As the crypto industry remains in a state of purgatory, Binance is embracing generative AI as part of a larger push to make progress in its mission for mass adoption.

The move comes amid a turbulent time for Binance and its competitors. In the seven months since FTX blew up, contagion has wrecked numerous firms, regulatory bodies have cracked down with increasing repudiation and the general public—which never fully embraced crypto to begin with—has shown even less interest in the digital asset space, according to trading volumes.

This context helps to explain why Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, is looking to shake up how it caters to the mainstream. The company this month hired Rachel Conlan as its new VP of global marketing, who will lead efforts to “reaffirm” Binance’s standing in the crypto space, per a press release. Conlan is a veteran in the ad industry, having served previous high-level stints at Havas and Creative Artists Agency. Most recently, she served as global head of brand and partnerships at OKX, another crypto exchange.

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In a conversation with Ad Age, Conlan dug deep into the ways that Binance is hoping to turn a corner with the public. In addition to encouraging the use of AI technology both internally and externally, Conlan is doubling down on the firm’s pre-existing media partnerships, including its marquee tie-ups with Cristiano Ronaldo and TikToker Khaby Lame.

Time is ticking, though. The day after Conlan’s hiring was announced, the SEC hit Binance with a wide-reaching lawsuit, accusing the firm of operating unregistered exchanges, misrepresenting oversight, selling unregistered securities, among other indiscretions. Conlan declined to comment on the development; a spokesperson pointed to an official statement made by the brand in which it denied the charges.

Here's a look at how Binance is approaching AI, what Conlan thinks AI can do for the greater crypto industry and why taking shots at competitors via marketing makes little sense given the industry’s notoriety.

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

How does leading marketing at a crypto company differ from doing so at a traditional marketing firm?

First of all, it differs in terms of user obsession. We live and breathe our users so much, understanding that what they want is what we'll design, whether that be from a product, a marketing experience, or an educational tool. For example, our head of product just introduced a feature on our site where users can give us real-time feedback on our products and user optimizations, and they can see what stage those go into development.

Another difference is the speed at which we work, the speed at which our campaigns happen. If we hear something on a Friday, we don't have the luxury of a week. We'll work through the weekend to ensure that we’re getting that out in the right way and being competitive in the right way.

What are your thoughts on generative AI, and how the technology might fit into Binance’s marketing?

It’s a daily topic for us. From an external perspective, we're looking at a series of products that we're going to be launching for our community. The most recent one is the Bicasso NFT generator [portmanteau of “Binance” and “Picasso”], which was built fully on AI and allows users to generate their own NFTs. It’s a passion project, but we've got an exciting roadmap for that tool. 

From a marketing operations perspective, I'm working really closely with my head of creative and head of content to figure out how we can use this to get us to work smarter, faster and also be able to produce the volume of work that we need to. I think there are some really exciting ways that we can introduce it to ensure that, first of all, we're creating optimal customer user experiences; and second of all, to make us more efficient, especially given that we're a big, remote group of marketers all over the world.

How do you anticipate AI technology will impact the greater crypto industry?

It's a technology with which the crypto industry is inherently intertwined. We're in the business of user obsession, and AI helps us to respond to user feedback quickly and ensure that we're providing the best customer service. There's so much that we can do to create a much stronger infrastructure. I'm excited about it, but at the same time, I see all of the negative press and information surrounding AI and security. So it’s about how we can introduce AI into our products in a way that ensures we still have the security and user protection levels that we need, because that's an area in which there’s still work to be done.

For crypto, one of the more popular marketing tactics has been celebrity partnerships, but as of late these efforts have received significant backlash. How does celebrity marketing need to evolve in order to survive as an effective tool?

I think how celebrity marketing has to evolve in this space is really in its ability to be a form of education, a form of truly letting people learn the value of Web3 and unlock its benefits.

What we're obliged to do now as crypto marketers is to find the authentic integrations that actually show people this value. It's about how we can use the Web 2.0 icons, whether they be in sports or entertainment, to tell the stories to explain and articulate what Web3 is. Because it's a world for which so many people don't even understand the basic definition.

For example, Cristiano Ronaldo is one of our brand ambassadors, but before our partnership he said “No” to Web3 and crypto on a constant basis. He was being offered left, right and center. And where the switch happened for him was in the ability of Web3 to allow him a direct way to connect with his audience—without a middleman, such as Instagram or any other platform. Through his fan token and NFTs, as well as an upcoming drop, it’s about accessibility bringing the fans closer. 

[Watch Christiano Ronaldo's Binance ad from November] 

As regulatory bodies crack down on crypto, we’ve seen firms use marketing as a way to fire shots at competitors. What are your thoughts on the usefulness of this strategy?

I think we're too nascent an industry to be taking jabs at each other's backs. We actually have a huge obligation to work together in order to encourage more widespread adoption because our industry is going to survive on that. I'm of the position that when they go low, we go high, even if it is seen as playful.

I just don't think the mass population responds well to that, even though the crypto-native audience may love that kind of tension. Our challenge now is in how we bring crypto to my dad, to my aunts and friends who are really cynical because of what they see about crypto, which is scams, industry breaches and SBF [Sam Bankman-Fried, former CEO and founder of FTX]. What they don't understand is the importance that this technology has in encouraging transparency, security and better financial protocols.