Business

CHATGPT AND THE FUTURE OF MARKETING: WHAT TO EXPECT?

1. ChatGPT could help give customers a better, more personalised experience through the use of chatbots. 2. Brands will need to focus on producing opinion pieces, telling stories, and embracing video content in order to stand out. 3. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has tweeted that “we have lots of work to do on robustness and truthfulness”. 4. Google has updated its Webmaster Guidelines with a warning that websites could be penalised if found to be producing automatically-generated content ‘without regard for quality or user experience’. 5. AI is set to change the future of marketing, and ChatGPT will be at the forefront of this transformation.

Since the launch of ChatGPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) at the end of November 2022, the marketing industry has been abuzz with speculation about what the large language model developed by OpenAI could mean for the future of marketing.

While opinions are mixed, most marketers agree that while it might not replace the need for marketers, it could be used as an extra tool to enhance the service they provide. Marketers believe that AI will make them more effcient by allowing them to scale and become more effcient in their research, briefng and writing.

However, they also believe that the divide between mediocre and extraordinary marketers will only get bigger, as those who want to remain irreplaceable will need to become more creative and embrace the skills that make them uniquely human. ChatGPT could also help give customers a better, more personalised experience through the use of chatbots.

This human-like interaction can be provided 24/7 and across all marketing channels, meaning customers can get instant replies to their queries wherever they are in the world and on whatever platform they use to engage with businesses. Brands will also have to humanise their content if they want to stand out from the sea of duplicate information created by ChatGPT.

This means they will need to focus on producing opinion pieces, telling stories, embracing video content and anything else that will make them stand out. Despite its potential, marketers and businesses should be aware of some of ChatGPT’s drawbacks before relying on it for anything important. Open AI CEO Sam Altman recently tweeted that “we have lots of work to do on robustness and truthfulness”, while Google has updated its Webmaster Guidelines with a warning that websites could be penalised if found to be producing automatically-generated content ‘without regard for quality or user experience’.

It’s clear that AI is set to change the future of marketing, and ChatGPT will be at the forefront of this transformation. So, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

Report Highlights Widening Wealth Gap as Billionaires Get Richer

A new report released by Oxfam reveals Australia›s billionaire wealth has swelled by 61% over the course of the pandemic, prompting renewed calls for a rethink on the government’s Stage 3 tax cuts ahead of the May federal budget.

The analysis found there are 11 more billionaires in Australia today than in 2020, with Australia›s richest 1% pocketing more than $2500 per second, or $150,000 per minute, over the past decade.

Oxfam Australia program director Anthea Spinks told Crikey the fndings should be used to open renewed debate over the introduction of the Stage 3 tax cuts, set to take effect from July 2024, and broader tax reform to tackle income inequality in Australia.

These cuts will do away with the 37% tax bracket altogether, lower the 32.5% bracket to a fat 30%, and raise the threshold for the top tax bracket from $180,001 to $200,001.

This means those with an annual income of $200,000 will end up paying the same rate of tax as someone earning little more than the minimum wage.

In December, more than 100 leading economists and tax experts signed an open letter, printed as a full-page advert in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, calling on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to reconsider the tax cuts.

The signatories included Nobel Prizewinning economist Professor Joseph Stiglitz, former Reserve Bank of Australia governor Bernie Fraser, former ACCC chair professor Allan Fels AO, and tax expert professor Miranda Stewart.

Fraser said at the time: “The choice ahead for Labor could not be more clear-cut: it can stick with its [politically] ‘phoney’ commitment to Stage 3, or it can choose not to go down this path and channel the substantial savings involved to the many very valuable — but very expensive — social reforms promised in the lead-up to the last election.”

Despite this, the government has so far shown no sign of wavering in its support for the package or of any potential redesign of the suite of reforms. The upcoming May budget will likely be an important indicator of how the government intends to proceed.

Rebel, Supercheap Auto Under Fire from Fair Work for Alleged Underpayments

The Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) has started legal proceedings against Super Retail Group, the owner of popular local brands such as Rebel Sport and Supercheap Auto, alleging serious contraventions of the Fair Work Act when it underpaid staff across its brands.

The regulator confrmed on Friday morning it had taken action in the Federal Court, focusing on 146 employees who were allegedly underpaid around $1.14 million between January 2017 and March 2019.

The FWO alleges that the underpayments occurred because Super Retail paid staff annual salaries that failed to cover their minimum legal entitlements, given they performed signifcant amounts of overtime. “The breaches alleged in this case – inadequate annual salaries for employees stretching across multiple years – have become a persistent issue for businesses across many industries,” Fair Work Ombudsman Sandra Parker said.

The court action is against SRG Limited as well as four of the group’s subsidiaries: Super Cheap Auto Ltd, Rebel Sport Ltd, Macpac Retail Ltd and SRG Leisure Retail Limited, which trades as BCF and Ray’s Outdoors. It’s claimed that the underpayments ranged from small amounts to $34,500. Super Retail Group selfreported the underpayments to the regulator in 2018 and commenced a program to deliver backpay. On Friday, the company said this process had been “substantially completed” and that it had paid $52.7 million to current and former employees.

However, the FWO alleges that Super Retail Group’s methodology has resulted in only partial back-pay for workers. The regulator also claims the company and its subsidiaries knew that a failure to pay correct overtime to staff was likely occurring from April 2017 but failed to take action until January 2018.

Super Retail’s managing director Anthony Heraghty said the company restated its apology to team members affected and said since 2018 the group had changed its processes to ensure staff are paid correctly. “We note the allegations in the proceedings and reiterate our view that this matter represents a regrettable chapter in our company’s history.

It is unacceptable and contrary to the company’s values for any team member not to be paid correctly,” he said. This case is the frst time the FWO has taken a holding company, SRG Limited, to court over the actions of its subsidiaries.

“Holding companies who allegedly knew or reasonably should have known of underpayments within their group will be held to account,” Ms Parker said. The ombudsman will allege that some of company’s breaches, including failing to correctly pay workers for preparing new stores or refurbishing existing ones between September 15, 2017, and January 1, 2018, amount to “serious contraventions” of the Fair Work Act.

These breaches carry a maximum penalty of $630,000 each, ten times that of the usual penalty. “Super Retail Group will review the proceedings and continue to engage with the FWO on these matters,” the company said in a statement to the ASX. A direction hearing for the case in Sydney is yet to be scheduled. Super Retail Group shares have risen 16.6 per cent year-todate to close at $12.56 on Thursday, with the share price jumping after the company revealed strong sales across its brand portfolio in the six months to December 2022.