Ad industry using ChatGPT more than any other sector

The advertising and marketing industry is leading the way in the adoption of generative AI tools across all sectors, with almost two-fifths of professionals saying they now use the likes of ChatGPT at work, with one in ten using the tech more than once a week.

So says a new study by app security specialist Indusface, which highlights a more open-minded attitude towards applying ChatGPT within the sector, with only slightly over 5% of advertising and marketing professionals claiming they will never use AI tools.

Indusface says that since ChatGPT’s launch last November, the search for AI apps has rocketed by 1,700%. The chatbot, which has attracted over 100 million users, has been the centre of much debate in recent months, especially when it comes to its position within the workplace.

While separate studies differ on how widespread AI has become in the industry – from being an essential part of the marketer’s toolkit to how ethics issues are hampering implementation at larger companies – earlier this week the Advertising Association convened an AI Taskforce aimed building a coordinated policy approach to the technology.

However, it seems other industries are not too far behind. Businesses within the legal sector rank as the second industry using ChatGPT the most, with 38% of legal workers using ChatGPT or alternative methods of AI for work. This is perhaps unsurprising since recent reports show that AI is reshaping the legal industry by improving contract efficiency and automation, Indusface claims.

Arts and media comes in third place, with 33% of workers within the sector admitting to using ChatGPT for their work. According to the findings, art workers are applying AI to their work more frequently than any other industry within the top 10, with over 13% admitting to using it at least once a week. IT and construction make up the top five.

But despite the creative industry’s dominance in the list, the top reason people (27%) are using the technology is for work reports. In second place is translation (25%), third is research (17%), while fourth is client emails (11%) and fifth is internal emails (8%).

Indusface founder and president Venky Sundar said: “Addressing the data and ownership is still not well defined and businesses are right in not trusting AI completely due to concerns about the use – or more appropriately misuse – of their data. Like every technology, there will be early adopters, but these tend to tech savvy and in the minority. It will take time for everyone to adopt.

“ChatGPT and large language models in general have made the development cycles very short. It is easier now to convert an idea to a working proof of concept in a matter of days when compared to months before.

“The risk though is that a proof of concept should just be used for that purpose. If you go to market with it, there could be serious consequences around app security and data privacy.”