Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you won’t have missed all the chatter around Artificial Intelligence (AI) and how it’s making its mark in all walks of life. With chatbots that seem like real people and powerful data tools, AI is reshaping the way we work and play.
But amidst all this innovation, there’s a pressing concern – will AI take over our marketing roles?
AI is a Powerful Tool
Let’s address the elephant in the room – AI is powerful, there’s no denying that.
It can analyse data at lightning speed, automate repetitive tasks, and even engage in natural language conversations with customers. However, despite these capabilities, we firmly believe that AI will not replace the role of an experienced and skilled marketer.
Why? Because marketing, especially in the realm of social media, is as much an art as it is a science.
The problem with AI-generated content
While AI can mimic human behaviour to a certain extent, there’s a depth of understanding that only a human mind can provide.
Problems typically associated with AI content include:
Vagueness
AI-written content tends to waffle on… without saying very much at all. It may *sound* good, but have a proper read through, and you’ll often find that it tells the reader very little.
For example, it may state something like: ‘In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, organisations are making significant changes to overcome hardships and deliver on promises.’
While that initially may sound like a great sentence, it’s very vague. Consider… What organisations? What are the significant changes? Are there examples of the hardships that need to be overcome? What promises do they deliver on?
By digging down into the details, you can paint a much fuller picture than AI tends to create.
Repetitiveness
The AI model is, at its core, a predictive system trained on vast amounts of text data to identify patterns in language. It generates responses by predicting what words are most likely to come next, based on its training. That’s why so much of the language can feel repetitive or generic – it’s simply reflecting the most statistically probable, aka not necessarily the BEST, phrasing based entirely on data.
That’s why you need to check for AI’s favourite buzzwords like ‘digital landscape’, ‘dynamic’, and ‘ever-evolving’ to name a few, and add your language to bring it to life.
Expressionless
AI content does not have flair, personality, or personal opinions. While you can ask it to make them up, they rarely sound authentic.
AI will often share a very generic, middle-of-the-road piece that could have been written by anyone. Your job is to bring it to life and make it sound unique to you or your clients.
Why use AI then?
We’ve established that there are some problems with relying solely on AI to create your content… so you might be wondering why you should use it in the first place.
Here’s why we still love working with AI:
It eliminates fear
Any marketer, professional or dabbler will understand the fear of the blank page.
You know you have a blog to write or a clever caption to create… but you just can’t quite get started. That’s where AI comes in.
By prompting it to create something, you have a solid starting point. It’s unlikely to be the finished piece (trust us, make some edits!), but it certainly helps to get your brain in gear and your words flowing. Blank page – be gone!
It helps set the tone
Sometimes, you might not be sure which tone you’d like to use for a certain piece of content.
You can play around with AI, asking it to write your piece in different styles and tones to help you figure out which one suits best. Of course, once you’ve identified what works, you can add your own voice to it to ensure it sounds authentic.
It improves efficiency
You cannot deny that AI has improved human efficiency.
From easily sorting data sets, to creating lists, speeding up research, and creating useful layouts – tasks that used to take hours can be done in minutes with AI. While you still need to put in the effort to create a great piece of content, AI offers the perfect starting platform to help you get it done much more quickly and efficiently.
The winning formula – Human Intelligence + Artificial Intelligence
Using AI well is the key to success.
We’d always recommend using it as your starting point only, similar to a rough first draft. Read the content out loud and consider if it’s something you’d actually say to someone. If not, you can start the editing process to make it sound more natural and conversational – yes, even if it’s business writing!
Always consider, ‘is this actually telling us anything?’ And add meaning and context to the vagueness – including sharing your viewpoint, personal anecdotes, or even metaphors to add more depth.
Working with AI is all about tapping into human emotions, understanding psychology, and building authentic connections. When you bring creativity, spontaneity, and, above all, real, human elements into your process, that’s when the magic starts happening.
We believe the real equation for marketing success is AI (Artificial Intelligence) + HI (Human Interaction) = Exponential Creativity.
Our top AI marketing tools
Psst don’t tell everybody, but these are the tools that we are loving at the moment.
ChatGPT – the OG of AI!
The free option of ChatGPT will give you lots of opportunities to experiment. Whether it’s research, social media posts, or just checking an email you have drafted.
Claude
Is great at analysing data, and you can upload documents. It also tends to be slightly more up-to-date so it can give you current examples.
Fireflies
This is the latest tool in our AI armoury. We love to use it for minute taking in meetings and it gives us the opportunity to dictate what the customers actually say, so we can use it in their marketing. No more taking minutes that are illegible!
How are we using AI?
While we are still discovering new ways to use AI to make our daily lives much easier, here are some of our favourites.
Image uploads
We upload images to AI tools and ask them to generate social media captions to match – which we then edit to ensure they sound authentic.
Review round-up
Got lots of customer reviews? Drop the link into an AI tool and let it help you get started turning those kind words into engaging social media content.
Handwritten notes
Snap a photo of handwritten notes and let AI transform them into polished text in seconds.
Video & meeting notes
We upload transcripts from videos or meetings and use AI to turn them into blog post or social content drafts – same message, just a new format that we can then edit to our heart’s delight.
Ultimately, it’s the human element that sets us apart
It will always be the human element that sets us apart from AI-generated content.
We’re the ones that infuse creativity into our campaigns, understand each of our clients’ audiences, and build genuine connections with other humans. And while AI may continue to evolve and become more sophisticated, we believe that there will always be a need for human marketers who can bring passion, empathy, and humour to the table.
So, what are your thoughts on AI and marketing? Are you using it in your business? We’d love to hear about your experiences and how AI is shaping the future of marketing.
Working with Piece of Cake Marketing
Transparency and honesty are core to our values here at Piece of Cake Marketing. So, just so you know, we’ve used AI to support us in writing this article… with a heavy dose of human intervention, too.
Looking to enhance your marketing and social media presence? Drop us an email at hello@pieceofcakemarketing.co.uk and let’s discuss how we can help you take your business to new heights.
Whether you need guidance on developing a comprehensive marketing strategy or require hands-on support with social media management, we can help. Contact Emma on 07799626332.