Happy birthday, ChatGPT! 

What a year it’s been since the bot’s public launch on 30 November 2022. Its viral success upped the ante across the generative AI (gen AI) realm, with numerous  tools benefitting from the public’s interest in this new launch, and others spawning in its wake – including Elon Musk and xAI’s recent addition, the so-called “rebellious” Grok.

Plenty of us at Battenhall have been testing out ChatGPT and other gen AI tools over the past year, and here’s how we’ve been making the most of it.

Luke Bellos, Technology Writer

"I find generative AI to be an incredibly valuable tool for brainstorming, particularly when beginning a new project. 

As a writer, one of my biggest challenges is ensuring that each new piece of content is unique and doesn't mimic my previous work. I always strive to avoid a formulaic approach, but developing a unique style for each new piece of content can be time-consuming. Instead of waiting around for inspiration to strike, I use generative AI to create some basic ideas that align with the subjects and themes I need to focus on. Even if the generated ideas aren't exactly in sync with my writing style, exploring different content creation techniques helps me determine what I want to accomplish and what I want to avoid."

Sam Mead, Senior Software Engineer

“I’m using ChatGPT as my own personalised developer assistant. It's great for troubleshooting and refactoring code. More recently, now that plugins are becoming more sophisticated, it’s amazing at reading documentation and supplying an answer in the context of my specific use case. And lastly, now that I can personalise the default outputs, I always get answers pitched back to me at the right level.”

Keri Hudson, Senior Consultant, Insights

“We’ve recently started to experiment with using ChatGPT to tease out trends from large social media data sets. While it can provide fairly basic quant analysis quickly, I’ve found it to be more useful when I work with it to dig a little deeper. Prompts such as, ‘tell me 10 unusual things about the post copy’ or ‘based on the data, what are the characteristics of a high performing post within this industry?’ have provided some really interesting results, upon which we can build our insight. 

It’s also been a great tool for helping us kick start research about industries and audiences, as well providing creative prompts for brainstorms and ideation.”

Laurel Munshower, Senior Account Manager

“In account management, there are a lot of little tasks that eat away at your time and ChatGPT has become a mini-assistant. I use it to help draft bases for emails or other communications, create to-do lists, crunch data and numbers, and quickly pull bullet points of information that would normally require ample research time (but  I always fact-check info from ChatGPT before using it, of course). Productivity/notes app, Notion, also has a handy “Ask AI” tool that can help when stuck on writing or editing tasks. 

These tools may not give the best answer, but I love that they can put you on a path to thinking in a different way that helps lead you to a great result. While I wouldn’t necessarily say I can’t imagine life without generative AI, I’m certainly appreciative to have access to this new tech tool.”

Abbie Medd, Senior Designer

“This year, generative AI has enabled us to draw on our creativity, combining it with these new tools to create impactful outcomes and generate ideas at pace. At Battenhall we've used AI (such as Midjourney and Photoshop Beta) focusing on meaningful applications rather than adopting it for the sake of mere usage. 

AI has enabled us to create more engaging content; bringing children's imaginations to life for GE HealthCare as well as creating a diverse set of faces for the NHS Mental Health Services. Both of these projects allowed us to leverage an alternative, unique look of AI and celebrate it. It also provided the tools for us to create ‘fictitious’ people, enabling complete anonymity around a sensitive topic, creating solutions to visualising the impossible.

Overall we can see the impact AI is having in all areas of design and we feel that as long as we are mindful and considerate with our use of AI aligning with our creative vision and values we will be able to use it successfully.”

For more on the rise of ChatGPT and generative AI over the past year—and what’s to come in the year ahead, check out our 2024 Social Media Trends Report.