🤖 The term "AI" and its influence on marketing and communications is a hot topic today.
Despite the fact that marketers are accustomed to adapting to new technologies, workflows, and strategies, I do sense that the industry is still hesitant to make effective use of these new tools.
Yes, I do believe that AI promises to deliver a fundamental shift in the way marketing and communications teams operate. It is set to automate the production of content, which is worrying copywriters, content creators, podcast developers (yes, there are AI tools for this already), videographers and photographers on what their future value will be.
Granted, today using AI takes some training to get the best out of prompts, but tools like ChatGPT are already delivering impressive results and the technology is evolving rapidly. In short, I think that ignoring or sidelining AI, even in the state it is in today, would be a mistake.
AI is rapidly changing the way other industries operate - most notably in IT - where coders are concerned that ChatGPT and other tools will take over their jobs, reducing the time, cost and risk of error it takes to develop applications. And the industry is already responding - the advent of hiring “prompters” versus “coders” has already started and with it, a new IT skill and a new need is born.
From a marketing perspective, I believe that copywriters, content creators and photographers will need to think about how they re-invent themselves (and some already are!) - and look at the IT industry approach of hiring/training “prompters” versus pure “creators”. Getting a solid result out of an AI tool requires some serious skill, but if done right can deliver impressive results.
Granted, the demand for “traditional” photos, podcasts and other deliverables will remain and the demand from skilled content creators will not disappear fully, but AI will always be interwoven in the final result.
So where do I see the benefits of AI for marketing & communications? Here are a few that come to mind:
💰Cost: Yes, as AI evolves, it will help cut cost by automating aspects such as content creation. By automating tasks and optimizing campaigns, AI can reduce resource waste and lower the cost of customer acquisition.
👀Focus: This in turn will enable marketing teams to focus more strongly on strategy, evaluation, creativity and delivering more and better out of the box campaigns rather than be swamped in “stuff to do”. It has always been the natural way of things, humans are constantly seeking to automate tasks - this is no different. It does not mean the demand will disappear, it will be fueled differently.
⏩Speed: Content is still king! And not only the quality of content, but also relevance and the volume of it has an impact. No longer having a delay between the “ask to produce” and delivery of content will enable companies and organizations to respond rapidly and drive personalization. Dynamic content delivery, such as product recommendations or tailored emails no longer require weeks of work, improving customer engagement.
☁️Creativity booster: I have used AI regularly to explore the (new) industries I serve and to understand them better. I have also used AI to trigger my creativity, reducing the hours it takes for me to trawl through Google results and websites to build a comprehensive understanding and trigger creative and fresh ideas. The results it provides are not often hitting the expectation (but it may have to do with my prompting skills😊), but they do trigger new ways of thinking!
🏛️Market insight: (AI is not quite there yet - be careful with trusting data that tools like ChatGPT pull up!) This will (eventually) become easier to manage with AI souring all available data and building a comprehensive market report in minutes, which today would take days/weeks to complete. AI can also analyze customer behavior, preferences, and purchase history to create highly personalized marketing campaigns.
So…Do I think AI will take over marketing completely?
No it will not (at least not today). But as AI evolves, my advice is - jump into the pool early to understand how it delivers value, because it is already having an impact today.
AI empowers marketers to work smarter, not harder - so be part of the change to achieve your success.
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