The increased awareness and availability of generative AI tools means that more people are relying on it to simplify their work — and more SaaS companies are including it as an integrated part of their products and offerings.

Higher Logic recognizes the benefits that a generative AI tool can provide to our customers. As a result, we have enhanced our Thrive Marketing Professional product with an integrated AI tool: AI Assistant for Message Designer.

NOTE: If you've used a generative AI tool, such as OpenAI's ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot, you'll probably be familiar with the functionality of AI Assistant for Message Designer.

If you're completely new to using AI, we welcome you and we are sure that you'll find AI Assistant for Message Designer for Message Designer — that is, your personal AI assistant — an easy-to-use and useful feature when drafting content.

AI Assistant for Message Designer overview

NOTE: AI Assistant for Message Designer is powered by Microsoft Azure.

AI Assistant for Message Designer is a generative AI tool that is trained as a marketing expert which makes it an ideal companion when you are drafting text for:

• Messages
• Newsletters
• Campaigns
• A/B testing
• and more!

Accept AI Terms

In order to be able to use AI Assistant for Message Designer, a Super Admin in your account must review and accept the AI Terms.

TIP: The AI Terms have to be accepted only once per account; each Super Admin is not required to individually accept the terms.

1. Access the Admin interface.
2. Navigate to AI Features > AI Features Opt-In.

If the AI Terms box on your AI Features page:

• displays as shown below, the terms have not yet been accepted.
• Click the Review AI Terms button to review and accept the terms.

• displays as shown below, the terms have been accepted.
• You can use AI Assistant for Message Designer if it has been enabled as described in the next section.

Enable & disable AI Assistant for Message Designer

As an Admin, you can enable and disable AI Assistant for Message Designer for your account right in the Admin interface.

1. Navigate to AI Features > AI Features Opt-In to access the AI Features page.
2. The AI Assistant for Message Designer box displays under Available Features.

If the AI Assistant for Message Designer box displays as shown below, AI Assistant for Message Designer has not been enabled.

• Click the On/Off toggle in the upper right.

The feature is now enabled and a confirmation message displays.

Recording your changes

The "Last updated by..." details that display below the feature box automatically update whenever an Admin takes an action on this page:

AI Assistant for Message Designer in Thrive Marketing Professional editors

This article describes Higher Logic's integrated AI Assistant for Message Designer and how you can use it to more quickly generate content in any of the abovementioned collateral.

AI Assistant for Message Designer has been integrated into the following text editors:

• Message Designer 2 (MD2)
• Template Designer 2 (TD2)
• Campaign Designer

and is immediately available:

• if it is turned on in your account AND
• to all users who have any one of the following create and modify User permissions
  • Administrator
  • Campaigns
  • Reporter
  • Template Designer

We encourage you to use AI Assistant for Message Designer so that you can work more quickly when creating and editing content. Remember, this is your assistant; so, work with it to:

• generate content,
• refine that content,
• rewrite and edit your content, and then
• send your message, newsletter, or campaign!

NOTE: AI Assistant for Message Designer is a text-based tool; it cannot generate visual content such as pictures and video.

Access AI Assistant for Message Designer

AI Assistant for Message Designer is available with the text-based content blocks of the text editor in Message Designer and the Campaign Message Designer.

When you add one of these content blocks and click its text element, the properties panel displays on the left with the AI icon in the lower left of the editor window.

Click the AI icon to open the AI Assistant for Message Designer flyout panel on the right.

TIP: You can drag the left side of AI Assistant for Message Designer to widen and narrow it. We recommend widening it when chatting to make viewing the text suggestions easier.

AI Assistant for Message Designer walk-around

It's a good idea to be familiar with the "parts" of AI Assistant for Message Designer. Refer to the image and the bullets that follow.

• X - click to close AI Assistant for Message Designer.
• Thumbs Up/Down - provide feedback to Higher Logic about the content (based on the appropriateness of the content generated by AI Assistant for Message Designer). NOTE: This feedback is used exclusively by Higher Logic and exclusively for the stated purpose.
• Copy icon - copy only the latest "response" content to the clipboard. NOTE: Clicking this icon does not auto-populate the text editor window, you have to manually paste it.

TIP: Chat example, below, provides an example of AI Assistant-generated content and how it was subsequently manually edited and formatted.

• Ask me anything field - the input field where you specify prompts for AI Assistant for Message Designer. Refer to Chat example, below, to see the evolution of content via a "chat" with AI Assistant for Message Designer that involves a series of prompts and responses.
  • This field has a Refresh button in the lower left which, when clicked, permanently clears the prompts and responses of the current chat session.
    - Cleared content cannot be retrieved.
  • Click Refresh to start a new chat topic.

Chat with AI Assistant for Message Designer

You chat with AI Assistant for Message Designer right in the panel. Your "conversation" is based on a single prompt or, more likely, a series of prompts and responses.

• A prompt can be any number of words. The more detailed the prompt, the more effectively AI Assistant for Message Designer works in generating appropriate content. Refer to Prompts in AI, below, for links to sites that offer tips on effective AI prompting.
• This is a chat; a dynamic, "back-&-forth" exchange. You can follow up with additional prompts to clarify, hone, and refine the content to your liking. Refer to Chat example, below, to see the evolution of content via an AI Assistant for Message Designer chat that involves a series of prompts and responses.

Chat notes

As you work with AI Assistant for Message Designer, keep in mind the following points.

• Saving AI content - Your "chat session" and any content that is generated during it are saved during that current create/edit session only. If you log out or navigate away to a different Admin page, your generated content is lost and irretrievable.
  • You can close (click the X) AI Assistant for Message Designer in order to preview what you've got on the canvas. The chat content is saved and is available when you re-open AI Assistant for Message Designer.
• Using AI content - You must copy the content that AI Assistant for Message Designer generates (use the copy feature as described in AI Assistant for Message Designer walk-around, above) and manually paste it into the text editor.
  • If you're having an extended chat in order to get just the right content, we recommend occasionally copying the current content and pasting it into the text editor in order to preserve it in case something happens.

Prompts in AI

In addition to information that's available from tech-industry leaders (such as Microsoft and Google), below are a few links that offer tips on how to prompt AI.

• https://www.higherlogic.com/blog/ai-assistant-for-associations/
• https://huit.harvard.edu/news/ai-prompts

We encourage you to visit sites such as these to get recommended, proven tips and to learn best practices so that you can get the most out of AI Assistant for Message Designer!

Chat example

The images below demonstrate a chat in AI Assistant for Message Designer; with the initial prompt and follow-up prompts & responses.

TIP: Remember: Clear and concise prompts minimize ambiguity, and AI Assistant for Message Designer can be better at generating relevant content for you.

• In this chat, we're asking for help drafting content for an association event.
• We've inserted the Text with Headline content block for this example.

Initial prompt & response	Follow-up prompts & responses

We then scrolled up and copied the text of the initial response and pasted into the text editor in the Properties panel; it was then edited and formatted (as shown in the section below).

NOTE: When you paste content from AI Assistant for Message Designer, it is "raw" and should be reviewed, edited, and formatted.

Using AI Assistant for Message Designer content

You can use the content exactly as it is generated by AI Assistant for Message Designer, but we recommend that you review it to make sure that it is appropriate and germane to the message you're creating.

It's also a best practice to spend a few minutes formatting the content so that it's easier to read and "digest" by your recipients. For example, the first image below is AI-generated content pasted into the editor and untouched; the second image is that same content but with some preferred:

• edits,
• formatting (such as bold and italic to highlight and emphasize),
• spacing, and
• rewriting.

AI Assistant for Message Designer content in the text editor

AI Assistant for Message Designer content edited & formatted

Related articles

• To learn about the other tools and functionality in Message Designer, see Create a Message (MD2).
• AI Usage at Higher Logic describes Higher Logic's commitment to the responsible use of AI.