CLEVELAND — Ciara Ahern owns Sixth Element, which is a brand and design studio company. She recommends artificial intelligence for her clients depending on the task. She’s even using AI to generate a photo to use for marketing a beer company.

What You Need To Know

  • Artificial Intelligence, or "A.I." is finding its role in the business world

  • A.I. can help write copy in seconds for branding purposes

  • A.I. can even create a recipe for a cocktail

“Now it is thinking," Ahern said while using the software. "So, you can actually see the beginning of images starting to populate here.”

It only takes about a minute for the program to sift through data on the internet and generate images.

“I think right now, AI is best for either a building block for a larger firm or agency," Ahern said. "Or if you’re a smaller company and you really can’t afford to work with a custom designer, you don’t have a designer in house, you can’t afford to work with an agency, it does give you a lot more flexibility for kind of some quick lower-tier content needs.”

There are limits to AI.

Ahern said you’ll need to give it clear and concise directions if you want the best results.

“If you just need something quick," Ahern said. "It gives you options to version and iterate within the platform. But then you can also just send new prompts if you don’t get exactly what you want. You figure what's missing and try a new version.”

It took only seconds for Rebecca Harmon’s AI software to come up with a recipe for a cocktail. She’s with Cleveland Whiskey.

She gave it follow-up directions, asking it to make it fancier, and the AI even came up with a name, which is the Spicy Nutella Martini

That concept is now in a martini glass. It's a hit, and it’s now being used for promotion of the company's new whiskey brand. Harmon said it can think much faster than a human.

“It helps us to be creative faster," Harmon said. 

Ahern said AI can also write copy for a social post. She lists the details and picks the personality for the AI. She’s writing a post for a beer with a wine flavor to it. Within seconds, she has ten different options. 

“It takes a lot of time and intentionality to get from the facts to fun, engaging copy," Ahern said. "So the even cooler thing that it did is we put facts in there. Just very basic personality-less benefits. What it is, who we’re targeting and some product attributes and it spits out something with personality.”

Ahern said AI can also catch grammar and spelling errors if you’re writing an important email on your phone. She said the technology is now a vital tool for the arsenal, but it won’t replace humans yet.

“Understanding where you want to take it," Ahern said. "The goals that you want to accomplish. There’s no easy way to see what AI is generating is on point unless you have a curator of the tool.”