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AI tools and EU regulations with ex-HubSpot Professor Lisa Stappert | Avidly Talks AI

14 mins read

AI is reshaping marketing in profound ways, but with great innovation comes unique challenges—especially in markets with strict regulations and cultural nuances. In this episode of Avidly Talks, Paul Mortimer sits down with Lisa Stappert, former HubSpot Inbound Professor, to discuss how AI and marketing intersect.

Everything from translating content for diverse audiences to navigating European AI regulations, all while offering practical tips for marketers looking to make the most of AI tools.

Watch the episode below or listen on Spotify to learn how to master AI tools:

 
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Takeaways from this episode:

  • Understanding the local context is crucial for effective content translation.
  • AI regulations in Europe present unique challenges for marketers.
  • Data privacy laws like GDPR significantly impact AI tool usage.
  • Customer education is key to overcoming hesitations about AI.
  • AI tools are evolving rapidly and becoming integral to daily tasks.
  • Generative AI is a specific subset of artificial intelligence.
  • Marketers need to continuously adapt to new AI developments.
  • Identifying clear goals can help in selecting the right AI tools.
  • Practical experimentation with AI tools is essential for learning.
  • The future of AI will likely see consolidation among major players.


Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Avidly Talks and Guest Background
03:01 AI for Marketers: Course Development and Insights
05:51 The Future of AI in Marketing and Daily Life
06:12 Contextualizing Content for Different Audiences
08:23 Navigating AI Regulations in Europe
08:56 Overcoming Customer Hesitations with AI Tools
11:56 The Evolution of AI Tools in Daily Life
14:01 Understanding AI: Generative vs. Traditional
15:01 The Future of AI and Its Integration
19:51 Practical Tips for Using AI Effectively
 
Full video transcript

Paul (00:00.0)
You talked about translating and obviously contextualizing for the German audience of the Academy. What kind of, I'm interested a bit off topic, what are the peculiarities when you were doing that for Academy? What's the difference between like a global English content and a German content audience? 

Lisa Stappert (00:08.978)
Mm-hmm. 

Lisa Stappert (00:24.433)
I mean, for one, think there's, you know, why would, you know, Klaus from Berlin care about what Josh in Ohio is doing, right? Like it's seeing, especially when it comes to kind of the HubSpot software use cases, it's what does that actually look like in the context of me? We're all self-focused, self-centered, like let's not kid ourselves here, right? So. 

Lisa Stappert (00:53.841)
What does that look like in the context of the German or European legal system versus what it's like in the US? So that was kind of a big one, actually finding the examples that make sense for this audience, especially with AI, right? So you have the AI Act that is part of the European Union. 

Paul (01:11.761)
especially AI. 

Lisa Stappert (01:22.662)
is implemented as part of the European Union now, where that is like a first of its kind, which wasn't even available when the original course was created. So to be able to talk to the experts that I got to interview as part of this course that maybe weren't there when the decision of the AI Act was, that is a hard one to say, AI Act was made, but. 

Paul (01:46.513)
Mm-hmm. 

Lisa Stappert (01:52.019)
They have been doing research for months, years, in some cases, exactly the legal and the ethical usage of AI, of AI in marketing, and of AI data insights and where that data is stored. Whether that be GDPR or AI, Europe is a special place when it comes to data privacy, I feel like. So being able to... 

Lisa Stappert (02:21.653)
ask specific questions about exactly those type of nuances to these experts that have just been researching it for so long has been, was super cool because then you know the little nerd Lisa could come out and be like okay well let's talk about GDPR and like why AI is important with that too. So yeah. 

Paul (02:48.575)
It's always interesting when you see these big releases from usually American software companies. 

Paul (02:55.188)
I guess China as well, but mainly America for Europe anyway, it's a bit more free and loose with data and a lot of the times we can't then go and apply a lot of these tools here in Europe. 

Lisa Stappert (02:55.188)
Mm-hmm. 

Paul (03:17.298)
do you can you give any instances where you run across this with all the releases and things whether it's client facing now avidly or in your time in the HubSpot Academy 

Lisa Stappert (03:28.929)
Yeah, I think, you know, it's the one of the best examples I think is HubSpot Breeze. for a long time it wasn't, or maybe not for a long time, but for a certain amount of time, it wasn't quite clear what features could and can be used within Europe because there was no answer to where is this data being processed. 

Lisa Stappert (03:58.833)
and GDPR compliance, the data needs to stay here. So I think that's still, there's still going to be a lot of those questions where, where does this data go when you feed it to an AI engine that we need answers to before, before Europe can, can fully like go a hundred percent on AI. And I think that's 

Paul (04:24.977)
Mm. 

Lisa Stappert (04:27.062)
Probably one of the biggest challenges that we'll see as a European market in the future with AI because places where there might not be such high standards of data privacy laws, they might just be advancing a lot quicker and adopting AI a lot quicker. And what can we do now to not get left behind? 

Paul (04:50.82)
It always makes me worry I sound like a conspiracy theorist or need a tinfoil hat on, but I always go back when we talk on this kind of topic around AI to a conversation I had with my sister who works for the Department for Work and Pensions here in the UK years ago, before AI was not badged as it is now, like you say, it's been around for years, but before it was mainstream, and governments... 

Lisa Stappert (04:56.223)
Hahaha 

Lisa Stappert (05:10.593)
Mm-hmm. 

Paul (05:20.54)
was already working at positioning like basically the Germany, France, Britain, America working together to make sure we were protected when the fourth industrial revolution really took hold. And then at the same time, 

Paul (05:38.672)
You get this big existential question in Europe at the moment when we're recording this around what freedoms these technologies have and where do we draw the line without stifling progress. It's really, it's mad when you look at it that level. 

Lisa Stappert (05:48.396)
Mm-hmm. 

Lisa Stappert (05:54.647)
Yeah, it actually like I think it can get overwhelming to the point where it hinders you from actually exploring those tools, you 

Lisa Stappert (06:03.836)
know, like. 

Paul (06:03.836)
How do you 

Paul (06:04.384)
deal with it with your customers? How do you get your customers to stop it being this big scary thing? Which on the one hand it sort of is because if I can't use it because of the data rules but how do you help your customers get using new tools and especially stuff baked into HubSpot that's just right there? 

Lisa Stappert (06:22.702)
Yeah, 

Lisa Stappert (06:23.923)
yeah, I think, you know, it's a matter of knowing what goes where. And I think maybe even zooming out even further, first of all, like finding out. 

Lisa Stappert (06:36.759)
what is the goal that we're trying to achieve here? Is this really the right tool? And then doing that data and privacy, data privacy research around that tool and, you know, answering those questions and those concerns that a customer might have will kind of get rid of most of the concerns because 

Lisa Stappert (06:59.179)
they then feel comfortable with, okay, my data is staying with me, it's not going to, don't know where, and, you know, just being able to provide those answers and find those answers. It can sometimes take a while, of course, you know, not, every company is quite as forthcoming with where their data is being stored, but that kind of takes away the trust from that company and that's... 

Lisa Stappert (07:25.251)
when eventually they just then start losing customers because of that. 

Paul (07:31.049)
When that's sort of like the legal and compliance side of it, once we've got a yes ticked on the tools we can use, what tools are you using in your day to day and how are you using them? 

Lisa Stappert (07:33.718)
Mm-hmm. 

Lisa Stappert (07:48.356)
I mean, I think kind of even going back further, like my first AI tool or my first exposure was kind of the, you know, the Amazon. 

Lisa Stappert (07:59.758)
others also bought or the Netflix recommendations, the Spotify, like my day to day, I use Spotify, like the recommended playlists to me. I love them. I love being able to find new music without any work from my side, other than listening to a targeted playlist based on my listening behavior. Like, how cool is that? You know what I mean? Like... 

Paul (08:01.345)
Mm-hmm. 

Paul (08:21.201)
Do you find though, sometimes it goes and finds things that are too like what you like? I wish you could dial, I wish you could change that. 

Lisa Stappert (08:32.924)
I mean, is a 

Lisa Stappert (08:35.004)
tinfoil hat conversation again, I think. 

Paul (08:37.649)
the base like 

Paul (08:40.224)
i don't want to hear more from yeah i want to hear who influenced them you know me sometimes it's too good 

Lisa Stappert (08:43.355)
that artist or that, yeah. 

Lisa Stappert (08:48.079)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, there's, 

Lisa Stappert (08:52.45)
I feel like you could probably ask ChatGPT to create a playlist for you based on 

Lisa Stappert (08:56.121)
that. Yeah. Yeah, I think ChatGPT is definitely one of the things that I use most frequently these days. Just... Yes, I've tried it, I think, because I like the easy interface and shortcut. 

Paul (08:56.121)
Yeah, I'm starting to use Chat TV for recommending books. 

Paul (09:05.585)
Do you use any others like Claude or the others? Perplexity. 

Lisa Stappert (09:14.98)
of the Chet GPT application on my computer. Once you have it downloaded, you can set a shortcut on, and then it just pops up kind of like your search or search bar or whatever in Slack or on your Mac. Yes. 

Paul (09:19.223)
I don't know this shortcut, what's the shortcut? 

Paul (09:25.002)
okay. 

Paul (09:31.067)
Do you use Apple? Do you use an iPhone? 

Paul (09:32.928)
Is Apple Intelligence coming in the EU? Or is it blocked? 

Lisa Stappert (09:38.723)
I have 

Lisa Stappert (09:39.246)
not heard of that. I only use my work, work Mac. So I don't think we have that enabled yet. 

Paul (09:41.349)
So we... 

Paul (09:45.906)
I know if it's different in the UK, 

Paul (09:47.376)
I should have a look at this in a bit more detail but we're getting Apple Intelligence before the end of the year, part of iOS 18. But what's interesting is that it's all or nothing. So if you want Siri to be able to actually know, I don't know, which Spotify playlist you mean, for example, you need all the other things that come with Apple Intelligence, which is... 

Lisa Stappert (09:54.03)
Nice. 

Lisa Stappert (10:00.83)
really? 

Lisa Stappert (10:07.025)
Mm-hmm. 

Lisa Stappert (10:10.889)
Huh, interesting. 

Lisa Stappert (10:12.674)
That is a weird approach. I mean, it makes sense from the Apple side, but again, from the consumer side, that feels a little bit stepping over the line. 

Paul (10:22.96)
Hmm. yeah, that's something we're going to need to navigate as well as sort of marketers and an agency. 

Lisa Stappert (10:29.851)
Mm-hmm. No, for sure. 

Lisa Stappert (10:31.845)
Yeah. Yeah. No, I think, you know, like with HubSpot Breeze, there's a ton of opportunity, especially if you're a marketer using HubSpot and having those assistants baked into the software that you're already using, right? 

Lisa Stappert (10:51.944)
creating AI generated content based on your brand voice, the content that's already there, and then being able to edit it right in the tool that you're already in. I think, you know, we, or I started using it with customers now and I... 

Lisa Stappert (11:15.263)
quite enjoy it. It's so easy to use because we're already using HubSpot, so why not use that? So, yeah. 

Paul (11:24.209)
Colleen Gemmely, when we were talking about how things had accelerated so much in summer 2024 around Google AI overviews, search GPT waitlist, et cetera, cetera, 18, Apple intelligence being rolled out. She talked about, let's not forget, you said you're a tech nerd, but all of us in this space, you might be more of a tech nerd than some, but all of us in this space compared to the wider world, if we work in HubSpot, we know what a modern CRM is, we... 

Lisa Stappert (11:30.483)
Mm-hmm. 

Lisa Stappert (11:36.297)
Mm-hmm. 

Lisa Stappert (11:49.396)
Mm-hmm. 

Lisa Stappert (11:53.044)
Mm-hmm. 

Paul (11:53.478)
we use email automation 

Lisa Stappert (11:56.862)
Tamagotchi, more hamburgers. 

Paul (12:04.994)
I need to play with them, not doing that. The adoption curve normally would have us at the front and then the big masses who take their time. But the speed with which we're getting adoption because like Breeze or Apple Intelligence or Google AI overviews, it's a forced adoption. Are you running into when you speak to clients anybody who's still not waking up to that fact? 

Lisa Stappert (12:11.188)
Mm-hmm. 

Lisa Stappert (12:17.823)
Mm-hmm. 

Lisa Stappert (12:20.757)
Yep. 

Lisa Stappert (12:23.669)
Yep. 

Lisa Stappert (12:26.11)
Yep. 

Lisa Stappert (12:34.569)
I think some people don't realize that that is also AI. I think it's, especially if it's tools that they are comfortable using with already and then, it's just a new feature. And HubSpot now mentions, hey, this is AI generated or try our AI agent for this. 

Paul (12:53.446)
The other thing is as well, loads of tools, just having a little bit of an algorithm going on and going, it's AI, when it's not. 

Lisa Stappert (12:58.166)
Yep. 

Lisa Stappert (13:01.555)
Fair enough, yeah. I mean, I think a lot of people just don't realize what all falls under the term artificial intelligence. Most of the stuff we talk about is generative AI, which that is what a marketer will use most of the time. There's other parts of AI that I don't think are getting as much exposure, but as marketers, 

Paul (13:28.86)
Such as. 

Lisa Stappert (13:31.805)
Sorry. Good question now that you put me on the spot. I think, yeah, let's talk Asians, sure. 

Paul (13:31.919)
Like what? Like what? What's not? 

Paul (13:36.812)
Agents one thing I wanted to 

Paul (13:41.259)
What's the difference? Why are agents such a big deal? 

Lisa Stappert (13:46.618)
I think it's because it's learning or doing the tasks that you're telling it to. 

Paul (13:51.663)
How's that different from an assistant though? 

Lisa Stappert (13:55.445)
Good questions, you would have to ask the smart people at HubSpot why the naming. 

Paul (13:59.611)
The way I understand it is that it's a subtle switch but whereas I might need to get from A to B by telling chatGBT three times or at three different intervals an agent knows what the next prompt will be based on the output of just an initial prompt and it sounds like when the end output 

Lisa Stappert (14:12.76)
Mm-hmm. 

Lisa Stappert (14:15.883)
Yeah, you were doing different prompts. 

Paul (14:28.367)
he's pretty similar which saves me telling it twice. I think what I'm running into is people being like well that's just the same as I can do that with chat GPT but you said it's baked in there and it's got that agent level kind of contextual thinking which just saves so much time every time that task happens. 

Lisa Stappert (14:37.431)
Mm-hmm. 

Lisa Stappert (14:43.725)
Mm-hmm. 

Lisa Stappert (14:49.483)
Yeah. 

Lisa Stappert (14:51.085)
Yeah. No, that's I think that's actually a really good explanation. I had never thought of it like that. I mean, why would you do three steps if you can do it in one? 

Lisa Stappert (15:01.263)
You know, that's especially you have to leave the tool that you're in to then ask Chachi Pitti. Yeah. 

Paul (15:01.263)
Yeah. 

Paul (15:06.833)
Something I've. 

Paul (15:09.595)
the other feedback i guess that it's not quite as good or it's it's not good enough yet but i think that people need to go back you know it's not it's not good now on launch don't come back to it next year come back to it a month and it will have gone forward so much more 

Lisa Stappert (15:14.509)
Yes. 

Lisa Stappert (15:23.031)
Yeah. Yeah. 

Lisa Stappert (15:26.809)
Yeah. mean, even looking at, you know, when we're talking chat GPT, how that has evolved, like in the last couple of years even, like, I don't think anyone could have predicted that it would evolve as quickly as it did and gain the users, number of users. 

Lisa Stappert (15:47.979)
as quickly as it did, which is why it's even becoming faster at evolving. So it's wild to me to think that, you know, three years from now, what does that gonna look like? I don't know. I have no idea. I'll be quite honest with you. I know that it'll be more part of our day to day than it is now. And I think we're getting to a point where it already is becoming normal to have. 

Paul (15:59.761)
Hmm. 

Lisa Stappert (16:15.873)
whether it's an assistant agent in Google, wherever. We're just accustomed to those subtle changes now, and it'll continue for years to come. 

Paul (16:26.331)
Did you have a tipping point where you were sort of like, whoa, I've gone to GPT for that rather than Google? 

Lisa Stappert (16:36.437)
I think it was while working on the course actually, like it was kind of nice to have play around with, but because a course can take anywhere from like a month to six, seven, eight months to create depending on, know, is it from scratch? it being localized and what's the breadth of the topic? And... 

Lisa Stappert (17:03.043)
rather than going to Google, found myself, I wonder if I actually can use a proper prompting technique for ChatGPT to get. 

Lisa Stappert (17:14.079)
my script written. Why not give it a try? And you know then you go to like a DeepL or something where they take it and they translate it for you or even do that in ChatGPT or whatever right? Like it was kind of during the process of creating that course where I found myself more and more going to ChatGPT rather than Google. 

Paul (17:42.049)
I relate to that totally. Same sort of just finding myself doing it that's why I asked. It's always a good question to ask when I'm presenting to people as well as say like the HubSpot user groups or something and then you see people going, actually I do yeah. 

Lisa Stappert (17:47.191)
Mm-hmm. 

Lisa Stappert (17:57.003)
Yeah, it's like 

Lisa Stappert (17:58.005)
in the last week, how often have you gone to Google versus how long have you or how often have you gotten to chat GPT and you're like, it's bizarre that because I never thought, I'm like, I'm a Google user. Like we use, you know, the G Suite at work. Like we're part of Google, it feels like almost, you know, because you're so accustomed to, let's Google that real quick. 

Lisa Stappert (18:26.303)
Will we start saying let's chat GPT that real quick? Maybe, I mean, I think we're already saying like, hey, ask chat GPT about it. 

Paul (18:30.085)
Yeah, I think so. 

Paul (18:35.989)
even if I said that and you were a perplexity user you'd go and use perplexity but I think I think back to like the wider direction I think 

Paul (18:47.983)
Who do you think is going to win out and be the Google it? Because we've lost so many search engines really over the years, haven't we? 

Lisa Stappert (18:56.021)
Yeah, 

Lisa Stappert (18:58.313)
I mean, hey, if I knew that I would be buying stocks left, right and center right now. And I'd play the lottery too, probably. And be on a beach somewhere nice, but not in this rain. But I think what we'll see is, you know, there's kind of like two, three companies of the bigger players that will actually end up buying a lot of the smaller ones. 

Paul (19:00.881)
True, true. 

Lisa Stappert (19:22.791)
and kind of similar to Google become that name, that brand. And right now it's looking like chat GPT, but who knows what's going to come out in a month or three, right? So I do think with open AI, there's so many developer power in that and knowledge already in that. 

Paul (19:30.523)
Things move fast, don't they? 

Paul (19:36.099)
Yeah. 

Lisa Stappert (19:51.061)
it'll be hard to catch up to. But if in any field that will be the case, it'll be in artificial intelligence. We'll see, we'll see what happens. But I think you're right, it's gonna be one or two big players and everybody else will kind of fall off eventually. 

Paul (20:09.915)
think what's a given is we have to start using them and becoming au fait with them consciously. We're going to be forced to be using them. If you're Googling things, you're now using AI and reading AI overviews. Is it in Germany today? Yeah, cool. Because it's only in certain countries, isn't it? And every time I speak to someone, it's like, is it in your country or not? But yeah, we've got it as well in the UK. People need to start using it. 

Lisa Stappert (20:20.631)
Mm-hmm. 

Lisa Stappert (20:25.217)
Yes, it is. Yeah. Yeah. 

Paul (20:37.883)
what do you all tips for people to you've got to thinking recommend that if you're spot user but if you know what the tools that people should go and start using and what you take for this week for people to go in 

Lisa Stappert (20:42.423)
Mm-hmm. 

Lisa Stappert (20:55.051)
I think, you know, we kind of touched on it at the very beginning. Don't get overwhelmed by all of the options that there are. Zoom out and kind of see what is it that I'm trying to achieve and then go ask JatGPT, hey, what are the top 10 tools to achieve this goal? And, you know, do a list, compare them, get JatGPT to compare them for you and the pros and cons of each and start playing with them. think... 

Lisa Stappert (21:24.363)
You know, just get started is the biggest one. think that's... Don't get caught up in, this thing here, or is it this one, or like wanting to implement everything all at once. Pick out one goal you have for the week and go ahead and try it out and see if it works. I think the biggest part for, or one of the important parts about using AI is to... 

Lisa Stappert (21:51.861)
especially when working in marketing or in business in general is, you know, what is the goal that I'm trying to achieve? Use that tool to the best of your capabilities to achieve that goal. Continuously train yourself and your team on that and go back and like actually check is this tool helping us achieve this or is it more of a blocker? And then, you know, you just kind of advance along with AI. So, yeah, I think that would be. 

Lisa Stappert (22:21.527)
That would be my tip, just go and do it. 

Paul (22:24.05)
nice kinda like the nike slogan just go and do it thank you very much lisa we're just coming up to time i think that's a recurring theme definitely in this series if you've not tried it or you tried it when all the buzz happened was it 2022 or 2023 with chat gbt if you tried it then and weren't blown away 

Lisa Stappert (22:27.864)
Yeah, but you know the AI just go and do it the AI version 

Lisa Stappert (22:47.107)
22, 21 even maybe. 

Paul (22:52.859)
try it again now and if you haven't tried it yet which I doubt anybody is really just just go and do it you'll be 

Lisa Stappert (22:59.063)
Just go and do it. And also 

Lisa Stappert (23:00.544)
go watch the Academy course, of course. I mean, if you still have questions. Yeah. 

Paul (23:03.153)
Absolutely. There you 

Paul (23:05.255)
go. And anyone can access the course. 

Lisa Stappert (23:07.775)
Yes, a free course so you can just sign into HubSpot Academy with a free account and you can take it in English and German right now and think other languages are following as well. 

Paul (23:21.457)
Brilliant. So maybe watch the course first, then just go and try the tool. I really like your tip as well around find the goal you're trying to solve, and there'll be a tool to help you do that. So if it's making a presentation, generating an image, doing some research, there'll be things, there'll be point solution tools, won't there? Very nice.