Should Your Brand Use an AI Content Creator?  

The popularity of the new AI-based ChatGPT program has put artificial intelligence back in the headlines. As the idea of completely automated — but incredibly lifelike — speech is in the minds of marketers everywhere, it’s worth wondering just how useful AI bots can be from a marketing perspective. One area in particular where this technology could be useful is in content marketing. Could an AI content creator be the answer for your business?

What is an AI Content Creator?

As the name suggests, an AI content creator is an automatic generator of material that a company could theoretically publish and claim as its own. Traditionally, automated content has been synonymous with choppy text and an impersonal touch. But as ChatGPT has shown the world, that’s no longer the case.

Modern AI is capable of doing some incredible things. It’s not impossible that a machine could be capable of accomplishing the work of an entire creative department, in far less time and at a fraction of the cost. This idea of immediate content in a highly efficient and cost-effective manner has marketers dreaming of the possibilities.

Wait, This is Actually A Thing?

Yes. In fact, AI content generation isn’t just a concept that may take off in the future. It’s something many businesses are already exploring and utilizing.

According to SEMRush, 12 percent of businesses are currently using AI to create content. What’s more, a 2022 Capterra study of AI-based marketing found that 82 percent of businesses feel that AI-generated content is just as good, if not better than what’s produced by humans. Given that nearly half of all marketing professionals spend half their time creating marketing content, that’s a massive time-saving.

These numbers are quite staggering, and they reflect a positive sentiment about an AI industry that’s in its relative infancy as it relates to creating marketing content. In time, as AI becomes even more powerful, it’s not hard to envision a world in which AI becomes the standard. Which, depending on how you look at it, could be a good thing or a bad thing.

What’s the Catch?

So far, we’ve discussed the positive aspects of AI content creators. We know they’re capable of quickly producing content, and we know that a lot of people are happy with the results. But what are the downsides to using AI?

There are three major factors that detract from implementing an AI content creator. These range from mildly inconvenient to potential outright deal-breakers.

First, there’s the time spent getting AI up and running, and also the time investment in training staff. Going back to the 2022 Capterra AI study, two-thirds of respondents stated that it took at least six months for AI to be implemented in their businesses, with nearly a quarter stating it took one to two years to be fully set up.

On top of that, staff must be trained in the new software, and that takes time. Thankfully, this doesn’t take quite as long as the initial setup, with the majority of people being up to speed in less than six months. So it takes a while, but in the end, it could be worthwhile.

That brings us to our second argument against AI. Because a company is now turning over content creation to a bot, the bot is then responsible for what happens next. This means that any unique insights you’ve made regarding your customer base might be lost in translation.

Yes, an AI content creator will base its content around what’s already been produced. But if you want that personal touch that only you can provide — not to mention the data that shows exactly what your audience wants — AI might potentially disregard those figures in the name of producing what it thinks is right. Of course, the only thing that’s right for your audience is what gets them to act in a positive manner, and that might not necessarily align with the AI bot’s insights.

The last point is one that’s going to be a potential point of reckoning for any business that uses AI, and even for those that don’t. We know that AI is based on learning the style of existing content and incorporating that into its output. That leads to two potential issues for businesses of all types.

First, it’s possible for a competing business to train its AI content creator to learn your company’s style of content and create something similar for that business. Second, and more importantly, there’s a whole lot of legal gray area here. Can an AI bot be trained on copyrighted material? Can it use that copyrighted material as the basis for original content? Do you own the copyright on content that’s created by the AI content generator?

While the answer to the last point is that technically you do, the basis of that content leads to more questions than answers. And so, with so many potential issues down the road, it’s fair to wonder if all of this is worth it at present time.

Using AI as an Assisting Tool

While there are definitely issues with AI as the sole content generator for a business, the upside to AI can’t be ignored. Therefore, is it possible for a company to have the best of both worlds? And the answer to that is yes.

No, you should not just blindly publish AI content without any regard for legalities or potentially stealing copyrighted material. But you can definitely use AI internally as a way to explore concepts and generate some new ideas.

Here’s an example. Suppose you’re working on an email drip campaign, and each different segment of your customer base gets a similar, yet slightly different email. After writing a few of these, it’s hard to feel like you’re doing as well as you could possibly be doing. Everything sounds the same and nothing makes sense. This is a place where an AI bot might point you in a different direction so that you don’t constantly repeat yourself. You don’t copy what the bot suggests word for word, of course, but that little burst of creativity you can’t give yourself might just get you out of that rut and back to producing great content.

This might be the best use of AI as it currently exists — something that’s used alongside your current content creation process to come up with fresh material. This introduces your company to the concept of AI while still using your manual process to do most of the heavy lifting. As AI evolves and legal matters become cleared up, it’ll be easier to incorporate AI as a larger part of your content creation strategy. Until then, though, it’s best to keep AI somewhat on the periphery, more as a tool for creativity than as an outright producer of content.

As we’ve seen with ChatGPT, an AI-based future is one that’s full of conversational and relevant communication, where businesses could theoretically produce content at unfathomable levels. But it’s also one in which companies may lose their unique personality, and one where legal matters turn the entire industry upside down. Despite this, AI does have its role in content creation. To learn more about AI and how it can influence content creation, contact us today.