VIVENDI GOES SXSW South by Southwest (SXSW) is a world-renowned conference and festival that CAN YOU SHARE ANY KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THE FESTIVAL? attracts visitors from around the world. Every year in March, technology, music, SA: One of the key takeaways I had following the event is that content is king, but and film industries converge, taking over Austin, Texas, with educational it’s a crowded kingdom that was once owned by humans. With more and more of keynotes, unique brand activations, live music and more. With innovation at today’s content generated by AI and more content available to anyone through the heart of Havas and Vivendi’s strategy, it was only natural that a delegation, streaming services, and other formats, there’s a real competition for discoverability, which included members from Havas New York, Austin, and LATAM, was sent attention and judgment and retention. Several panels at the event focused on the to this year’s edition of the festival. absolute necessity to develop a creative and consistent content strategy. It’s no longer just about the release dates of content, it’s about what happened before and One of the key trends our delegation noted was the proliferation of generative what happened after to keep communities and audiences engaged. artificial intelligence through applications like ChatGPT and Open AI. To dive deeper into this game-changing trend for our industry and our clients, we spoke HOW WILL OUR JOBS BE INFLUENCED BY GENERATIVE AI? HOW CAN WE ADAPT with Sébastien Auligny, Vice-President of Innovation at Vivendi, who was present TO THIS CHANGE? at SXSW this year. SA: The idea isthat everyone will need upskilling, it’s difficult to imagine that we will avoid the subject of AI. So, I can’t help but ask myself, will this be autopilot or will HOW DO YOU THINK GENERATIVE AI WILL CHANGE HOW WE USE WEB PLATFORMS?this be a copilot? Do we let the machine think for us or will we use generated AI to Sébastien Auligny: Firstly, up until now, the Internet has always been about creatingenhance our work? There is a quote by Ian Beacraft, CEO of Signal, that reads, “We and producing data – information that has been stored on a server that we access won’t lose our jobs. We will lose our job descriptions.” Meaning that, yes, using this when needed through Google and other search engines. tool requires knowledge, but rather than replacing the job, But, today, immense databases are coupled with artificial “WHAT IF INSTEAD OF it will open up possibilities for creative technologists as intelligence, giving rise to an interesting possibility: well as for people to work and focus on what really matters. What if instead of us searching the Internet, the Internet searched for us? Providing us with content that matches US SEARCHING THE DOES GENERATIVE AI CONNECT TO OTHER INNOVATIONS who we are? This evolution could represent the end of a LIKE THE METAVERSE AND VR? static internet and the beginning of a more conversational SA: Overall, SXSW was a valuable experience that I got internet, between us and the machine. INTERNET, THE INTERNETto share with some impressive people from a variety ofdiverse businesses across our group. We realise that Secondly, in many examples of fiction, movies for instance, SEARCHED FOR US?” immersion is the future of digital experiences. For instance, you see big corporations ruling the world. I believe this the metaverse is already about exploring and experiencing is also happening in reality – it’s all about data! The digital content in a more “humanised” way. Technologies, companies offering AI services all use cloud platforms. be it VR/AR, AI or Web3, are developing and contributing Only a handful of providers such as Azure, Google Cloud or Amazon Web Services to blurring the lines between the real/physical and the virtual/digital. Brands are can offer this service, making it very difficult to avoid using big tech’s technologiesembracing these changes, from content creation to community engagement, but and systems. Once you’ve put your data on the system, you cannot get it out. ultimately, it’s the VALUE and MEANING of the experiences we create that matter And companies like Open AI who know how to use the data will benefit from this most. These technologies are “just” tools to bring the creators’ vision to life. So, let’s standard and can capitalise on it. unleash our creativity and create without limits! THE IDENTITY ISSUE 19