AI for Content Marketing – the Bad
As mentioned, ChatGPT takes great pains to try to allay concerns that might be used to replace humans’ jobs. But even it understands that, as with most technologies, AI will cause some job disruption. According to the chatbot itself:
In the next five years, it is likely that AI will begin to reduce employment for college-educated workers. As the technology continues to advance, it will be able to perform tasks that were previously thought to require a high level of education and skill. This could lead to a displacement of workers in certain industries, as companies look to cut costs by automating processes.
And some jobs performed in the marketing space will likely be on the chopping block. The number of employed writers could diminish.
ChatGPT and other AI tools rely on a language model called GPT-3 or GPT 3.5 to form their generations. The latest iteration, GPT 4, rolling out this year, is said to be magnitudes better — a 100X improvement, in fact! We can expect better quality responses to prompts, better essays, better blogs, better copy, and better content in general. Still, it’s doubtful that any of the writing will be able to convey the human empathy that makes writing stand out (more on that below).
OpenAI also released a popular text to image tool in the form of Dall-E. The AI generates images based on text prompts. Here’s what it created when I entered the prompt “a stained glass window depicting a robot.”
If you can think of it, Dall-E (and other tools like Midjourney) can create an image. Not all of the creations are exactly worthy of the Guggenheim. Still, the ability for AI to create images might very well cause a reduction of graphic designers working in marketing and other fields.
It’s entirely in the realm of possibility and even probability that the customer who might have once turned to Fiverr or Upwork to hire a freelance copywriter, graphic artist, or website designer will instead leverage AI tools to do it themselves.
However, it’s doubtful AI will eliminate the need for these professionals as larger organizations will still want to hire actual creatives to get the job done. Plus, at this stage, AI is still not 100% reliable when it comes to getting all the facts straight (Google’s Bard embarrassingly flubbed an answer in its debut). So humans will be needed to serve as editors or fact checkers. Still, at the end of the day, we think AI will actually be a net positive for marketing and those working in the industry. Here’s why.
AI for Content Marketing – the Good
Give some paint and a brush to a child, and you’ll get a picture you could hang on your fridge. Give the same tools to the average adult, and you’ll get a picture you could maybe hang in a rec room. But give them to Michaelangelo, and you’ll get the Sistine Chapel.
AI-powered tools are just that: tools. And in the hands, or at the fingertips, of artists and creative professionals who know how to use them to their maximum potential, we can expect them to generate masterpieces.
Recently at Davos, will.i.am of Black Eyed Peas fame described ChatGPT as a co-pilot for creatives. He said it can be used as a soundboard to bounce ideas off — and frankly, I think he’s right.
Marketers of all stripes can leverage AI to help with ideating and increasing the efficiency of their workflows (as ChatGPT itself stated). When performing research for a blog, content writers no longer need to spend hours on the internet clicking back and forth between articles and sources. Now they can just turn to ChatGPT, which can help them create more content in less time. They can also use AI tools to draft, edit, distribute, and repurpose content faster. In a webinar presented by Writer, we learned that utilizing AI tools can save writers 35 hours per month if used wisely.
And, in a world where AI becomes commonplace, brands, enterprises, and customers will put more of a premium on the human touch when it comes to storytelling (e.g, personal anecdotes, humor, and unique turns of phrases you only get from a human).
So the talents of the best marketing creatives will be increasingly in demand, with a directive to ensure the human element shines through to build a better connection between a brand and its customers.
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