How to Use Generate Variations in Adobe Experience Manager Improve Experimentation and Personalization with AI

Imagine if you could create the content to perform 100 A/B tests in the time it previously took to create the content for 10.

One of the biggest challenges associated with experimentation and personalization is the manual effort required to configure and create content. Luckily, instead of marketers having to create that content, AI can generate it instead, allowing teams to improve experimentation exponentially.

With the rise of artificial intelligence, many attempts have been made to integrate AI into content management. Several companies have developed licensed add-ons to harness AI for content generation.

In March 2024, Adobe officially unveiled its initiative to incorporate AI into Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) at the Adobe Summit. In this blog, we will briefly discuss the features introduced so far and take a closer look at Generate Variations. We’ll help you understand how to leverage these tools to streamline your content creation process and drive greater engagement with your audience.

Artificial Intelligence in Adobe Products

Adobe has been working with AI for quite some time under the umbrella of Adobe Sensei. Features like smart tagging in AEM and recommendations in Target are already available and widely used. Recently, new products have been introduced, including Adobe Firefly for image generation and the AI Assistant in some of their products, such as the Adobe Experience Platform.

This clearly signals that Adobe is making significant efforts to keep pace with the rapid advancements in AI. One of the latest additions in this area is the Generate Variations option, which aims to boost and optimize the quality of your content creation.

What Is Generate Variations?

Generate Variations is a feature that uses generative AI to create content variations based on prompts provided by Adobe or created and managed by users. It addresses the challenge content authors face in producing sufficient material for testing and experimenting with different audiences.

According to Adobe, it has significantly enhanced the creation of high-quality content that is "ready to use." The Adobe Creative Cloud team serves as a testament to this improvement, noting that it previously took up to 75 days to create five banners. Now, they can launch over 60 personalized banners in just five days, resulting in an impressive increase in efficiency of 1,100%.

Generate Variations is available in AEMaaCS Sites, within the new Content Fragment Editor experience, and in Edge Delivery Services for Document Authoring and the Universal Editor.

Why It Matters

Generate Variations enables rapid experimentation with content variations, leading to meaningful personalization. Enhanced personalization improves user experience and drives conversion rates. By tailoring content to your audience’s needs, you create a more engaging experience.

In other words, having the ability to create and refine content variations quickly allows you to start experimenting sooner. This accelerates your learning cycle, enabling you to gather insights and implement effective strategies that resonate with your audience.

How It Works

Generate Variations does precisely what its name suggests: It automatically generates content variations based on a prompt form. The variations can be refined to achieve high-quality outcomes that meet your content needs.

At first glance, Generate Variations may seem similar to typical GPT usage, but it offers much more than simple phrase input. Adobe engineers have designed the prompt form with an out-of-the-box layer of prompt engineering, making it easier for users unfamiliar with prompts to generate better questions and, hence, receive higher-quality AI content.

Advanced users can also customize the default prompt form with more sophisticated prompts. It features its own "prompt" language, simplifying the creation and updating of tailored forms. Whether the prompt is fine-tuned or used as is, the system guarantees that content requests can be refined, resulting in more meaningful and impactful high-quality outputs.

Advantages

• Prompt Library: You can create custom prompt forms for better results.

• Integrations: Since this is mounted within AEM or EDS, some auto-integration occurs, specifically in the case of Content Fragments and EDS Document Authoring. With just a few clicks, you can move the auto-generated content to its proper place, allowing it to follow the regular content creation flow.

• Audience-Specific Variations: Generate tailored content variations based on audience data from Adobe Target or via CSV uploads.

• Brand Aware: By integrating brand guidelines directly into the content generation process, companies can ensure that every piece of content aligns with their brand identity, including tone, messaging, and visual style.

• Image Generation with Adobe Firefly: If you have the proper license, you can generate images for your variations from this screen. You can even update the images generated by Firefly and import them back to your original source.

• Trust and Security: Adobe is committed to not using user data to train models or send it externally. According to Adobe, this commitment is supported by the technology partners behind this feature, Azure and GPT technologies. Only the information shared by the author is used to enhance responses.

Availability

• AEMaaCS: The "Generate Variations" feature is available to new AEMaaCS Sites customers or those who have licensed Edge Delivery Services for AEM Sites. If you are not part of either group but are using AEMaaCS, you can still contact your Adobe representative to explore options for including the feature as part of your license.

• Edge Delivery Services: This feature is generally available (GA) now, although it may require activation by Adobe upon request.

• AMS Clients: While AMS clients cannot access this feature, a VIP program allows for experimentation under Adobe's control.

• On-Premise Versions: The "Generate Variations" feature is unavailable for on-premise versions.

Wrap Up

Adobe is actively introducing innovative features like Generate Variations to help enterprises meet their conversion goals. However, the complexity of some of Adobe’s products, including AEM, can make it challenging for enterprises to utilize them fully.

If you’re hoping to get the most out of your AEM implementation, then you need a partner to support you. Oshyn is a certified Adobe partner with a wealth of experience working with AEM and other products. Contact us to see how we can help you get the most out of AEM, including the latest AI-powered features.