The Youth Lab

WE 'TOOK ON AI’

Recently we had a playful ‘F*ck it Friday’ where we did a big experiment and pitted the ‘old school way of doing social ads’ against a team using all AI to do the same task. To see which team won (and what we learned), read about it here and here.

TIME-SAVING & CREATIVE AI TOOLS

Right now, there are AI tools that we use daily, across the company, to help us do work better and differently. For this edition of 52INSIGHTS, we’re sharing the 10 AI tools used by THINKERS that you should try too.

1. Notion

What is it? Notion has been a hugely popular shared workspace tool, known for its intuitive design. Now it has AI integrations that allow for automated manual, repetitive tasks to give you more time to focus on the other more strategic and/or creative challenges.

What makes it so useful? Easy to navigate! “I like the way I can find every page I've written on the one screen and click straight into it and take up where I left off.” Sean Daly, Client Service Account Executive

1. Boomerang

What is it? Well-written emails are a very big part of our daily work. Boomerang is an email AI plug-in focused on emails that gives you insight into your own writing style and ways to adjust to make more impact.

What makes it so useful? Saving you time so you can hit send on the important email, now more likely to deliver results.

1. Grammarly

What is it? A browser plug-in that analyses your writing in real time, providing spelling and grammar checks, as well as analysing your tone and identifies plagiarism. Grammarly can help people turn an email tone from easy breezy to serious business.

What makes it so useful? Making you look and sound even better. “I use Grammarly Premium for everything! Without it, people wouldn't understand me, and it helps me communicate elaborate thoughts in my head to others.” Niamh Bakker, THINKHOUSE Breakthrough Scholarly Recipient

AI FOR CREATIVE

1. Stable Diffusion

What is it? Stable Diffusion is a free, open-source AI software to create photo-realistic images with any text input. The point of difference with this tool against others? You can make video.

What makes it so useful? More scope for creativity with different mediums created. “Unlike Dall-e or Midjourney, SD allows me to generate videos from text prompts. Due to it being open-source, people have been able to develop their own plugins to the software and released for free that enhances the imagery generated. In terms of making ads - it certainly isn’t capable of delivering agency-standard content - but it's another useful tool in my arsenal when creating content.” Mark Luna, Digital Motion Creator

1. EBSynth

What is it? This is a free software that uses AI to apply an image style on top of image frames that make up a video - in short, you can transform imagery into a short video clip. It initially started out as a way of animating your own paintings.

1. Dall-E

What is it? Dall-E is another hugely popular OpenAI that generates images from text prompts. For those not so familiar with AI tools, Dall-E has a friendlier user experience, making it a great option for new AI explorers.

1. Chat GPT

What is it? AI Chatbot, Chat GPT, keeps growing in popularity thanks to its many capabilities. The tool, also created by OpenAI, is designed to converse with users in a natural and human-like way - it can help generate new insights to inform your brand's strategy.

1. Chat Climate AI

What is it? Similar to Chat GPT, Chat Climate AI is a conversational AI tool that invites people to ask questions regarding the climate crisis and the machine learning algorithm is grounded in the latest IPCC report.

What makes it useful? Dissecting information regarding the climate crisis can be heavy - through conversation, Chat Climate AI is translating information in ways more easily understood.

1. OtterAI

What is it? OtterAI is a live transcription tool that can be used for interviews or meetings to record notes. It creates summaries and categorises them based on themes recognised, making lighter work of research interviews and allows you to focus on the conversation in real time.

What makes it useful? So easy to find quotes or just get stuck into asking questions. “As part of our Youth Culture Uncovered interviews, OtterAI saved me so much time - I could just search through my transcripts and find solid gold quotes from young people that told their story in exactly their own words.” Fiona O’Grady, Content Strategy Director

AI FOR SOCIAL MEDIA MADE EASY

1. Emplifi

What is it? Social listening is playing an increasingly more important role for brands in understanding what people are talking about - Emplifi is an AI-driven social media management platform that provides advanced audience insights across a digital and e-commerce journey.

THE RISKS AND SOCIETAL QUESTIONS

Of course, as more people try to figure out what AI is and can do for them, there are bigger societal questions regarding the ethical ramifications of AI This week, we were witness to a historic moment in the tech world - Sam Altman, CEO and co-founder of OpenAI, called for legislation to mitigate potential misuse of AI, while speaking to the US Congress. Asking policy makers to act now not later, he highlighted the effect of inaction in relation to issues with social media - "my worst fear is we cause significant harm to the world". The common thread is what and how AI is being used, and in turn, regulated. For many, AI is fast becoming a part of the work-life norm.

BRAND TAKEOUTS

Consider AI as a tool to power a mindset of real-time creativity; insights & planning, workshops, brainstorms, proactive ideation and creative production can all benefit from the addition of AI tools to help inspire new and different thinking.

“Our DOT planning model uses tools of all kinds to help us explore data. Adding AI tools to the mix helps us identify exciting new communication codes, aesthetics and language, all inspiring new ideas in real-time throughout the creative process.” Lynsey Paisley, Head of Integrated Creative Strategy

Reach out to the team to find out more about AI innovations in our brand work.

IN OTHER THINKHOUSE NEWS…

“The atmosphere in the city should be electric this weekend and we wanted to kick off the excitement in a unique way. Using clever technology and digital effects, we were able to do that, without ever needing to touch the iconic O’Connell Bridge building.”

Rachael Crawley, Senior Brand Manager, Heineken® Ireland