AI: the change is here

Generative artificial intelligence is revolutionising how destinations and related content are portrayed.

AI: the change is hereExploring a new region, picking out a mountain escape, staying at a tourist resort: all these experiences now start long before the visitor’s arrival. Often, the real beginning comes when they watch a reel or browse photos on Instagram, leaf through a magazine or read an article on the website of their destination, prompted perhaps by a sponsored post on Facebook.

Bill Gates had already fully grasped, at the end of the last century, what was to fuel the Internet over the coming years: content.

A long time has passed since a certain Bill Gates proclaimed that “Content is king”. The year was 1996: an eternity ago in the world of technology. Yet the man who made Microsoft one of the world’s leading companies had already fully grasped, at the end of the last century, what was to fuel the Internet over the coming years: content.

territorial promotion and marketing based on contentI’ve spoken before about territorial promotion and marketing based on content, including during the training course that I held for the Madonna di Campiglio Tourist Board team. As the training leader, I also chose to dedicate significant time to new content, because a breakthrough innovation has been at play since late 2022: the spread of generative artificial intelligence. Almost thirty years after Bill Gates coined the phrase “Content is king”, he took to LinkedIn to proclaim that the last few months have been the most exciting time since the early days of the Internet.

OpenAI and ChatGPTWhat could have inspired such an announcement? This time, it’s the revolution being led by OpenAI, the company that developed and launched ChatGPT in late 2022. As I explain in one of my recent “Venice Lessons” — the videos on digital marketing lessons recorded among the canals, squares and cultural sites of Venice, available on my website www.miriambertoli.com — ChatGPT has let the genie out of the lamp, ushering generative artificial intelligence into pop culture where it is accessible to and within reach of everyone.

A thing of immense technical complexity, which required decades of investment, is now open to millions of people via the most familiar interface imaginable: a chatbot. It’s similar to the WhatsApp model, a means of interaction that has become part of our everyday lives. In the case of ChatGPT, however, it is not mum, a friend or a colleague holding up the other side of the conversation, but an artificial intelligence capable of interacting and responding, quickly writing texts, processing information and producing content.

Which brings us back to the topic of content. Producing texts, images, videos and audio by relying fully or partly on artificial intelligence systems will become increasingly common, while the quality of the results is sure to improve rapidly. We are only at the dawn of this technology, and these systems are destined to become an increasingly intrinsic part of the work life of those who plan, produce and disseminate content on websites, social media and by email, as well as through the press and traditional media. If regulated and used with skill and vision, this new ally will broaden our options for spreading an awareness and appreciation of destinations by sharing their stories, their people, their environment, and all the services and experiences they offer to those who choose them.