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This is part two of an examination of the technology of AI and how relevant it is for use by small and medium enterprises. To learn more about what it is, how it works, and what it could do for your business, please read part one where I give a general overview of the subject. This time round we are putting the most well known Large Learning Model, ChatGPT, into practice by having Microsoft Bing’s Chat system generate an article talking about the advantages and disadvantages of using AI to create marketing.
We will put each part of its output into quote boxes and then I’ll add my own opinions on what the system generated to give it a more practical perspective.
There are several advantages and disadvantages to using AI to create marketing materials. Some of the advantages include:
AI can create content quickly because it uses advanced algorithms and machine learning techniques to analyse large amounts of data and generate text based on that analysis. AI tools can pull pre-existing information from search engines and create unique content from people’s search queries on different keywords, phrases, or topics. This allows AI to produce content in a matter of seconds or minutes, much faster than a human writer could.
This is all correct. It generated the whole article in about ten minutes as a series of smaller paragraphs style blocks. It started with the intro paragraph and then generated the numbered list. After that it generated a series of questions each related to the number examples which produced a longer paragraph going into more detail. They are presented without any editing or adjustment apart from removing redundant lines when I merged the latter paragraphs into the original number list.
Automation: The greatest benefit of AI in marketing is automation. AI can quickly and accurately gather and analyse large amounts of data, allowing for more efficient and effective marketing strategies. This can save time and resources for marketers, allowing them to focus on other tasks. However, despite these advantages, there are a few drawbacks to consider when utilising automation.
Quick Turnaround: AI provides almost immediate results for speedy content creation, no matter if the subject is simple or complicated. Human writers — even at their most productive — can take hours to churn out quality blog posts or marketing materials. By contrast, your average AI tool will take under a minute to produce a similar product. This quick turnaround can be a major advantage for marketers who need to produce content quickly and efficiently. Is there anything else you would like to know?
Cost Effective: AI can make content at a fraction of the cost of a full-time writer or freelancer. Authors are paid hundreds for articles needing expertise and thousands in salary wages. AI subscriptions are usually under $100 for an annual subscription. This can make AI a cost-effective solution for businesses looking to produce marketing materials on a budget. Is there anything else you would like to know?
Better SEO: AI-generated content’s SEO-related capabilities are one of the software’s key selling points. AI pulls from already popular and SEO-optimised content to address your desired topic. This can help improve the SEO of your marketing materials and make it easier for your target audience to find your content through search engines. Is there anything else you would like to know?
Data gathering and compiling is the greatest advantage of this technology. For an average article I put on this blog, those 1000-1500 words can take me between 4-8 hours of just research before I start creating the content. And that assumes I can find the relevant resources that fit the nature of business in New Zealand. I can see where using these tools will reduce the workload for this part of the process. It also cites its sources which it draws from which some AI systems do not, there since hallucinations (incorrect information presented as fact) can be a major issue. The links to the sources let me fact check and also get the intent of the material as that can be lost when compiled by the AI systems.
Writing and revision work take time too. For us here at Copy Express, my costs as part of the team is a ‘sunk cost’ as it has to be paid for no matter what I might be doing. Creating content for the website is making use of the time when I’m not needed for production work or keeping out product range up today and fitting for our customers needs. For a sole trader / small business this type of work is always at the expense of the work that generates revenue. So it has to be done out of work hours or during down times, which you don’t want. So using an automated system to cut down the time spent will always be a cost saving for such a business. While you could use external services to do some of that work, it’s expensive and largely outside the domain of small businesses. And while you could use low cost free-lance services like Fiverr, there’s no guarantee that the results would be relevant to your needs.
All hail the mighty SEO (Search Engine Optimization). As it always comes back to these days, being at the top of the search engine results can make or break your business. When you might be competing with dozens of other businesses all offering the same group of services, any tool that gets you up to the top of the list will always be worth the time and effort. Using AI to create content that is part of the search trends or contains subject keywords that people search for will always be a competitive advantage.
However, there are also some disadvantages to consider when utilising AI for marketing:
Automation Disadvantages: Despite the advantages of automation, there are a few drawbacks to consider when utilising automation. One potential disadvantage is that AI-generated content may lack the creativity and personal touch of human-generated content. Additionally, there may be concerns about the accuracy and reliability of AI-generated content. It’s important to carefully review and edit any AI-generated content to ensure that it meets your standards for quality and accuracy.
Ethical Implications: The ethics of using AI in marketing is something that will continue to be debated and discussed. There are concerns about job security, transparency, and other ethical issues. For example, some people may be concerned that the use of AI in marketing could lead to job losses for human marketers and writers. Additionally, there may be concerns about the transparency of using AI-generated content and whether or not it should be disclosed to the audience. It’s important for businesses to carefully consider these ethical implications when deciding whether or not to use AI in their marketing strategies.
These two points highlight the potential problems with AI content generation. Firstly since the model is an ‘averaged’ version of all the content the model could find online, the tone is dry and bland. For now it still takes a person to properly understand the information and provide a deeper context to it. People prefer being with people so the content generated by AI feels ‘mechanical’ which can be off putting to many. I’ve already covered the accuracy issue previously in the first article.
Ethical implications are relevant too. While the loss of work for writers,for example, is largely moot since as a small business you wouldn’t have been willing or able to hire a content writer in the first place. What matters more is the voice and source of it. The nature of marketing small businesses, the owner is the business so having their own ‘voice’ in their marketing is important. Presenting AI generated content removes that voice and harms the image of the business. (‘If you can’t be bothered to put the effort of creating what you post, why should we be bothered putting effort into contacting you.’) Also mentioned before is the ethical and legal implications of using other peoples copyrighted material to generate material for yourself. There are currently several court cases dealing with this complex legal issue which may define the viability of the technology in the future.
Speaking from my own opinion, which does not represent any form of legal advice, here are two safe options to follow when using AI to generate content for your marketing. You present the unedited AI generated content as such clearly. In this case I’ve explained from the outset for this article and marked the AI generated content inside of text boxes to show it’s content from mine. For the businesses which need quick content to ‘juice up’ their placing on search engines results or for some quick media content, this is the quickest solution to their needs. The second option is where you use AI software to do the ‘grunt work’ generating basic outlines and finding sources of information. From there you take that material as the first draft only and rewrite it to cover what you consider the relevant information and to have in your own voice.
AI technology is now part of the world whether we like it or not. All the major (and many minor) software and search engine providers are making it part of their offerings. For a small business it will provide a useful set of tools to help streamline the laborious part of the administration of a business and creating content for the web and social media. You still have to add your personal touch to make it something that your customers want to see and hear to make it effective. Currently the technology is free to experiment with so why not try it yourself to see how it might be of use for your business.
Sources
Source: Conversation with Bing, 24/05/2023