Despite all the talk about AI driving efficiencies, recent news has highlighted that’s not always the case. For writers, AI-generated content is creating more work. Whether it’s frequent hallucinations producing statistics that don’t exist or the use of stock phrases that have become synonymous with AI-generated content, think “cornerstone” and “a beacon of light”, writers are having to spend large amounts of time editing and rewriting this type of content.
It has become such a time sap that many writers are finding it often takes them longer to amend AI-generated content than if they’d written something from scratch themselves. However, it’s not just the time being spent amending content that’s a problem. For comms and marketing professionals, overreliance on AI-generated content can result in a wide range of issues.
A loss of brand identity
In industries like PR and marketing, differentiation is key and that’s again something that is being lost to AI-driven content. Instead of bold, brand-aligned content, what brands are getting is cookie cutter content, that repeats the same sentence structures and grammatical style, as well as those aforementioned hackneyed phrases. This content stands out a mile on LinkedIn and in articles, but for all the wrong reasons.
For comms and marketing professionals, this should be a major red flag for several reasons. Firstly, it casts doubt on the authenticity of not only the content but also the brands or individuals ‘authoring’ them.
Secondly, it can undo the hard work of teams to establish a brand’s tone of voice and messaging, replacing it with generic messaging and language that isn’t truly aligned to the brand’s style. AI also misses many of the nuances that come when content is written by humans who know a brand inside out.
The storytelling element is another factor that is often erased by AI. Audiences, whether B2B or B2C, want to engage with content that tells a story. It tends to resonate better and adds to that all important authenticity as it allows for personal anecdotes or examples that can’t be replicated in AI-generated content.
Balancing speed with originality
While AI-generated content tends to miss the mark in terms of authenticity, tone and originality, that’s not to say AI doesn’t have a place in the process of creating of marketing and comms content. It’s just about knowing where best to deploy AI tools to streamline and improve processes, without compromising on either originality or quality.
Research is one area that AI certainly has a role to play. It’s often the case when writing an article that you’ll want a killer stat to back up a point. This can turn into a lengthy quest. But by turning to tools like Perplexity.ai or ChatGPT with your query, it is possible to streamline the search for a stat that fits. It just then requires the writer to verify the stat and source.
Additionally, these tools can provide a good jumping off point for content ideation. In this scenario, you could ask about hot topics or news stories in a particular sector or to better understand the themes that are resonating with particular audiences. These insights can then be used to fuel ideas for new, impactful content.
With marketing and comms professionals often up against tight deadlines, using AI in these ways can help speed the search for statistics and news sources or provide inspiration, without compromising on quality. In these instances, it’s not about cutting corners or letting AI do the work, it’s about working smarter.
Long-term risks of AI content generation
As in every industry, an over-reliance on AI could spell trouble. In the creation of comms and marketing content, it’s about what’s lost when humans aren’t driving content development. Nuance, tone and style often get left by the wayside, replaced by generic content that doesn’t align with a brand’s identity. In the long-term, this approach to content generation has the potential to dilute a brand’s messaging, making it less impactful, consistent and authentic. This content is also more likely to get lost in the huge volumes of AI content being generated today, indistinguishable from that of another brand using AI to churn out content.
The broader impact is on visibility. The content won’t stand out or differentiate from competitors, and therefore will be unlikely to either reach the intended audiences or make them take the desired action. For marketing and comms professionals, this translates to missed KPIs, diluted brand identity and a lack of audience engagement.
While AI has a place in marketing and comms departments, it’s not in the writing of content. Rather, comms professionals would be better placed to explore what it has to offer in the realm of streamlining processes such as conducting research or looking at how it can improve reporting on marketing activity. These are the areas that are likely to make a genuine impact for the better.
