Want AI Success? Better Get Your First-Party Data in Order

It’s a brave new world when it comes to AI and we are just beginning to unlock everything it can do for businesses. To get a better idea of what businesses should be prioritising, we asked Code and Theory CTO David DiCamillo to answer five key questions. Here’s what he had to say.

Q> What are most people missing when it comes to AI?

David> AI feels like 'magic' and tech that is impossible to understand, but the reality is that it’s just data - data that is normalised, packaged, and comprehensible to a computer. OpenAI put their GPT models out with an interface for people to engage with the data in a very conversational way which feels like it’s a sentient being, but really it’s nothing more than just you asking 'Clippy' for help with a MS Word issue in 2003. Albeit with far more data and training. (For the record, Clippy was pretty terrible, but I would love to see a world where it comes back!)

Q> What are the biggest barriers stopping widespread adoption among marketers?

David> There are two things:

1. Having their first-party data clean, organized, and actually able to be used. Most organisations have a lot of data and they try and manage it effectively, but few are truly investing in data science so most of that data is being used ineffectively today. If they are going to try and use unorganized data in AI models, it won’t reach the intended promises the technology could create.

2. Cost to implement and maintain. This is not a one-and-done technology, you have to keep up with the data and technology changes continuously. Like having a new puppy, there are going to be a lot of accidents at first, you have to continue to train it and then ultimately, it will turn into a good dog - but that dog will still cost you a lot of money every year!

Q> What inspires you about creating at a tech-first agency?

David> 'Code' has always been the first part of our name and really, tech has been our bones since day one. What’s exciting is that we are reaching deeper into those roots and making more investments in technology staff and learning.

The growth of our agency over the last few years in particular with the technology team is really positioning us well with opportunities to help our clients continue to keep up with the speed of technology. We are the only agency with 50% creative and 50% engineers at scale. This allows us to maintain strong levels of innovation and experimentation which is critical so we can recommend and apply new technologies for our clients. Whether it’s cutting-edge MarTech tools or the newest AI models, chances are we have prototyped, demoed, and have a POV to provide our clients.

Q> What are you most excited about when it comes to the future of AI?

David> AI technologies are going to push us so far into the 'new' that we aren’t even able to think about some of the applications today. I’m looking forward to those 'Oh shit' moments where you are just amazed as to what will be possible. I have had a few of those recently including this wild concept of AIs processing WIFI signals to understand where people are placed in a home. Frankly, sometimes, I don’t even know what to expect and that is what makes me so excited about the future.

Q> What’s one piece of advice you’d like to beam back to your younger self?

David> 'Relax, you cannot control all those things!' Oh, and 'always bet on Tom Brady, except against the Giants.'

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