Can AI Do Your Marketing?

Whose job does AI automate?

That question is on a lot of marketers’ minds these days. The CRM platform HubSpot has rolled out has several AI-powered tools and many of the sessions at their annual Inbound conference centered around AI. The same is true for the upcoming Content Marketing World Conference, Sept. 26-28, in Washington, D.C. (There are more than ten sessions devoted to artificial intelligence this year.) In the last two years, anyone who writes (whether that’s web copy, computer code, or birthday cards) has probably asked themselves if AI is coming for their job.

The answer, like so often, is the case: it depends.

Nothing Better Than The Real Thing

Whether a job is safe comes down to whether that job takes real intelligence or just artificial intelligence.

Artificial intelligence can rework information that is already out in the world. Real intelligence can generate new ideas and new information.

For example, I asked the AI tool I use for writer’s block to explain why Silicon Valley Bank failed. It immediately told me it was due to the bank’s exposure to mortgage-backed securities. Wrong. I asked again, and it said it was because Silicon Valley didn’t upgrade its technology to stay competitive. Wrong again. Silicon Valley failed because it was too exposed when interest rates rose. This conclusion came from the humans who looked at the bank’s finances and put together many disparate facts to see a new picture.

Both wrong answers come from the flaws inherent in a large language model—scan what was written before on a subject (bank failures) and use that to guess at the new answer. ChatGPT’s last knowledge update was in September 2021. Anything that’s happened since then is outside of its area of expertise.

The problem with outdated information and wrong answers is so prevalent that ChatGPT has this disclaimer at the bottom of its page: “ChatGPT may produce inaccurate information about people, places, or facts.” If these types of errors are okay in the work that you do, then ‘yes’ artificial may be coming for your job.

Can AI Do Your Marketing?

The place for AI in marketing is obviously a hot topic and not nearly settled. It is a helpful tool for things like analysis of large data sets, catching typos, and creating spam for social media accounts. However, at least in its current form, it struggles with the psychology of marketing–of thinking like a targeted persona and creating valuable, new content that helps move a person along their buying journey. This type of work represents the “new” ideas that AI isn’t built for—yet.

I will be at the Content Marketing World Conference and attending some of the AI-focused sessions (got to keep abreast of the latest tools). But I’ll also be at the master class on how a manufacturer can position itself as a leading technical brand. This is where I feel I have job security; helping manufacturers succeed by sharing the stories that make them unique.

To win at the Google algorithm and be found by more potential customers, manufacturers need websites that excel at E-E-A-T. This means demonstrating your company’s experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. You could argue AI can write in a way that demonstrates experience (it knows what has been written before), but the other three require a human mind and the kind of real intelligence that sets one manufacturer apart from another. If you’d like to talk about how your company can win at Google with content that actually speaks to real people, give us a shout.