New Coke
The Coca-Cola Company is getting deep into the artificial intelligence game thanks to a newly-inked deal that will see it partnering with OpenAI.
The press release announcing the deal did not say how much the partnership between Coca-Cola, OpenAI, and the Bain consulting firm is worth, but given that the AI firm recently got a multi-billion-dollar contract with Microsoft, there’s a good chance it’s worth a pretty penny — and it seems particularly significant because of Coke’s storied history in advertising, a domain that the release seems to hint could be a target for the AI tech.
In the statement, Coca-Cola CEO James Quincy said that the company is “excited to unleash the next generation of creativity offered by this rapidly emerging technology” using tech including DALL-E and ChatGPT.
“We see opportunities to enhance our marketing through cutting-edge AI,” Quincy said, “along with exploring ways to improve our business operations and capabilities.”
Marketability
Coke is the first company to sign on to Bain and OpenAI’s new partnership, and although there’s no word yet on exactly what the deal will entail, the press release hints at marketing, sales, and human resources implementations, the latter two of which sound pretty dystopian, to be honest.
In a statement provided to The Grocer, a British food news site, Coke CFO and president John Murphy indicated that the marketing prospects were one of the biggest draws of the deal.
“We have a couple of really interesting cases with the marketing team to enhance the work that we’re already doing with our new marketing model,” Murphy said, “and to be able to marry the ability to deliver creative content at speed and to do it with exponential efficiency.”
Long Time Coming
New deal aside, this isn’t the first time Coca-Cola has gotten into the AI game.
Back in 2017, the company announced that it was going to start using “AI-powered” vending machines as part of its artificial intelligence-centered business strategy that uses algorithms to determine which flavors are performing best and other key metrics.
What remains to be seen, however, is how well AI-generated marketing will perform, and if it will get us one step closer to normalizing the uncanny sensation that a lot of AI art instills in viewers.
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