Office of Marketing and Communications

Generative Artificial Intelligence for Marketing and Communications at Ohio State

Generative artificial intelligence — technology that supports how we create visual, written and audio content — is sparking conversations on campus and around the world. This guide is designed to help you understand how to best use artificial intelligence at Ohio State, covering policy, strengths and limitations, and learning opportunities.

The Office of Marketing and Communications is convening expertise across Ohio State to help our community navigate and leverage generative artificial intelligence technology.  

While you are likely already using “traditional” AI in your work and everyday life (think email spam filters, Siri or Alexa, your smartphone), generative AI may be newer to you. Generative artificial intelligence is revolutionizing how content is created and shared, offering new opportunities for innovation and efficiency and enhancing what we can achieve in the field of marketing and communications.

Our goal is to help marketers and communicators understand how best to use this quickly evolving technology — ethically, efficiently and within Ohio State’s policy parameters. 

We are building a library of resources to help staff members understand how to use generative AI for marketing and communications work. We will explore: 

  • Generative artificial intelligence’s strengths and limitations (when it is appropriate to use — and when we should avoid — artificial intelligence) 
  • Ethical and legal questions behind when, whether, and how we choose to use artificial intelligence 
  • How generative artificial intelligence affects specific areas of expertise (writing, design, photography, videography, etc.) 
  • Opportunities for the marketing and communications community to learn from one another and share successes. 

Because generative artificial intelligence tools are rapidly evolving, we will update this page with new and approved resources. In the meantime, we offer three basic principles for Buckeyes choosing to use artificial intelligence to support our work: 

1 We follow existing policies and procedures when using AI.

The Office of Technology and Digital Innovation maintains a growing list of tools vetted and approved for use with institutional data. These include Microsoft Copilot Chat and Adobe tools. 

 Artificial intelligence-related policies and resources: 

 Tips: 

  • Use AI for research. Given the right prompt, AI is a helpful starting point for widely benchmarking and gathering facts, statistics and data from across the internet. 
  • Break through creative blocks. Generative AI is a valuable resource for brainstorming. It can generate creative ideas, writing prompts and help you benchmark.  
  • If you want to use a tool that is not on the list above, ask the IT support member or team in your college or unit. The tool may be approved for use in your area, or may need to undergo a formal risk assessment with OTDI. 

2 We approach AI the same way we approach all our work: ethically, purposefully and intentionally.

Whether gathering information, streamlining tasks, or fine-tuning work, we apply the same standards as when creating original content. This means balancing artificial intelligence’s efficiency gains with understanding risks, including copyright issues, bias and misinformation. Every artificial intelligence-generated item needs to be reviewed by a human expert for factual accuracy, tone and audience impact. 

Tips:

  • Remember that AI tools may “hallucinate” (produce incorrect, misleading or biased results). 
  • Always vet what generative AI produces with trusted sources. 
  • Use AI to streamline tasks — like writing a first draft of meta tags. 
  • Never use generative AI to change the context or meaning of content (e.g., adding or removing people in an existing photo). 
  • Beware of copyright issues in imagery and plagiarism in written materials. 

3 We embrace continuous learning and discovery.

We foster a culture of continuous learning and collaboration. Whether you’re suspicious, eager to get started or consider yourself an artificial intelligence pro, you are in good company. From online learning opportunities to best practice guides to conversations where we can learn from one another, we are exploring resources that will help our community use artificial intelligence efficiently, effectively and ethically. 

Tips:

  • Join Ohio State’s Teams channel for AI, a space for the mar/comm community to ask questions and share resources.