There’s a “new kid” on the block in marketing and everyone is talking about it: Artificial Intelligence, or AI. Recently, a new AI tool named ChatGPT has taken the world by storm. Copy and content writers are using it to generate pages of content in just a few minutes.
The reality is AI has been impacting the marketing world for quite some time now, but the human-esque nature of ChatGPT has revolutionized the way many marketers are incorporating AI into their routine. So what does this mean for the leaders of B2B organizations and the marketing agencies that serve them?
A Perspective on AI
Here at Strativise, we firmly believe in embracing new technology as it emerges while simultaneously valuing the unique fingerprints that we leave on our work; our human creativity and unique personalities shape our work in important ways.
According to Kong’s 2022 API and Microservice Connectivity report, in 2020, 57% of technology leaders were concerned they would lose customers if they failed to keep pace with innovative technology. Only 2 years later, in 2022, that number jumped to 75%.
History shows us the perils of ignoring technology shifts. Nokia failed to embrace software development on phones and saw their market share fall from 50% in 2007 to 3% just 6 years later. Blockbuster’s CEO famously stated, “Neither RedBox nor Netflix are even on the radar screen in terms of competition,” in a 2008 interview. Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy only two years later after failing to embrace streaming technology.
There are countless stories of leaders holding onto past successes and failing to adapt to disruptive technologies - and losing everything for it. As we face the question of AI in marketing, we must learn from history.
AI’s Contribution to Marketing
Many of us at Strativise have been using AI, in its various forms, for years. As ChatGPT has become prominent in today’s headlines, we turned our attention to this chatbot to understand its implications for marketing. Here is what we have found:
AI has the ability to generate written content, and even images, very quickly. We have found it to be highly efficient at paraphrasing, simplifying, and restructuring content when given clear instructions. For example, providing AI with a video transcript and asking it to translate the transcript into social media posts or a short article generally yields a decent output.
We have also found that AI can write generic content with ease. Introduction emails and auto-responder messages are good examples of this. ChatGPT can quickly produce multiple variations of this type of content, which marketers can use to accelerate their work.
AI can be helpful for brainstorming. ChatGPT can generate lists of blog topics within a certain discipline, for example, or create headlines for a webpage. In this way, teams can use it to enhance their ideation process and boost their output.
Troubleshooting support is also a strength of AI. A marketer can ask ChatGPT to generate a snippet of code for a website project when the developer is not available, for example, or inquire on how to set up email authentication in Google Workspace. The step-by-step instructions and conversational tone often make for a great experience.
Finally, AI is effective at producing content on well-documented topics and events. This is because the tool essentially scrapes the internet for content and creates its output from what it has learned. While this can yield seemingly impressive sounding results, there are some significant limitations to be aware of. For example, our founder, Nate Maguire, once asked ChatGPT to write an article explaining the relationship between NPSHr and pump cavitation, a fairly technical subject from a niche discipline, and the results were astonishing: detailed definitions, eloquent explanations, and even an example… but it was wrong. The language model had learned from both correct and incorrect information and was unable to distinguish between the two.
AI’s Limitations
AI has access to extensive information and can generate seemingly impressive responses, yet as we have seen, the tool is not reliable at distinguishing between correct and incorrect information. For our clients, and for any other reputable companies, this really matters.
Another problem with AI is that its content is not cited and therefore can’t be traced back to original sources. This greatly limits AI as a research tool. Moreover, AI content can flag for plagiarism because it learns from existing content. This prompts ethical considerations for companies who plan to use AI generated content.
For leaders who are eager to use AI generated content to boost their company’s website performance, there is a growing set of voices warning about the risks. Consider this excerpt from Search Engine Journal:
“Google’s Search Advocate John Mueller says content automatically generated with AI writing tools is considered spam, according to the search engine’s webmaster guidelines… AI falls under the category of auto-generated content, which could lead to a manual penalty.”
Google rewards original content with higher ranked search results while potentially penalizing AI content. There are several online tools capable of detecting AI generated content, and Google will likely become proficient at incorporating AI generated detection into their search ranking algorithms in the near future.
Our Conclusion
AI is a disruptive technology and a powerful time-saving tool in the marketing field, but it is just that: a tool. A tool is useless outside the hands of a competent person. It is incumbent on us as marketers to use AI in ways that enhance our work, and we must understand its limitations and avoid misuse.
Here at Strativise, we integrate new tools into our arsenal. We only use AI in ways that enhance our ability as humans to deliver creative work.
Every human brings their unique fingerprint to marketing. Their experiences form their worldview, which in turn echoes in their conversation, voice, and input. Marketing is all about speaking to people right where they are at, to find a solution to the problem they are facing, to inspire them, and to create a lasting emotional connection.
When you combine a skilled human’s creativity, insight, and style with tools and access to a world of information, their potential for value creation rises.
To learn more about Strativise and how we help industrial companies, check out our About page here.