The dawn of widespread marketing AI is here, and some creatives are asking: Is this the end of human-driven content marketing roles? Is NOTHING sacred?
We at Creative Noggin have some thoughts. Let’s talk about what marketing AI is, what it’s not, and how it can be used effectively.
What is Marketing AI?
In short, marketing AI encompasses any application of artificial intelligence to pursue marketing goals. It’s not a completely new concept—for example, AI has helped marketers at TiVo analyze user viewing habits and push tailored recommendations to them since the early 2000s.
But marketing AI is becoming a lot more popular, and a lot more intelligent.
Nowadays, AI marketing tools can help marketers with anything from predicting consumer behaviors to writing ads, webpages, blog posts, and more. The writing capabilities in particular are making some content writers and copywriters nervous.
Should they be?
Will AI replace the human writer?
We don’t think so.
What Content Marketing AI Can’t Replace
In spite of the sophistication of today’s marketing AI, there are key elements of content writing that AI just can’t replicate.
Storytelling ability
AI algorithms generate content based only on patterns and data analysis. They lack the ability to feel emotions, think abstractly, or possess genuine human experiences that shape storytelling in marketing. These qualities cannot be replicated in an algorithm, but are essential in creating content that resonates with target audiences.
Cultural context
When it comes to different cultures, content marketing is not one-size-fits-all. AI systems may not understand your target audience’s culture at all, or their understanding may be informed by misconceptions such as stereotypes. Without a nuanced understanding of your target audiences, AI can produce content that is irrelevant or insensitive.
Brand voice fluency
Brand voice is everything. It encompasses the unique personality, tone, and style that communicates your brand’s identity and values. Capturing the subtleties of your brand voice is difficult for AI because it requires a delicate balance of language, emotions, cultural references, and sometimes humor. AI tools’ attempts to capture this often fall flat (see below).
Writing quality
If you have ever asked an AI tool to generate a piece of content from scratch, you may have found that even the most detailed prompt can yield a repetitive, unengaging dish of word salad. These meandering and often factually incorrect articles risk alienating your audience and harming your search engine rankings/SEO.
Collaboration
AI cannot replicate collaborative spontaneity. In other words, some creative trains of thought can only surface through collaboration within your internal team or between individuals at an agency. This collaboration often generates ideas that are not logical, but work.
Unique perspectives
All AI tools are trained only using existing content and information. Only a human can envision and create truly unique content that is well-tailored to your brand and digital marketing goals. An AI tool’s “creativity” is finite, while human creativity is limitless—and that kind of creativity is essential for building real emotional connections with audiences.
Joining Forces
In spite of these critiques, we’re no luddites. While AI is severely limited in its ability to produce content from scratch, when used tastefully, it can serve as a helpful complement to the human writer.
AI that is teamed with a creative mind can aid content writers by performing tasks like:
- Suggesting ideas for new content topics
- Workshopping content titles
- Providing alternative phrasing ideas
In fact, we at Creative Noggin leverage AI to help our clients achieve their goals. While each of our team members uses AI differently, we never rely on it for start-to-finish content creation. We recognize AI’s limitations and use it as an enhancing tool, similar to a dictionary or thesaurus.
If creative block or lack of time are tempting you to pump out some fully AI-generated content, we’re pleased to offer a more effective alternative. As an experienced team of marketers, we craft high-quality content for our clients. We can serve as your outsourced marketing team, or as an extension of your existing team.
Sound interesting? Let’s talk.
