by Molly Babcock
The sophistication of Artificial Intelligence has rapidly developed in the past few years. The AI industry is rapidly growing as a result. As such, it’s becoming more useful to the communications professionals for crafting catchy headlines, social media graphics, compelling captions and more.
To test the effectiveness of AI’s current capabilities, I created a social post using Canva’s AI image generator and Chat GPT for a caption. My hypothetical campaign will advertise a new product at a Vietnamese food truck in the Portland area.
Here’s the final result!
“
Introducing our mouthwatering new addition: Pork Banh Mi! 
Swing by our Vietnamese food truck in Portland, Oregon, for a flavor-packed experience that’ll tantalize your taste buds! #PortlandEats #BanhMiLove #VietnameseFoodTruck”
For the image, I asked Canva AI to create “a happy woman eating a banh mi sandwich in Portland, OR on a sunny day.”
I asked Chat GPT to “Write the caption for an Instagram post advertising the new pork banh mi at a Vietnamese food truck in Portland, Oregon.”
Overall, this was a very convenient process. Both Chat GPT and Canva AI are free and intuitive. It took far less time than it would have to create this post from scratch. The woman’s hands and teeth look normal, the sandwich is relatively accurate, and the background actually looks like Portland. The caption is a little awkward, but it could pass for being real. It also doesn’t overuse adjectives and emojis to the extent I expected it to. The caption also uses a popular hashtag, #PortlandEats
While this content is passable, it could be better. The image is nice, but uninteresting and unlikely to stop a scrolling thumb. Two of the hashtags Chat GPT used, #BanhMiLove and #VietnameseFoodTruck, are not very popular at all. The post is also very general, lacking the specific details that make social media copy compelling.
I wondered if a more specific request of Chat GPT would yield a more effective caption. I asked Chat GPT to “write a caption advertising a new pork banh mi at a Vietnamese food truck in downtown Portland, Oregon. The food truck is called “Pho-nomenal”. The new pork banh mi has locally-sourced bread, marinated vegetables, jalepenos, and delicious pork.”
The caption is somewhat more compelling. It reads…
Dive into Downtown Portland’s newest obsession: Our mouthwatering Pork Banh Mi! Featuring locally-sourced bread, marinated veggies, jalapeños, and succulent pork, it’s a flavor explosion waiting for you at Pho-nomenal! Swing by and elevate your lunch game! #PortlandEats #BanhMiBliss #PhoNomenal”
Chat GPT essentially took my new language and plugged it into the same formula as the last caption. It wasn’t able to extrapolate new, unique ideas. For example, it didn’t recommend that young professionals come to Pho-nomenal on their lunch breaks and try the new sandwich. It seems that communications professionals using Chat GPT are writing most of the caption themselves. Chat GPT just cuts the time commitment by putting different ideas together, selecting emojis and creating punchy catchphrases more quickly than a person could. The effectiveness of AI tools largely depends on the effectiveness of the person using them.
Hi Molly, wonderful blog. I agree that AI has changed rapidly over the past couple of years. It has felt very overwhelming how quickly it has changed our future career industries. I noticed that ChatGPT is very limited in its abilities. wither it generating images or captions for Instagram content. I often wonder when ChatGPT will be updated again, and how it will work in the future.
Hi Molly, this post highlighted a lot of the things I’ve struggled with when using AI as a tool for brands. I agree that it can be a helpful first step, or to get some ideas but not for the end product, especially when you are trying to cater a product to a specific population. I’ve used chatgpt in the past for social media accounts I’ve managed and I’ve found that the captions only work/are passable for specific content or events, but to your point, it definitely takes using a lot of specifics to get the right caption. Thanks for your insight!
I find the concept of using AI to create ads and other promotions to be so intriguing. I understand why people are so scared of it. It cuts down the time element of marketing. This is one of the best AI generated photos i have seen so far. Fascinating how realistic it is if you don’t pay close attention. I can’t wait to see how far this will come in the coming years! Thanks for the insight!
I totally agree that AI can be a useful tool in the early/beginning stages of ideas but it lacks creativity and authenticity that is important for making effective content
Hi Molly! I found your post super interesting and insightful. I liked that you touched on the point of AI lacking creativity. I think AI-generated work is cool but it isn’t that exciting because it is coming from a computer. It lacks the authenticity of human art.
Hi Molly! I agree that AI can be such a great jumping point to get content ideas but it’s not something that is reliable on its own. As someone who has to create and generate content for months in advance I have tried to use AI but struggle to get it to use certain words or use brand voice.
Hi Molly! I really liked your post and I appreciated how you touched on the fact that AI tends to lack creativity. I’ve witnessed this when using chatgpt several times, and it’s so interesting to see how that plays a role in social media posts