- A marketing company in China reportedly has plans to replace some of its human contractors with AI.
- A memo seen by Bloomberg says BlueFocus plans to replace external copywriters and graphic designers.
A marketing and brand management company in China has plans to replace some of its copywriters and graphic designers with generative AI models like ChatGPT, according to an internal memo seen by Bloomberg.
BlueFocus Intelligent Communications Group Co., which offers services in strategy, advertising, and public relations, is reportedly interested in using AI technology from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Baidu Inc. to replace work it previously relied on from outside copywriters and graphic designers. Baidu recently announced its version of ChatGPT called Ernie Bot, but hasn't publicly launched it.
"To embrace the new wave of AI generated content, starting today we've decided to halt all spending on third-party copywriters and designers," the memo reportedly said, according to Bloomberg.
BlueFocus did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment outside local business hours.
According to its website, Mercedes, Samsung, and P&G are some of BlueFocus's clients. The company says it has 5,000 employees around the world, and 100 offices in over 10 countries.
Since it was released last November, OpenAI's ChatGPT has sparked concerns over the potential impact that generative AI tools pose to the work force.
Media jobs, including those in advertising and journalism, are among the top roles that are likely to be replaced, experts previously told Insider.
"Analyzing and interpreting vast amounts of language based data and information is a skill that you'd expect generative AI technologies to ramp up on," Anu Madgavkar, a partner at McKinsey Global Institute, said.
Some news sites have already experimented with using AI models to write articles and other types of media content, including BuzzFeed and CNET. Insider's global editor-in-chief recently announced its newsroom will start experimenting with ChatGPT.
Madgavkar told Insider that most of the work in media jobs can't be fully automated.
"There's a ton of human judgment that goes into each of these occupations," Madgavkar said.
Generative AI can potentially affect 300 million-full time jobs around the world, research from Goldman Sachs found. The report says around two-thirds of current jobs can be somewhat automated, and generative AI can do up to a quarter of work, based on an analysis of occupational tasks in US and European jobs.