---
title: "What GPT-4 Says About the Future of Consumption, Brands, Marketing, and China"
description: "A systematic conversation with GPT-4, at the moment of its arrival, about the future of consumption, brands, marketing, and China."
author: "Zhao Bo (赵波)"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
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published: "2023-03-15"
language: "en"
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---

# What GPT-4 Says About the Future of Consumption, Brands, Marketing, and China

> A systematic conversation with GPT-4, at the moment of its arrival, about the future of consumption, brands, marketing, and China.

**Author** | Zhao Bo

**Proofreader** | Kang Zhiqiang **Layout** | He Wen

GPT-4 was officially unveiled last night! OpenAI CEO Sam Altman got straight to the point: this is our most capable model yet!

According to OpenAI’s official introduction, GPT-4 is an extremely large multimodal model, meaning it can accept both text—up to 25,000 Chinese characters—and images as input.

(Look at the image.) What will happen when the glove falls?

It will land on the wooden board, causing the ball to bounce away.

You can even draw a simple sketch of a website on paper:

Take a photo and upload it to GPT-4, and it can immediately generate the website’s HTML code!

When it comes to performance, OpenAI made a bold statement:

It exhibits human-level performance on various professional and academic benchmarks!

And OpenAI did not stop at simply releasing GPT-4. This time, it rolled out all the related “major moves” in one fell swoop:

  * ChatGPT Plus: An upgraded version of ChatGPT integrating GPT-4
  * Release of the GPT-4 API
  * Publication of the technical paper * Public release of the System Card

Given how powerful it is, New Distribution asked GPT-4 several questions about the changes people are most concerned about in the future of the consumer goods industry, including changes in consumers, markets, marketing, and technology.

Frankly speaking, the professional quality of the AI’s answers greatly surprised the author. The comprehensiveness and accuracy of the content have improved significantly compared with before, and it also offered a great deal of sound advice. Without further ado, here are GPT-4’s answers for you to see.

  

****What impact will artificial intelligence have on society’s attitudes toward consumption in the future?****

  
**ChatGPT:** Artificial intelligence (AI) will affect society’s attitudes toward consumption in many ways, including the following: 1. Personalized recommendations and customized production: By analyzing data such as consumers’ purchase histories, interests, and behavior, AI can accurately recommend products and services that meet their individual needs. At the same time, AI can optimize production processes and enable customized production, thereby better meeting consumer demand. 2. Price optimization: By analyzing data on market supply and demand, competition, and other factors, AI can determine optimal prices, enabling price optimization and improving corporate profitability. Consumers can also use AI to compare the prices and value for money of different products, allowing them to make wiser purchasing decisions. 3. Enhanced consumer experiences: Through technologies such as speech recognition, natural language processing, and image recognition, AI can enable smarter, more human-centered interactions, thereby improving consumer satisfaction and loyalty. 4. Protection of consumer rights: Through big-data analysis and forecasting, AI can promptly identify and resolve product-quality problems, thereby protecting consumer rights. AI can also use technologies such as smart contracts and blockchain to provide stronger protections for consumers. Overall, AI will give society more choices, greater personalization, better experiences, and stronger protections, while also encouraging consumers to make more rational and well-informed purchasing decisions.  
****Will personalized recommendations trap people in information cocoons?****  
**ChatGPT:**

Personalized recommendations may indeed trap people in information cocoons because AI systems often recommend content based on an individual’s preferences and historical data. This creates a personalized information environment that may exclude novel and diverse information.

Such information cocoons may cause people to cling more firmly to their existing beliefs and ideas, making them reluctant to encounter and understand different perspectives and information. Personalized recommendations may also reinforce people’s cognitive biases, making them more likely to reject and deny viewpoints and information that differ from their own, potentially leading to social division and conflict.

To prevent this, we need to obtain information through multiple channels rather than limiting ourselves to AI-recommended content. For example, we can actively seek diverse sources of information, communicate and exchange ideas with people from different backgrounds, and try to encounter and understand different perspectives and values. We can also encourage AI systems to give greater consideration to diversity and balance when making recommendations, allowing them to serve society as a whole more effectively.

If AI makes any information instantly available, will people become unwilling to learn new knowledge, form new social connections, or discover new things, instead handing every aspect of their lives over to AI and ultimately becoming dominated by it, as Yuval Noah Harari described in *Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow*? Having any information instantly available through AI may indeed cause some people to become less willing to learn new knowledge proactively, discover new things, or interact with others, instead entrusting every aspect of their lives to AI. If this trend continues, humanity may indeed gradually come under AI’s control. However, we must also recognize that human learning, social interaction, and development are not driven solely by a lack of knowledge or information. They arise more fundamentally from our innate curiosity, thirst for knowledge, and need for self-actualization. Even with AI’s assistance, people will continue to pursue higher goals and greater challenges, explore and discover new knowledge and fields, and communicate and collaborate with others to advance society together. Therefore, while using AI, we must also cultivate and strengthen human values, capabilities, and literacy. We should encourage people to explore and discover new knowledge and fields, continually improve their skills and abilities, and proactively communicate and collaborate with others, thereby better achieving the goals of self-actualization and social development. At the same time, we must appropriately regulate and oversee AI’s development to prevent it from dominating or harming humanity.  
**Under the dominance of an AI civilization, how can people think independently?**  
  
**ChatGPT:**

Under the dominance of an AI civilization, thinking independently will not be easy, but it is a goal we must strive to achieve. Here are some suggestions:

1. Cultivate critical thinking: Critical thinking is one of the keys to independent thought. It helps us analyze and evaluate different kinds of information and viewpoints so that we can form our own judgments and decisions. 2. Diversify information sources: In addition to relying on information provided by AI, we should obtain information from various sources, such as books, journals, newspapers, and social media, so that we can understand matters more comprehensively. 3. Remain open to different viewpoints: When confronted with different perspectives and opinions, we should maintain an open mind and try to understand the reasons and logic behind them, enabling us to think more independently. 4. Maintain curiosity and a thirst for knowledge: Curiosity and the desire to learn are major drivers of independent thought. We should preserve this spirit at all times and continue exploring and discovering new knowledge and fields. 5. Practice self-reflection and self-assessment: We need to reflect on and assess ourselves regularly so that we can recognize our cognitive biases and blind spots, identify areas for improvement, and continually strengthen our ability to think and our intellectual literacy. In short, under the dominance of an AI civilization, we must recognize the importance of independent thought and put it into practice. Only by thinking and judging for ourselves can we better adapt to and respond to the challenges and opportunities of the future.  
**Will large corporations use AI to influence consumers’ purchasing decisions in pursuit of their commercial objectives?**  
  
**ChatGPT:**

Large corporations may use AI to influence consumers’ purchasing decisions in order to achieve their commercial objectives. This is because AI technology can analyze consumer data and behavioral patterns, then use that information to recommend personalized products and services. In this way, large corporations can better satisfy consumers’ needs and preferences while increasing sales and profits.

However, it is important to note that large corporations should comply with ethical and legal standards when using AI. They must not pursue commercial objectives by deceiving or misleading consumers. They should also clearly inform consumers about how they use AI to influence purchasing decisions and give consumers the power to choose and remain in control. In short, AI can help large corporations better meet consumer needs and preferences, but they must comply with ethical and legal standards and protect consumer rights.  
**If I hand over all my physical information and behavioral data from my work and personal life to AI for monitoring and management, what will AI do with that data?**  
  
**ChatGPT:**

If you hand over all your physical information and behavioral data from your work and personal life to AI for monitoring and management, AI will process it according to the type and intended use of the data. Here are some possible applications:

1. Health management: AI can use your physical information to monitor your health and provide personalized advice on matters such as diet, exercise, and sleep. AI can also help you manage chronic conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure. 2. Work and life planning: Based on behavioral data from your work and personal life, AI can provide personalized plans and recommendations on matters such as time management, workflow optimization, and reducing wasted time. 3. Security monitoring: If you use Internet of Things devices such as smart-home products or smartwatches, AI can monitor these devices and provide security alerts, such as reminding you to change device passwords to protect against hackers. 4. Personalized advertising and product recommendations: If you authorize AI to use your personal data, it can recommend personalized advertisements and products based on your interests and behavioral patterns. In short, if you hand over all your physical information and behavioral data from your work and personal life to AI for monitoring and management, AI will process it according to the type and intended use of the data and provide personalized services and recommendations. At the same time, you need to consider data privacy and security to ensure that your personal data is not misused or leaked.  
**Can AI resolve humanity’s current lack of faith, spiritual emptiness, and absence of meaning?**  
  
**ChatGPT:**

AI is fundamentally a technology. It can process and analyze vast quantities of data and extract useful information and patterns from it. Although AI can help humanity solve many problems, it cannot directly resolve issues such as a lack of faith, spiritual emptiness, or an absence of meaning.

These issues belong to the emotional and value-oriented dimensions of the human psyche and are rooted in our cultures, beliefs, experiences, and personal convictions. Although AI can simulate and imitate human thought processes, it lacks human emotions and subjective experience and therefore cannot truly understand or satisfy humanity’s emotional and spiritual needs. Moreover, AI algorithms and decisions are influenced by their programmers and datasets, which may cause them to produce biased or unjust outcomes. In some circumstances, AI may even exacerbate certain problems, such as extremism and information overload on social media. Therefore, although AI can offer assistance and solve problems in certain fields, it cannot directly resolve humanity’s problems of faith, spirituality, and meaning. These require deeper reflection and exploration, as well as our own effort and practice.  
**If Coca-Cola buys AI advertising in the future, will AI covertly push information about Coca-Cola to consumers?**  
  
**ChatGPT:**

AI advertising can indeed push information about Coca-Cola to consumers, but it will not do so “covertly.” Advertising is authorized and legally purchased by clients, and these advertisements are delivered to clearly defined audiences. Consumers can also choose not to view them.

AI advertising typically uses data about consumer behavior and interests to target advertisements, including search histories, browsing records, purchasing preferences, and so forth. In this way, AI advertising can identify interested audiences more accurately, thereby improving advertising performance and conversion rates. However, this does not mean that AI advertising will push information to consumers without authorization; it must comply with relevant legal and ethical standards. Overall, AI advertising is an effective marketing tool, but its use must be lawful and transparent and must comply with relevant ethical standards and social responsibilities.  
**In the future AI era, will changes in consumers’ lifestyles and behavior give rise to new global brands?**  
  
**ChatGPT:** In the future AI era, changes in consumers’ lifestyles and behavior may give rise to new global brands. As technology advances and consumer needs change, commercial competition worldwide is also evolving. The application of AI technology enables companies to understand consumer needs more precisely and provide products and services that better meet their expectations, giving emerging brands greater opportunities in global markets. For example, new brands may emerge in response to consumer demand for sustainable and environmentally friendly products, which are becoming increasingly important in modern society. They may use AI technology to identify these consumers and provide better products and services, thereby building brand value and awareness in the market. In addition, with the growing prevalence of social media and e-commerce, emerging brands can also achieve global reach through online marketing and promotion. In short, the future AI era may offer more opportunities to emerging brands, but they will also face the challenges of global competition. In this era, companies must continually innovate and improve to meet consumer needs and remain competitive.  
**In the AI era, how have the ways people obtain information and view advertisements changed compared with the past?**  
  
**ChatGPT:** With the rapid development and widespread adoption of artificial intelligence, the ways people obtain information and view advertisements have changed considerably. Here are some of the main changes: 1. Search engine optimization (SEO): As search-engine technology continues to improve, people can now obtain information more easily through search engines. Search engine optimization (SEO) has become a key digital-marketing strategy, enabling companies to rank higher on search-engine results pages. 2. Personalized recommendations: The rapid development of artificial intelligence enables companies to make personalized recommendations by collecting and analyzing user data. For example, recommendation systems based on users’ historical behavior and interests have become standard features of e-commerce websites and social-media platforms. 3. Voice search and assistants: With advances in speech recognition and natural language processing, voice search and voice assistants have become one of the main ways people obtain information and interact with technology. The widespread adoption of smart speakers and smartphones allows people to interact with AI through speech. 4. Personalized advertising: By collecting user data, artificial intelligence can help companies better understand their target audiences and deliver more personalized advertisements. This makes advertising more targeted and efficient. 5. Virtual and augmented reality: Virtual- and augmented-reality technologies have emerged as new forms of advertising. By using AR and VR, companies can offer more immersive advertising experiences and capture users’ attention. In short, artificial intelligence is continually changing how people obtain information and view advertisements, making information more personalized and efficient.  
****************How should major brands adjust their marketing methods in response to AI?****************  
  
**ChatGPT:** Major brands need to adjust their marketing methods as artificial intelligence develops so that they can better use and adapt to these technologies. Here are some possible adjustments: 1. Personalized recommendations: Major brands can use artificial intelligence to collect and analyze user data and make personalized recommendations based on users’ historical behavior and interests. This can help brands interact more effectively with their target audiences and improve marketing performance. 2. Data-driven decision-making: Major brands can use artificial intelligence to collect and analyze data, allowing them to formulate more effective marketing strategies and decisions. This can help brands better understand their audiences and market trends while optimizing their advertising and marketing strategies. 3. Virtual and augmented reality: Major brands can use artificial intelligence to provide more immersive virtual- and augmented-reality advertising experiences. This can help brands capture users’ attention and strengthen interaction and loyalty between users and brands. 4. Voice search and assistants: Major brands can use artificial intelligence to provide voice-search and voice-assistant services. This can help brands interact more effectively with users and improve user satisfaction and loyalty. 5. Automated marketing: Major brands can use artificial intelligence to automate marketing processes, such as advertisement placement and email marketing. This can help brands improve efficiency, reduce costs, and enhance marketing performance. In short, major brands need to actively adapt to the development of artificial intelligence and adjust their marketing strategies and methods so that they can use these technologies more effectively to improve marketing performance and user experiences.  
****************Will new marketing theories emerge in the AI era?****************  
  
**ChatGPT:** As artificial intelligence continues to develop and become more widespread, marketing theory is also continually evolving and changing. Therefore, new marketing theories may emerge in the AI era. Here are some possibilities: 1. Data-driven marketing: As artificial intelligence develops, brands can collect and analyze large quantities of data more easily and use that data to formulate more precise and effective marketing strategies. 2. Personalized marketing: Artificial intelligence can help brands better understand users’ interests and behavior and use this information to deliver personalized marketing and recommendations, thereby improving marketing performance and user satisfaction. 3. Emotional marketing: Artificial intelligence can help brands better understand users’ emotions and psychological states and use this information to devise more emotionally resonant marketing strategies, thereby strengthening the emotional connection between users and brands. 4. Interactive marketing: Artificial intelligence can help brands interact more effectively with users and provide more immersive marketing experiences, such as those enabled by virtual- and augmented-reality technologies. 5. Sustainable marketing: As society pays increasing attention to environmental protection and sustainability, brands need to make sustainability an important part of their marketing strategies and use artificial intelligence to improve the effectiveness of sustainability marketing. In short, marketing theory in the AI era will place greater emphasis on data and personalization, as well as on using artificial intelligence to improve marketing performance and user experiences.  
****************If AI gives consumers clear advice about consumption and shopping, will brands disappear, leaving consumers concerned only with products’ functions and effectiveness?****************  
  
**ChatGPT:**

Although artificial intelligence can give consumers clear advice about consumption and shopping, the value of brands still cannot be ignored. A brand represents consumers’ trust in and loyalty toward a company or product. Brands can guarantee product quality and service while providing differentiated advantages in market competition.

Although artificial intelligence can help consumers find the products and services they need more quickly and accurately, consumers will still pay attention to factors such as brand reputation, product quality, and service standards. If brands perform well in these respects, consumers will continue to choose their products and services.

Moreover, brand marketing can still generate enormous commercial value for brands. It can help brands connect with consumers, increase brand awareness and recognition, strengthen trust in the brand, and thereby boost sales and profits.

Therefore, although artificial intelligence can give consumers clear advice about consumption and shopping, brands will remain critically important, and brand marketing will remain indispensable. Brands can help consumers make wiser and more confident decisions among numerous choices while also creating commercial value and competitive advantages for themselves.  
****************Will AI change humanity’s values in the future?****************  
  
**ChatGPT:** The development and application of artificial intelligence may affect humanity’s values in the future, but the extent and direction of that influence remain uncertain. Here are some possible effects: 1. Artificial intelligence may change how we view work and employment. As artificial intelligence develops, many repetitive and simple jobs will be automated, which may cause some people to lose their jobs. This may change people’s values concerning work, shifting their focus from income and material rewards toward self-actualization and the creation of value. 2. Artificial intelligence may change how we view education and learning. As artificial intelligence develops, people will be able to learn and master a great deal of knowledge and many skills through AI technology. This may change their values concerning education and learning, shifting the focus from paper credentials and examination results toward skills and practical ability. 3. Artificial intelligence may change how we view human creativity and innovation. As artificial intelligence develops, many repetitive and simple tasks will be automated. This may change people’s values concerning human creativity and innovation, shifting the focus from mechanical and repetitive work toward creative and innovative work. In short, the development and application of artificial intelligence may affect humanity’s future values, but the extent and direction of that influence remain uncertain. People should pay attention to the application and development of artificial intelligence while continuing to examine and reflect on their own values.  
****************As China’s GDP continues to grow, will Chinese consumer brands have opportunities to expand into other countries?****************  
  
**ChatGPT:** As China’s GDP continues to grow, Chinese consumer brands will have opportunities to expand into other countries and achieve international growth. First, the market scale of Chinese consumer brands is continually expanding, which means they have accumulated sufficient brand awareness and strength in the domestic market to establish the foundations required for entering international markets. At the same time, as Chinese consumers become increasingly conscious of quality and branding, demand for high-quality, premium consumer brands is also growing, creating opportunities for Chinese consumer brands to expand internationally. Second, Chinese consumer brands have made significant progress in technology and innovation. Some brands have already established certain advantages in fields such as e-commerce, intelligent manufacturing, and logistics, further strengthening their ability to enter international markets. In addition, the price advantage enjoyed by Chinese consumer brands is another major strength in international markets. Because labor costs in China are relatively low, coupled with support from certain policies, Chinese consumer brands can sell their products internationally at more competitive prices. In short, as China’s GDP continues to grow and its domestic market expands, Chinese consumer brands will have opportunities to enter other countries and achieve international growth. However, Chinese brands will still face many challenges in international markets, including brand awareness, quality certification, and cultural differences. They will need to strengthen their brand building and marketing strategies to achieve greater success internationally.

**P.S.:****From April 6–8, 2023,** the 2023 China FMCG Innovation Conference will be held in grand style at the Tivoli Chengdu at Cultural Heritage Park**** (No. 601, Section 2, Guanghua Avenue, Qingyang District).****

**Centered on the theme of “A New World, a New FMCG Industry,” the conference will span ****three days, feature 130 guests, and include 13 parallel forums**. It will bring together senior executives from leading industry brands, platform founders, outstanding distributors from across China, and others to discuss the latest developments in the FMCG industry, the newest changes in distribution channels, and emerging trends in market development in the new-world era. Participants will learn how to respond to new changes, achieve new growth, and become part of the new FMCG industry in this new world!****

Some of the prominent guests confirmed to date include: ******1\. Hou Xiaohai, Chief Executive Officer of China Resources Beer (Holdings) Co., Ltd.****2\. David Zhang, Executive Vice President of Nestlé S.A. and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Nestlé Zone Greater China********3\. Jason Jiang, Founder and Chairman of Focus Media****4\. Anne Tse, Chief Executive Officer and President of PepsiCo Greater China****5\. Ding Jiachuan, Managing Director and Senior Partner at Boston Consulting Group****6\. Zheng Ye, Chief Business Growth Officer at NielsenIQ****7\. Shen Changliang, Deputy General Manager and General Manager of the Marketing Center at Beijing Yanjing Brewery Co., Ltd.****8\. Zhang Fujun, President of Lee Kum Kee Sauce Group China****9\. Wang Yong, Senior Vice President of Yonyou Network****10\. Yao Xuhong, General Manager of Caihua Trading (Yueheji)****11\. Dong Wenbo, Head of Digitalization at Eastroc Beverage****12\. Jiang Bo, CIO of Shandong Luhua Group**********

……

Scroll down to view the complete agenda

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