunity, ethically or otherwise, is the human way. But with AI, the opportunities can get a little murky when you have the ability to deploy an army of AIs on the world.

Here’s Lorenzo Thione, a managing director at Gaingels, with something to keep in mind:

More from Techcrunch here [paywall].

AI search engines are here

Watch out Google & Bing, there’s a new kind of search engine emerging.

One of those startups is Perplexity, and if talent was an indicator of early success, they have it in spades.

I asked Perplexity what it does, and this is how it responded:

Perplexity AI is an AI chat tool that acts as a powerful search engine[1]. It uses machine learning and natural language processing (NLP) to respond to user questions[2].

Citations:

[1] https://www.pcguide.com/apps/perplexity-ai/

[2] https://decrypt.co/126127/review-perplexity-ai-the-chatbot-stepping-up-to-challenge-chatgpt/

[3] https://allthings.how/what-is-perplexity-ai-and-how-to-use-it/

[4] https://gpt3demo.com/apps/perplexity-ai

Basically, it’s an AI-powered search engine with citations. There’s more on these AI search engines in this article from Practical Ecommerce.

More than anything, the advantage these new tools should have against the incumbents are:

Improved user experience — how can the search engine experience improve drastically, or get completely reinvented? There’s some great exploration here, but the tech isn’t quite there yet.

Better ad experience — how will ads play a role in the search engine of the future if people have a choice on whether they see ads or not? Brand relationships with their markets will have to radically change as well.

Not just search — citations are a useful feature that these new search tools offer, but most are 2nd party citations, not first-party. How can information be more reliable? Be more fact-based? Have more “truthiness”?

More curated results — Waldo.fyi allows you to create briefs or outlines based on your search results. Consensus searches research papers, and tries to build consensus around topics using its Consensus Meter.

Brand Experience

Who’s the real MVB?

Remember when we talked about the most trusted brands in the world a few issues back? How does that research correlate to the most valuable brands in the world?

Pretty good actually. Take a look:

Any surprises for you? More from Kantar’s report here.

Don’t rebrand the product; rebrand the problem

This is one of many insightful points Jasmine Bina makes in The 14 New Rules of Brand Strategy.

Some more great ideas from this piece:

• The best way to change people’s minds is to help them see themselves differently in the world.

• Don’t hide the experience behind conversion.

• Treat community like the first layer of brand.

• Solve 5 problems with 1 solution.

Enjoy.

User Experience

“Now” drives conversions more than ever

How do you improve conversions fast? Give people what they want now (sounds more like a hostage situation).

Anyway, here’s 12 practical ways on how to do just that. Your customers want answers faster than ever, and they want clarity—done by keeping things super simple—so they can take decisive action and buy more stuff.

More simple language. More obvious benefits. Business doesn’t have to be complicated, right?

Marketing Experience

Use Vertical Video ads

Speaking of simple and obvious, do you still use horizontal videos and images for your mobile ads? Thomas McKinlay makes the case for going 100% vertical for mobile ads. (I’m guilty of this, too).

Customer Experience

Customer Experience in the Age of AI

When you think about Brinks, you think about trucks with security guards picking up loads of cash from banks and high-end retailers. But when you think about home security, Brinks probably doesn’t come to mind—like Nest or ADT do.

To penetrate this market, Brinks hired an AI startup to help with its messaging and testing capabilities. At one point, they went from doing two to three A/B tests a day to over 50,000.

They used this data to optimize three things: acquisition, service, and renewals. The result? They increased their overall revenue 9.5% compared to the same time period in the previous year.

Read more about how more companies are improving their overall CX (and their bottom lines) with AI.

Data Experience

Personalization now goes far beyond getting customers’ names right in advertising pitches, having complete data at the ready when someone calls customer service, or tailoring a web landing page with customer-relevant offers. It is the design target for every physical and virtual touch-point, and it is increasingly powered by AI.

Employee Experience

Did someone say, “4 day work week”?

AI will replace you? How about AI will give you an extra day off? Fell better now? Good. That’s what this article from Fortune suggests [paywall].

A.I.’s ability to do ordinary tasks quicker has saved employees precious time to focus on the more challenging things—generative A.I. tools—like ChatGPT—can improve the productivity of employees by 14%.

Those gains could translate into shorter workweeks, Jeffries argues.

It’s not just theory. This company actually pulled it off.

Final thoughts

One final note.

I hope you had a great week. Don’t forget to be grateful for something.

Until next week.

Paul