For Determined Women Business Owners
Exploring Artificial Intelligence in Content Creation
We could discuss for hours what artificial intelligence (AI) actually is and the amazing things it can do, but in short, it’s a technology developed to simulate human learning by the use of computer algorithms. Many customer service companies quickly adopted it to cut costs since it’s even cheaper than outsourcing, but we’re here to discuss the specific use of artificial intelligence in content creation.
AI has very quickly become the ‘talk of the town’ online. AI-produced content rapidly saturated the web with billions of blog posts and other forms of content. Ever more is being pumped out daily in huge volumes across all industries, but is this really a good thing?
There are obvious advantages to the use of AI in certain circumstances, but there are also serious disadvantages to using artificial intelligence in content creation.
Let’s take a look at both the good and the bad points related to artificial intelligence in marketing materials and other types of online content.
Artificial Intelligence In Content Creation, Plus #1: It’s Fast and Efficient
AI can analyze and write at a ridiculous speed. Simply enter a prompt, and your laptop can spew out an entire blog post in literally seconds. This would seem to be an amazing advantage for small business owners strapped for time and money. After all, maybe there’s no need to hire expensive writers when a computer can do it for you so quickly.
But let’s find out more before we jump to conclusions.
Technology has also developed some amazing tools, such as Grammarly and Jasper, which help writers speed up their processes exponentially, assisting with research, drafting, and editing.
Marketing would appear to be the perfect place to use these speedy assistants since time and turnaround are often of the essence.
Artificial Intelligence In Content Creation, Minus #1: Lacks Creativity and Emotion
Artificial Intelligence is tremendous at information processing, but it just can’t recreate emotion since it can’t actually experience emotions. It can duplicate a response based on what it’s learned, but it just can’t feel anything.
Along the same lines, though AI can learn at an incredible speed, it can only reproduce what it already knows yet can’t be creative and birth new ideas from old ones like the human brain can.
We humans can use our personal experiences to enhance a piece of writing, build excitement, or compassionately empathize with our readers, whereas artificial intelligence in content creation just doesn’t work that way.
Artificial Intelligence In Content Creation, Plus #2: Lower Costs?
That’s right, you don’t have to pay AI for its work.
So it’s much cheaper to have your computer produce the content you need than pay a human writer to produce high-quality, compelling marketing materials for your business. Right?
If you’re a small business owner, you may be thinking this is a great way to cut your marketing costs, AND you don’t have to spend the time to write content yourself…
But wait ‘til you read the next section…
Artificial Intelligence In Content Creation, Minus #2: Generic Repetitive Content
Yes, AI has an enormous database of content to process, but how much of it is correct?
How much of the content in the database is completely original?
How much is misinformation, simply made up, or untrue?
Since artificial intelligence cannot, at this stage, consider for itself whether or not to believe the information it uses, the output you get is based on regurgitated information that may or may not be correct in the first place. This requires that you spend time down a rabbit hole confirming whether the information is correct or not.
So is this really a cost reduction?
Maybe in terms of money output, but it’s not necessarily a reduction in time costs if you end up having to do your own research and QC.
And, if your content ends up sounding too darn close to your competitors, who will eventually win out?
My answer is…the business owner who decides to work with a professional writer who’s able to nail down your authentic voice, draw out what’s special about you and your business, and articulate it in a way your audience loves and craves more.
So, if you’re going to need an SEO editor anyway…which options do you think will turn out cheaper in the end?
Artificial Intelligence In Content Creation, Plus #3: Data, Data, Data, SEO, and Marketing
AI does an amazing job with data and trend analysis after the fact. Since analytics and keyword research are so quick and easy with AI, it would seem the perfect match to consistently use artificial intelligence in marketing and content.
So, why wouldn’t you want AI to suggest your next content strategy?
Well…here’s why…
Artificial Intelligence In Content Creation, Minus #3: AI SEO-Optimized Content Can Feel…Robotic
While AI is the ideal analytical machine, it can’t make judgment calls on meanings, innuendo, or nuanced writing. For instance, Grammarly is great if you want perfect, technically correct grammar, but it doesn’t always suggest what you’re trying to say in a humanized way.
Since AI output is defined by the prompt you give it, unless you get your prompt absolutely pitch perfect, you can bet your bottom dollar it’s not getting your point across in a natural, persuasive way. It errs on the side of being technically specific and, dare I say it…boring.
Depending on your niche, you might get away with it, but if your work or website deals with inherently human feelings involving emotions, mindset, beliefs, or any kind of inner work, then artificial intelligence in content will not work well for you.
Artificial Intelligence In Content Creation, Plus #4: Consistency and Scaling
AI can produce consistent brand voice and messaging across large volumes of content. This is vital for scaling up marketing efforts. But this takes training AI in exactly what you want from it.
Once trained in a company’s brand, tone, and style, using artificial intelligence in marketing may well work out for you.
But…
Artificial Intelligence In Content Creation, Minus #4: Ethics and Plagiarism
Here’s the thing…
Before AI came along, humans painstakingly wrote all content on the internet. Now that AI is here, it’s drawing from all that original content to produce ‘new’ content.
But is it really new content, or is it simply taking chunks of previous work, mixing it up, and inserting it into your supposed new content?
AI is essentially learning and drawing its ‘work’ from all content that we have previously published on our websites over the years. So, could this be plagiarism, or is it genuine ‘research’?
Is it ethical that technology can learn from previously published, perhaps copyrighted, works and produce something new?
We could argue that’s what we’d do anyway - we research, learn, draw our own conclusions, and produce content in our own words and from our own point of view.
Is that the same for artificial intelligence in content creation?
The Future Of Artificial Intelligence In Marketing And Content Creation
Though AI may be incredibly powerful for business building - fast, efficient, comparatively cheap, amazing at crunching data, and easily scalable, it’s not without its limitations.
AIs lack creativity and emotion and regurgitate robotic feeling content, not to mention the question of ethics and plagiarism; it makes me wonder whether using artificial intelligence in content creation really is all it’s cracked up to be.
Maybe it’s best, if you’re going to use artificial intelligence in content creation, to use it as a research tool for ideas or outlines or SEO since it’s so great at data analysis.
Is downfall is definitely in its lack of human attributes and understanding. This is where professional writers come into their own and put their human spin into play.
Obviously, the choice is yours whether or not to use artificial intelligence in marketing or content production.
Just be aware…
If you have multiple businesses in the same space, such as a string of car dealerships, salons, or coffee shops, DO NOT fall into the trap of slapping up the exact same content on every location’s website.
You’ll be penalized BIG TIME for duplicate content, and your businesses will fall off the search engine map. It’s happening now, and it’ll keep happening.
Always post original content with the human touch, and you’ll be golden!
If you need help with human content, I’d love to talk with you about how we can build your business with empathy and excellence.