San Diego digital marketing outfit SOCi said Tuesday that it raised $120 million in a tough funding environment for startups to bulk up artificial intelligence in its software platform — including the integration of OpenAI’s ChatGPT to respond to online reviews.
SOCi’s software targets brands with multiple locations, such as Ace Hardware, Jersey Mike’s, Kumon and Ford. It helps them manage and collect data from their search and social media presence through a centralized platform — and in particular their reputations on review websites.The company, led by neuro and data scientists, has been developing a new line of “Genius” products to further tap artificial intelligence and machine learning models to automate digital marketing and decision-making.
“In an organization that is receiving reviews across thousands of locations, this could take the responsibility and cost of responding out of the hands of thousands of individuals, and dwindle it down to just a handful of individuals at corporate who are reviewing the list of automated responses,” said Afif Khoury, chief executive and co-founder of SOCi, in an email response to questions.
But it also has sparked a fair amount of handwringing over potential downsides, such as using it for school homework or writing malicious computer code. Big tech outfits including Microsoft have touted the technology as potentially disrupting Internet search, while others see it as eliminating jobs.
There is something disingenuous by using AI here.