OpenAI on what every CMO needs to know about AI with BCG

**Jon Evans** (0:00)
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to Uncensored CMO, to this special edition of the podcast, in partnership with my friends at BCG. We are talking about how AI will transform marketing to people that really know what they're talking about. Mark is managing partner at BCG and works with brands all over the world using AI to transform their business. And Elke runs international marketing at OpenAI. And I'm particularly pleased because OpenAI don't often come on podcasts, so this is a bit of a coup to have her sharing her expertise with us today. We're going to talk all about how Jack GPT is transforming the industry, but also how CMOs can take advantage of this technology. There's loads of practical insight in this episode. I know you'll love it. Here it is.
Great, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to Uncensored CMO. Now, I'm delighted in this episode because we're talking about OpenAI with our partners at BCG.
And part of the reason I'm so fascinated by this conversation is we haven't heard much from OpenAI in the context of marketing before. So I'm really pleased that we get the chance to have this conversation.

**Elke Karskens** (1:05)
Yeah, and we're excited to start having the conversation.

**Jon Evans** (1:07)
Yeah, it begins here on Uncensored CMO, which is great.
Now, OpenAI, I think I'm right in saying, is like the fastest startup success story in history. Can you give a bit of background to just how far you've come in a short space of time?

**Elke Karskens** (1:20)
It is truly wild. Chet GPT was actually only launched three and a half years ago, November 2022 And I always joke, I'm like, I've got socks at home that are older than that. But today we are at close to a billion users that are using Chet GPT on a weekly basis. And we grew five times faster than the Internet, ten times faster than the PC. So it's an absolutely incredible story. And I think the main thing that people always like trying to understand is sort of why behind that. And I think it's fundamentally because it adds use and value to people's everyday life. People go to chats to learn new skills, to understand the topic better.
It helps them navigate big decisions that they need to make advice. So at the end of the day, it's really about the value that it unlocks for people. And I think that's sort of what's behind that.

**Jon Evans** (2:07)
It's an amazing example of virality because it seemed to come out of nowhere. And then suddenly everyone's using it. That transition from kind of like make-believe, oh, AI, suddenly everyone's using it, was really short, wasn't it? Were there any moments where it all broke through?

**Elke Karskens** (2:25)
Well, I think it was actually from the beginning. I don't know where you were in Christmas December 2022, but we were at home writing endless stories and lyrics in the style of Dolly Parton or Snoop Dogg, etc.
And I think that was the moment when people, for the first time, probably experienced part of that wow moment. But then when people started using it for more use cases, I guess that magic got unlocked in a much deeper way. And I think since then, the trajectory has been absolutely incredible. I think ChachiPT, for a lot of people, is truly synonymous with AI.

**Jon Evans** (3:01)
It is, yeah. And how have you been able to scale that quickly, that fast, because that's an incredible transition in just a short amount of time.

**Elke Karskens** (3:11)
I think, as I just said, it adds value to people's life in a really meaningful way.
But I think it's also done a fantastic job at transforming every single industry across businesses. And I think Mark, you'll talk about that a little bit more as well. It changes how businesses operate, it changes how decisions are made, it fundamentally changes how value is being unlocked as well.
So that value adds across all parts of life, regardless of you being somebody who uses it quite simplistically for everyday life, or if it's a business that is going through full transformation. AI touched all of it. And I think the fact that we are continuing to focus really on products, building products that people love, that helps businesses really unlock new opportunities is what's part of that growth.

**Mark Abraham** (3:59)
Yeah, it's really remarkable just how much CMOs themselves have come along in this journey in three years.
I remember three years ago when we did our first CMO survey, right after Chad GPT launched, there was a lot of confusion and people just sorting out how to use the technology for the marketing function. Fast forward three years now, and CMOs are telling us they're in the driver's seat. They are making the AI investment decisions for their function. And Chad GPT is a critical tool they're using in that process, as well as Codex and all the other great parts of what Open AI is offering.