Discover how AI can hurt your Farm brand, erode Buyer trust, and lower sales — and why authentic storytelling is essential for Independent Farmers to thrive.
For more Farm resources, visit: barn2door.com/resources
-
Hello and welcome to the Independent Farmer Podcast, the go to podcast for do it yourself Farmers who are taking control of their own business, skipping the middleman and selling direct to local consumer and wholesale Buyers. This podcast is hosted by Barn2Door, the number one business tool for Independent Farmers to manage their business, promote their brand and sell online and in person.
Let's dive in to today's Independent Farmer Podcast.
Graham Fuller: Welcome to the Independent Farmer Podcast. I'm Graham Fuller, marketing manager here at Barn2Door and your host for today's episode. Barn2Door helps Independent Farmers get a system in place to easily manage orders, payments, deliveries, and marketing so they can skip the middleman and sell local food directly.
Serving thousands of [00:01:00] Farmers across all 50 states, our goal is to give Farmers the tools, information, and opportunities to maximize profit at any stage, whether you're a hobby Farmer transitioning to full-time Farming or are already a seven-figure Farm. In today's conversation, we will get to learn how AI can hurt your Farm brand.
Today, I'm happy to welcome Kevin, success manager here at Barn2Door. Welcome, Kevin.
Kevin Soncrant: Thanks, Graham. Good to be here.
Graham Fuller: So before we dive into today's topic, tell listeners a bit more about your role here at Barn2Door.
Kevin Soncrant: Yeah. So I manage the success team now here at Barn2Door. I actually started in June of 2022 as an account manager working with, uh, a lot of our Farms doing one-on-one meetings, after they graduated onboarding to help them continue to reach their business goals and utilize the software.
And then over the years, I progressed to lead that team and now oversee our success team, which includes both our onboarding and account management team. I'll help onboard Farms, work with them [00:02:00] in account management, as well as a variety of other roles within the company.
Graham Fuller: So first off, before we dive into things, it's important to understand what AI actually stands for and give a little bit of context.
So for those of you who are less familiar, AI stands for artificial intelligence, which means any development of computer systems and software that can help perform tasks normally requiring human thought. In the world of Farming, we often see Farmers use this to help save time and money. And while these are totally valid reasons, Farms should consider a few factors before implementing AI in their brand.
So Kevin, I wanted to get some of your thoughts. Before we even dive into the challenges and some of those implications AI brings for Farmers, can you tell us a little bit of how you've seen firsthand or heard about Farmers using AI in a successful way?
Kevin Soncrant: Sure. In today's world too, Graham, AI is almost unavoidable.
It's definitely, uh, one of the hottest topics. There's podcasts all over. It's [00:03:00] used heavily in many ways. There's certainly Farmers using it. There's some, in some good ways and good use cases. However, there's also, you know, the poor use cases when it comes to Farm brand and, you know, representing their brand in a way that may not be what they actually want when utilizing AI and taking away from their own creativity.
But in terms of like the positive ways, honestly, like when it comes to Barn2Door, like using AI to help with uploading initial inventory when a Farm first starts out is a fantastic way to leverage that resource. It's monotonous work, you know; it's required, uh, specific fields of information, and so that's where AI really shines, at a base level for Farmers.
I've also seen some Farmers use it for like product descriptions for their inventory as well, which can typically be very similar. They'll use it maybe as like a starting point just to get an idea of what to say and then go on and expand more and put more of their practices in and share more information.
So not using AI exclusively to come up with all the [00:04:00] content for their descriptions, but to give them a starting point. Some of the use cases might be like analyzing order and sales data, 'cause, uh, it can be helpful many times for like analyzing large sets of data. You know, maybe some new Farmers might want to get a summary of best practices or steps to take, which AI is good at summarizing data.
And then there might be some more progressive Farmers that are using AI tactics for resource management and autonomous machines and disease control and things like that. But most of the Farmers I'm working with are not using it for that, right? The main use cases would be what I outlined previously for inventory and some descriptions and analyzing data.
And then to be frank, there's a lot of use cases outside of that that maybe aren't as, uh, helpful, but we'll, we'll get into that here in a moment.
Graham Fuller: Yeah, no, I, I think you make a great point that oftentimes some of the best use cases are where it's either kind of just behind the scenes helping with some of that, that backend, the busy work side of things, streamlining that as much as possible, or, as a source of inspiration, brainstorming, getting some ideas to begin [00:05:00] with.
And I think even then when, when you see Farmers using it, the best way is kind of when it's blended with- a phrase you hear they talk a lot about in AI is like human in the loop, right? Like you're using it, but you're double-checking the work. You're using it as maybe a source of inspiration that you build off of, but it doesn't mean you're just throwing it out there and hoping it creates something great, right?
Without kinda your involvement in that process. So like you alluded to, obviously, uh, one of the trickiest areas and we're gonna dive in a lot in this episode, is really talking about that branding, the marketing, the creative side. So I'm curious, when it comes to Farm brands in particular, how have you seen AI been used, whether it's in social media, website, even the logo, and more some of those branding and creative elements?
Kevin Soncrant: Yeah, and this is where the human out of the loop, I'm not sure if that's a phrase, but that's where this is very dangerous, is Farms that are using AI for their social media, their website, their logo, even their email marketing, and [00:06:00] relying exclusively on the AI to create the content. It's not a great representation of brand. It's generally not authentic.
It can be more generic. And there's a real danger in the fact that consumers, whether they consciously or subconsciously, know what they're doing, many of them tune out from content that is exclusively created by AI. So when it comes to social media, there's probably like three main ways I've seen AI used for Farmers.
One would be 100% AI-created posts, which is by far the least engaging. What's very interesting about this is Facebook now actually flags that content, so many people may have seen this. If they haven't, they'll start to notice it at the top of a post if it was an AI-created post. Facebook will literally say, "This post was generated using AI."
So if people aren't aware just from seeing what the content looks like, they're becoming even more aware now 'cause it's literally being flagged for them. So that's really something to avoid. Uh, another one would be like if they're using AI just for text rather than [00:07:00] text and an image. Uh, but just for text can still be obvious 'cause the way it's ordered, the way that it's spaced, the Over-reliance on emojis.
And it's just not as engaging or captivating as when a human actually writes. And then probably the most obvious one is an AI image, which we'll talk more about with the logos as well. But this is generally very obvious, and to be frank, at this time, they're typically not well done. Many images have way too much going on.
It's just clearly fake food or clearly fake people or animals. Yeah, it's just not what people want to see when they're buying from a local Farm. What they care about is real people, real animals, and real food. And that's why people wanna buy from local Farms, is to get away from the mainstream and actually see what's real.
And so having AI create content for that can be very dangerous.
Graham Fuller: I just wanted to add on to that, that I- it's definitely something, [00:08:00] when AI first came out, it was all kind of new, the Wild West. But I think, I think we have reached a point where now you see a lot of the repetition, right? Like you were talking about when it's used in the copy, maybe for a social post.
You start to use AI, regurgitate the same words over and over in different people's posts. It-- you really do lose that uniqueness of an individual Farmer, their voice, because it generalizes it into all the same language. And when people are scrolling through social media and viewing 100 different posts, well, if all of a sudden half those po- posts start to all sound the exact same, it all blurs together, right?
Um, and I think, like, like you said, with the creative side of things that people have, have gotten pretty good at spotting when it is, and there's some pretty telltale signs. And it honestly, it, it almost finds-- it feels a little bit like Where's Waldo, where the longer you look at the image, you start to notice little things about it, and all of a sudden you realize there's all these little errors or things that don't feel natural [00:09:00] the longer you look at them.
Um, and so I think people are starting to really catch on to those and spot it faster and faster and identify that this doesn't feel like a, a real genuine thing.
Kevin Soncrant: Yeah. Well, I, I basically only follow Farms on my social media. I have it literally for this job. And when I scroll through and look at posts, every time the most engaged-- the posts that are getting the most engagement, comments, likes, et cetera, are real people, real animals, real posts written by real people.
And the ones that are AI are significantly less engagement, and it's very clear. so yeah. I mean, a- and then just to, to continue here when it comes to like website and logo, for the website perspective, thankfully I don't see this as much, but I also don't work on our design team. We have several designers here that will typically call out and see AI-created content.
You're getting, you know, very similar thing, which is if it's AI creating it, it's, it's disingenuous. It can lead to loss of trust from your customers. You know, the website itself is typically a one-time thing, and it's many [00:10:00] people's first impression of a Farm, so just really important to get that right.
It's worth the time investment to create your own unique content that represents you and your family and your Farm and your brand, and really the legacy that you wanna pass down. So, it's just not worth a shortcut. If you're really struggling to come up with content, like it can be helpful to have a conversation with AI to give you some ideas, uh, but using it to write everything is not helpful in the long run.
Graham Fuller: Yes. And, and talking about the consumer side of things, like you were mentioning around they wanna really get to know the Farmer, right? The real Farmer. I know this is something you talk a lot about, which is ICP, right? Like your ideal customer profile, knowing who your customers are. And if you really think about it, a lot of the people who are most passionate about buying direct from local Farmers, supporting their local Farmers, are also a similar demographic to the people who want those real genuine connections, right?
They want the most raw, real version of it. And so of all people out there, that's one of the [00:11:00] groups that's probably gonna be the most adamant about having that genuine connection with their Farmers. They genuinely care about it. And so I, I think there's oftentimes maybe this pressure on Farmers where they wanna create the most robust visuals possible, and all this stuff, and the reality of it is their consumers just wanna know them.
They wanna know what life looks like on the Farm, right? It's not even just about highlighting your products. They-- Some of the-- I, I see some of the best social engagement on just Posts, social posts around what family life is like on the Farm, right? And a day in the life, and just understanding that process is so valuable to a lot of consumers.
They, they appreciate that.
Kevin Soncrant: Yeah. I was just working with a Farmer that went viral in the Northeast, and she had a post. It was just her at the Farmer's market on a rainy day explaining what had happened on a specific day, and just being genuine and authentic, and that's what went viral. And that-- you're gonna see that over and over again.
It's just people being themselves. Uh, it's important. Like, all people will find bonds with people that care [00:12:00] about them if they just are authentically themselves. And so, particularly on the website, really important that that comes through. And on the same note, like having a strong logo that represents a Farm brand is really important.
And so, uh, unfortunately, Graham, this is probably one of the highest use cases I've seen recently, especially for newer Farmers, is to get an AI-generated logo. And I understand the draw because logos aren't cheap. If you want a good one, it's not at least. But it's worth the investment 'cause it's gonna go on everything.
And so the real issue with AI logos, and you might get into this a little bit more later, so I won't dive too far into it, but most Farms are just like using a simple prompt for their AI and asking for a logo and putting a couple things that they want in that, and the AI is just pulling from a library of existing icons and fonts, which results in very similar-looking logos that don't represent the Farm brand well.
It's very obvious when the logo is AI created. And many times, honestly, they look a [00:13:00] little ridiculous. So I, I really hate to see that because especially long term, as a business, you wanna think like this logo is gonna maybe go on hats or sweatshirts. It's gonna go on our products. It's gonna be on our social media and on our website.
It's going to be everywhere, and it really should represent your Farm brand. And having a professional do that is extremely important because they're gonna create something that is optimized for all those formats.
Graham Fuller: Yes. I, I couldn't agree more. And I, I have to say it's humbled me over the years. I'm, I'm in marketing, but I, I didn't start in the creative side of marketing and-- but I have worked with a lot of creatives and designers over the years, and one of the things I've realized is that unless you're really trained in that also sometimes you don't even know the small details that can or can't make a good logo, right?
Uh, a good example is, uh, a lot of the AI-generated ones, like we kind of talked about with the social posts, have these hyper-detailed [00:14:00] assets, right? That are-- they maybe look impressive in that sense of like, oh, look at all this detail. But unless you have a designer actually talking you through it to tell you, "Hey, guess what?
If you have this hyper-detailed thing, you're not gonna easily be able to print it on a bag or something like that." There's all these nuances to think about when it comes to colors, when it comes to how you communicate something through a visual that AI isn't necessarily taking into account and can't be there to kind of walk you through that as well.
So sometimes some of the costs around it are hidden almost. You don't really realize upfront what you're sacrificing in terms of that quality.
Kevin Soncrant: That's a good point. And potential sales, 'cause people can shy away from your brand if it looks cheap and cheesy.
Graham Fuller: Exactly. And we'll, we'll get into that as we get into some of the data side of things, but it really does matter, whether you like it or not, the perception, right?
How people perceive stuff, um, m- the marketing side of it. I know many people, they didn't become Farmers to [00:15:00] become marketers, but at the end of the day, how your brand is perceived really does, like you said, directly affect your sales, right? It directly affects how loyal your customer base is gonna be and how easy it is to get new customers.
So, whether you like it or not, it's definitely something that's important to factor in. I, I'm curious kind of following up on this, what challenges or frustrations have you seen this bring Farmers? Have you seen any of kind of negative effects so far of this?
Kevin Soncrant: Sure. Yeah, I, I alluded to it earlier, but I'll just call it out for what it is.
Consumers will disengage with content. There's lower opens, views, clicks, likes, comments- whatever metric you're using to track engagement- that is going to be lower when it is 100% created by AI. The other thing is just like consumers not sharing content. I've never had anyone say to me, and, you know, "Check out this awesome AI-created post from a Farm."
I've seen and had people share content with me [00:16:00] that was a genuine post with a genuine person, and that's the stuff again that takes off and goes viral. But even the stuff that just gets general engagement, it's real people talking about real things. One of the hidden costs that isn't necessarily considered that you're alluding to as well is gonna be just the difficulty it can be to actually sit down and come up with original content without using AI.
Using AI too frequently can reinforce poor behaviors and make it difficult to actually sit down and put critical thinking in place to actually generate unique content or, uh, just solve problems, to be frank. And lastly, AI content just might not be the most accurate or best representation of a Farm's brand.
AI hallucinates. It creates false content, uh, especially if it's not being edited or revised. Like, there is potential for incorrect information being sent out there. And regardless of whether it's correct or not, it's generally not a great representation of who that Farmer is or who that person is as an individual and the brand that they [00:17:00] wanna represent.
Graham Fuller: Yes. And I, I think of if anyone could relate to this, it is Farmers, right? If you're a Farmer and when, when you're producing things, and you cut a bunch of corners, right, you take the easy path and, these shortcuts, that can affect your end product, right? It's, it's no different than Farming itself in that sense of, sometimes, uh, it-- there might be an appeal to maybe skipping some of that process, taking the shortcuts.
But if it affects your end product, right, consumers are gonna notice that, and it's gonna devalue some of that. And I, I think AI can take that same thing; it's very tempting upfront, right? Like making that process easier, saving time. Farmers of all people, again, they don't have a lot of free time, right?
So I can definitely understand that appeal of, of kinda streamlining that process. But again, i- if it affects the end product, in this case, product being brand, then sometimes those shortcuts just aren't worth it.
Kevin Soncrant: That's a great point, Graham. Farmers are probably some of the busiest people on this planet, and so any way you [00:18:00] can save time is always worth considering.
But at the end of the day, it comes down to prioritization and what is most important. And having a strong brand and putting out good content is what's gonna lead to sales. And for most Farmers, like, that is necessary. Whether you're in this business to make money or not, it is necessary to keep the business alive: to sell product.
And so it's time well spent to sit down and create unique content, plan out what you wanna say, uh, and engage your community, because it will lead to the end result that everybody needs, which is more revenue, more sales, and a better product for everybody.
Graham Fuller: Yes. 'Cause at the end of the day, if you dilute your brand too much, ironically, you actually end up spending more time, right?
Because then you're trying to get even more customers because you have people leaving 'cause they no longer relate or identify to your brand. And ironically, in a sense, it can actually be the exact opposite of time savings if when you deteriorate that over time and Buyers lose faith, uh, in what [00:19:00] you're doing.
You actually have to work harder then to maintain that brand. So to switch gears, we're gonna open the floor to Kevin to ask me some questions on this topic so we can look at some of the important statistics and data around this, 'cause I know we've talked a lot about how this can come across to consumers, the conceptual side, what we've observed Farmers doing, but it's important to also kinda understand the data behind it, why we're s- actually saying this.
Kevin Soncrant: Yeah. Maybe before I ask, Graham, do you wanna maybe just give a little background on your role here at Barn2Door?
Graham Fuller: Yeah. Of course. So I am the marketing manager here at Barn2Door. I've been here for almost six years now, and during that time, I've touched just about every part of marketing from organic social posts to email marketing to paid advertising to content generation.
And so I have had a lot of familiarity with not only the parts of marketing, but in recent years with the evolution of AI. Uh, it's definitely a hot topic within marketing. And so, within all these different areas, I've definitely seen [00:20:00] within marketing the ways in which it can be great and actually give some benefits, but also we've seen some of those drawbacks throughout that process.
So, and that's why I was excited to talk about this. Uh, one is it's definitely a hot topic within the marketing world, and there's plenty of data as it continues to evolve to back up some of this discussion as well.
Kevin Soncrant: Awesome. Well, I'm excited to hear from a true expert in the, uh, the industry.
So Graham, to kick it off, your Buyer's perception of AI is a key factor to consider when leveraging the resource for your Farm brand. So how does this affect Buyer loyalty and trust?
Graham Fuller: Yeah. Well, putting it simply and directly, consumers have a preference for non-AI brands. And so this kind of hits on what we were already talking about earlier.
Consumers really value personal connection, especially in the modern age. And as AI continues to ramp up, there'll be increased cravings for that genuine human connection, right? That's only gonna get more and more real. And so when you use AI in [00:21:00] customer-facing, content, all the different types we talked about earlier, it can actually m- alienate a large portion of consumers who genuinely do not relate to that, and in fact, oftentimes will actively seek out other brands who aren't using it, or in this case, Farms instead.
And we see this in the data. I- it's around 63% of consumers say they are less likely to buy from brands that use AI-generated advertising and content. So that's-- 63% is a pretty large percentage, and again, over the last year or two, I, I think you've seen this number gradually continue to increase. And there's been a lot more active vocalization around the frustration of feeling like we're losing that connection to the genuine experience of interacting with brands and Farms
Kevin Soncrant: I'm definitely part of that 63%.
Graham Fuller: And we don't just see it with Farming. You, you see it in all scales of companies, right? In fact, Coca-Cola had a big [00:22:00] scandal where they used AI to reproduce an old iconic, decades-old Holidays Are Coming Christmas commercial, and they replaced real actors, sets, everything with these AI synthetic visuals, and it had a really bad reaction from consumers.
They referred to it as, uh, soulless and creepy, and it just didn't resonate at all. And you've seen brands have to pull AI ads because there was such negative outcry from their consumers. And, we've seen it from all, all types of companies, all scales of companies, that it, it doesn't matter what you're selling, what size you are, it's a pretty uniform negative reaction to a lot of, a lot of that kind of use case of AI.
Kevin Soncrant: Yeah. It's really wild to see how people so blatantly react to not wanting this type of content, um, particularly from brands that they love. So, Graham, how does a lack of human touch directly impact a Farm's pricing power and their bottom line?
Graham Fuller: Well, this really [00:23:00] gets into the psychology side of things.
There's this concept what's called a algorithm discount. And what that concept means is that people are willing to spend more money when the product, the thing they're buying, they feel like it's had a lot of human care and effort put into it. The more effort they perceive a product having, the more they're willing to pay for it.
So AI dilutes that effort, basically. People think it's cheap. They think it- not as much human care has gone into it when they associate it with AI. And because of that, they're actually not only, like we talked about previously, less inclined to buy overall, but even if they do still wanna buy from you, they wanna spend less money because they don't perceive it as being as valuable.
So we see this in the data side of things. Consumers on average will pay 17% less because they perceive something as being created by AI or an algorithm versus something genuinely created by humans.
So [00:24:00] that's-- it's 17%. That really adds up to a lot, right? If it... Imagine right now if you, as a Farmer had to drop all your prices by 17% because all of a sudden your consumers' willingness to pay just drops. That, that's a good chunk.
Kevin Soncrant: Yeah. The ironic thing, too, is when Farmers have to raise their prices, if they've built a strong brand and have a genuine connection, most consumers won't even bat an eye.
They completely understand, especially when good reasons are given. And to be frank, when Farmers are raising prices, generally it is a good reason, because their costs have gone up as well, and people are very understanding of that.
Graham Fuller: Yes. Again, it's the human side, right? Their understanding of, well, if the costs go up, that's a human experience, and we're willing to pay more to support you 'cause we care about you, right, the Farmer as well.
It, it all leads back to the human side of things.
Kevin Soncrant: Yeah. A constant theme throughout this podcast and really what's happening all around us right now. So we, uh, we also know Buyers wanna see imagery of Farm products, but are [00:25:00] consumers actually spotting the fake visuals, and what does that do to brand trust?
Graham Fuller: Yeah. And this is something like I talked about earlier. People are getting better and better because AI content and visuals are becoming so apparent and out there everywhere that people are starting to train their brains how to spot it. And when they do spot it, immediately their trust goes down.
Consumers have actually- we've seen this in the studies- that they say when they spot an AI-generated promotional asset, their trust score in that visual drops by over 40%.
It's a pretty big drop in trust levels as soon as they spot that. And again, as I said earlier, it oftentimes is pretty obvious with some of these visual assets. There'll be minor mistakes, certain stylistic things that AI loves to repeat over and over. And so the visuals pretty quickly become pretty easily identifiable as being AI.
And again, when all of a sudden you're seeing a 40% drop in [00:26:00] trust because of that, that's a pretty big fall-off.
Kevin Soncrant: And I would encourage anybody that's listening, go scroll through your feed right now. I can guarantee if you do that, you are gonna see AI gen-generated images and easily be able to spot them.
And you'll start to see the commonality across all of those, whether it's like a... One of the most common ones I'm seeing right now is these AI-generated like posters almost, like these digital posters that just have an overwhelming amount of information. The formatting's the exact same on all of them.
Color schemes are similar. And you're gonna see that over and over again, whether it is logos or images or, even videos sometimes. But go scroll through and you'll, you'll see it in your own feed and, and see how it makes you feel. And then at the same time, go find a real post with a real person talking and see how that makes you feel
Graham Fuller: I can't count the number of times I've scrolled through my feed and seen some AI-generated, what they refer to as slop, and just closed the app right then and there, have just kinda lost, lost the willpower to keep scrolling.
So definitely a very genuine kinda feeling it can elicit in people.
Kevin Soncrant: Yeah, I mean, building authentic [00:27:00] content really matters in today's day and age. so talk to us about that. Why does building high-quality content matter for a Farm's brand, and how does synthetic content affect search engines and engagement?
Graham Fuller: Yeah. So, so far we've really mostly hit on the consumer side of things, right? That consumers are tuning it out. They trust it less. But it's not just that. All these platforms, they see that same effect, right? They see what I just described: dropping off, you know, seeing some AI slop and just closing out the app 'cause you're, you're tired of seeing low-quality content.
All these different hosting platforms, they see that too, and they don't want that, right? They, for their own self-made motivated reasons, they want people to stay on their apps, and so they actually de-emphasize and sometimes even almost fully hide what they flag as being AI-generated because they know people are gonna have those types of reactions.
So sometimes the battle isn't even having consumers not trust that AI content. Sometimes it just doesn't even [00:28:00] get shown to them in the first place because it's pre-filtered out. And so one of the things you're seeing is companies are also responding. They're seeing the trends. They're seeing people tune it out, and they're reflecting that in their own algorithms to make sure that isn't the experience people have because they know people want that genuine content.
Kevin Soncrant: Yeah. We mentioned earlier, obviously on Facebook, they're flagging the AI-generated content, but you see the same thing: Spotify, YouTube, some of the biggest companies in the world are cracking down on AI-created content.
Graham Fuller: Yes. And the data shows this too. Once again, we see AI-generated posts and images experience up to a 61% reduction in click-throughs and engagement with those posts.
So that's less than half of the people engaging with it compared to a non-AI natural post. And again, that's a pretty steep drop-off.
Kevin Soncrant: That's a significant amount. Graham, one of my favorite things about working with Farmers is that they take so much pride in raising and growing high-quality products [00:29:00] for their local community.
But when a Farmer posts a quick generic AI image, how do Buyers now perceive these products?
Graham Fuller: Yeah. So as I mentioned before, there's this term AI slop, and slop meaning in this case just bottom of the barrel, um, low quality, and it causes wider-spread negative brand sentiment. So again, people-- how people's brains work is through association, right?
So when they see, for instance, an AI post, that affects their overall perception of the brand. They don't isolate it to that individual post. They then associate the brand in its entirety with being AI. And so one of the things we see is 42% of consumers actively hold a lower opinion of brands that post low quality AI-generated content.
So again, the frustrations don't stop with the posts themselves. It affects the entire reflection of the brand and how consumers perceive it. And again, [00:30:00] 42% is pretty high in terms of that, that drop in opinion. I think most Farmers would agree that if all of a sudden they lost 42% of their customer base, um, or they started disengaging and buying less, that would be a real impact on their business, right?
Kevin Soncrant: Yeah, it's a significant amount. There's a really old saying that works perfectly for here, which is people eat with their eyes first. And it's true for all types of food, and particularly when they're buying something new that they've never bought f- before. High-quality images of real food make a big difference, and it doesn't need to be overly complex.
This is the best part about it. Like, I think of Amy and Will at Old Rich Valley Farm. Some of their photos are as simple as they can get and look incredible. They have photos of their beef and frozen packaging and cardboard boxes just in grass as the background, and they're taking a picture of that, and it looks fantastic.
And as a consumer, I see that, and I know exactly what I'm getting when I purchase that product. versus a [00:31:00] worst-case scenario, which is an AI-generated image of a food product that looks nothing like what actually shows up in the frozen packaging. It leads people to disengage and also not trust what they're purchasing if they know that it's AI.
Like, why would I buy something that I don't even know what it looks like? For Farmers, it's as simple as literally just taking a picture with your phone and putting it on the grass, or put your product on a countertop, or, uh, even like a cutting board. It's really easy with today's phones to take really great photos that show off how great your product looks with a simple background.
Graham Fuller: Yeah, I, think that's a great point and a good analogy with the food. I mean, it's so-- Uh, there's a reason marketing exists in the first place, right? Is that oftentimes the perception leading up to a purchase makes a big impact in that. And then, funny enough, I know we keep harping on the, the human side of things, but in marketing they talk about building trust ahead of a purchase decision.
You know the number one most influential source of trust building? It isn't the brand. It has nothing to do with the [00:32:00] brand. It's friends, family, word of mouth. That is the number one most trusted source. Again, you know why? It's human. It's the people you trust. It's the things you trust that feel like genuine recommendations.
So that in, itself kind of a- alludes to the bigger picture of that people want to engage with things they trust and feel human and genuine because if, if not, what does that say about the product?
Kevin Soncrant: That's a great point. Let's switch focus a little bit and talk about everybody's favorite topic, the law.
cause there is a legal trap when it comes to AI, right? So while AI may seem like a quick, budget-friendly shortcut, it can expose your Farm to long-term legal risks. So, what are those risks that you've seen, Graeme?
Graham Fuller: Yeah. So I, I think first off, when it comes to stuff like your own brand, you wanna own that, right?
It wa- you want it to be your brand. You don't want other people to have free range to just copy and steal your own brand identity. And the unfortunate thing is, when you're generating a lot of your branded assets through AI, it's really hard for you to get your own protection. Because [00:33:00] when those assets are generated by AI, they're not considered to be your own net new creation.
And so because of that, if an AI asset is just automatically generated, it no longer can be copyrighted, which means Farmers can't actually protect their own brand. And so it really opens you up to be in this position of diluting your own brand protection, which I know a lot of Farmers, that is important to feel like it actually is your brand, something you own that is yours, and that if you use AI, can be taken away from you.
Kevin Soncrant: That'd be so sad to see someone steal your brand, especially if you've worked hard to establish that.
Graham Fuller: Yes.
Kevin Soncrant: So I, I talked about it earlier with one of the, the issues for AI usage with Farmers is, and in general too, not just Farmers, people in general, is just like a quick prompt to, to spin out a quick design and get a logo or promotional content for business.
So while this might feel innocent, how does using AI [00:34:00] content expose a Farm brand to copyright or even trademark infringement?
Graham Fuller: Yeah. This is kind of flipping the whole situation from what we just talked about. On top of not being able to copyright your own stuff if you use AI, you also risk infringing on other people's copyright and running into legal issues there.
I think one of the general concerns about AI is that it's pulling from other things, right? AI isn't creating stuff out of thin air. It absorbs existing things differently. For instance, take a logo. It's not creating your logo just from pure inspiration it comes up with itself. It looks at a bunch of other logos and assets and blends it together into something that is somewhat new, but oftentimes can borrow a bit too much from what's already out there.
And that's where you really have to be careful about if what AI generates is too similar to something already out there, that you open yourself up to a whole different type of risk. Analysis has shown that [00:35:00] 60% of all generative AI lawsuits directly involve copyright infringement and unauthorized training, of the AI.
So again, when sometimes AI is pushing the boundaries of what they should be doing and pulling in from other brands, some of that more directly filters through to the end product of what you're generating, and that can cause issues not just for the AI companies, but for your brand as well.
Kevin Soncrant: And I mentioned hallucinations earlier, which is essentially an AI generator just inventing a fact.
It's commonly called a hallucination in the AI world. So Graham, talk to us about, like PR disasters or legal liabilities that can create if an AI gets something wrong.
Graham Fuller: Yeah. So one of the scariest things about AI is how confidently it will give you an output, and it's so confident it feels like, well, it must be true, right?
It's coming from these massive companies with all this data. It must know what it's talking about. But the reality is that how AI works is it's [00:36:00] predicting what is most likely the correct answer. It's not like it has to hit 100% threshold of it's confident in the information it's telling for it to spit it out to you.
It just has to feel like it's most likely the right thing to say, and it will throw it out there. And there's certain gaps, especially within it, where it doesn't have the best information to begin with, and that can really trickle down to what you're getting out of the AI. And that's why, again, I always say it's so important to have humans involved, double-checking things, making sure it's right, because oftentimes it will be complete misinformation.
And sometimes it can be as simple as just saying something that's not true, but at other times it can also take the form of telling you something that actually might get you in trouble. A common example you see in marketing where businesses have gotten in legal trouble is that they'll have it generate before versus after product images of what it looked like before [00:37:00] versus after you used our product.
And when they're completely fake, that actually has legal liabilities associated because you're lying to the consumer, right? But the AI won't catch that. It won't say, "Hey, you need to be careful about how you use this asset I just created for you 'cause it actually has legal implications." It will just spit out the asset and say, "Oh, here you go."
So it's not just about it telling you lies; it's also about it not giving you the full picture and not warning you about some of the liability you might be opening your own business, your own Farm up to.
Kevin Soncrant: I remember when I first heard about hallucinations, my mind was blown. I had to look it up. Anybody that's never heard of it, please look it up.
It's really important to understand. You can read an AI overview of it, ironically, and it'll give you a good idea of exactly what's happening here. but really scary and important to keep in mind when using these tools. They are powerful, and they can be helpful in some instances, but they can also be harmful in the long run.
Graham Fuller: So Kevin, with only a couple minutes left, [00:38:00] be- before we head out, I, I have to ask you, do you have any advice for Farmers who are using AI for their brand or who are considering this solution?
Kevin Soncrant: The best advice I can give is just be yourself. People will relate to that. It's not gonna be easy at first. Like anything that's new for most people, it can be difficult, and it can take time to get good at writing emails or doing social posts or even creating content for your website. But the more you do these things, the more time and effort you put in, like everything else, it gets easier over time, and you will become better at it.
And to be frank, once you get good at it, it doesn't take a lot of time, and then it can be very effective. I look at, some of our most successful Farms. One of the best things they can do for their social media posts, for example, is hold the camera in front of their face, stand out in a field with some animals or crops behind them, and just start talking about things that they care about.
Record themselves for 20, 30 seconds and post that online. And the engagement levels can go through the roof on something as simple as [00:39:00] that, and it only takes a few minutes. So while it may not be easy at first, it's important to get comfortable doing this because this is what people crave, and people really wanna know what their local Farmers are doing.
And the more that you are open to sharing that, and more consistently you share that, the more you'll build those bonds and build that trust with your community and get people to share your information and start to market on your behalf and get this to really take off. So, uh, be yourself, communicate consistently, treat every interaction, whether it's online or in person, whether it's an email or social, treat every interaction like you're talking to someone right in front of you, cause that's really what you are doing.
That's what Graham said earlier. People crave this genuine human connection in the digital realm. And so the more you actually treat it like that, the more you're gonna get people wanting to engage with your content.
Graham Fuller: Well said. Well, I wanna extend my thanks to Kevin for joining us on this week's podcast episode.
You can check out more of Barn2Door on our website or social media handles on Facebook and Instagram at Barn2Door. Thank [00:40:00] you for tuning in today. We look forward to joining you next time on the Independent Farmer Podcast.
Thank you for joining us on the Independent Farmer Podcast. At Barn2Door, we are passionate about empowering Independent Farmers to build a thriving business. To all the Farmers out there, thank you for all you do to grow amazing food, care for the soil, and serve your local communities. You are the backbone of our country.
For free Farm resources, or to listen to prior podcasts, go to barn2door.com/resources. We hope you join us again and subscribe to the Independent Farmer Podcast wherever you stream your podcasts. Until next time.