As the lines between marketing and artificial intelligence (AI) continue to blur at an exponential rate, content marketing is currently an industry in flux. And with research predicting the market value of AI in marketing to reach USD107.5 billion by 2028, a significant jump from USD15.84 billion back in 2021, it’s safe to say that AI will be a prominent fixture in a content marketer’s toolkit for years to come. But even with the rapid advancement of AI, the most successful creative professionals remain self-assured about their vital role in marketing. Why? Because they’ve figured out how to adapt to the emerging paradigm in content marketing: the era of AI-human collaboration.
There’s a clear divide appearing in the content marketing industry: those who remain uninitiated and those who leverage AI to enhance their content creation and distribution, and we both know which team stands at the threshold of greater campaign success and career prospects. In fact, soon we may not have much of a choice but to adapt, as AI has been integrated into many of the tools we use and has been quietly improving the way we work for years.
A survey from Twilio found that 83% of businesses are already experimenting with AI across their marketing channels. So, if utilised correctly, AI can be useful in the way we create, distribute and measure the success of content marketing campaigns. This can include jobs like collecting data-driven insights, assisting with brainstorming and idea generation, automating repetitive tasks, enhancing existing content and creating hyper-personalised content on a mass scale, so you can reach your target audience more effectively.
Whether we like it or not, leveraging the power of AI in our marketing strategies will only make us better marketers in the end. Just imagine a workplace where your data collection and analysis are streamlined and your content topics are automatically enriched with relevant SEO keywords. What would you do with all this time, if you could take a step back from these systematic tasks? Invest more of your time in creative storytelling? Dig deeper to develop a more compelling brand voice? Conduct more research into your buyer personas to create content that resonates with your target audiences? This is where the benefit of AI lies.
Wordsmith may have covered why ChatGPT won’t be replacing content creators, and we still hold this to be true, but for now, join us as we delve into why creative professionals should work in unison with AI to enhance the overall success of their content marketing efforts.
How AI Is Changing The Face of Content Marketing
AI has impacted content marketing in two big ways. The first is by accelerating brainstorming and idea generation through creating content. Generative AI platforms, like ChatGPT, allow users to provide text-based prompts where the algorithm responds with relevant, natural-sounding answers, images or topics. Seeing the productivity benefits of using these large language model tools, major brands including Adobe, Microsoft Google and Salesforce have started to embed similar generative systems so they can enhance user productivity.
The second benefit of AI is that it helps content marketers to curate and optimise their content faster than ever before, thanks to the software being trained to process and interpret vast reams of information including articles, textbooks and the internet. Big companies, such as Google and Semrush offer intelligent AI systems that allow marketers to understand and act on emerging content marketing opportunities. So, acting on these timely data-driven insights can not only save wasted effort but reduce inefficiencies and maximise your overall campaign performance.
How Do You Start Working With AI?
Despite the concerns that an overreliance on AI systems may lead to a loss of critical thinking, creativity and genuine human intuition, there are smart ways marketers can strike the balance in content marketing between AI-assisted decision-making and adding creative flare that only humans can conjure. Just like all technology at first, the benefits are too attractive to disregard AI altogether. So, to compete in an ever-changing, technology-driven marketplace, the weaving of AI into content marketing processes is something that is coming for us all. But if integrated well, the bespoke content and campaigns we create with the help of AI can lead to heightened customer engagement, increased conversion rates and bolstered brand loyalty.
What this collaborative relationship will look like, however, depends on your own budget and marketing team’s capacity. However, you should start considering how AI can be implemented throughout each stage of your content marketing process. For example, you could begin, by utilising AI in the marketing research stage. These natural language processing algorithms can rapidly process mass quantities of qualitative insights including customer survey responses, focus group transcripts, social media posts, reviews and more. Using AI in this way can help identify recurring patterns, sentiment shifts and emerging trends much faster than a team of human analysts could. Marketers can also leverage AI-generated ideas and use them as a springboard for innovative conceptualization, which can have the potential to lead to unique content strategies, campaign names and snappy slogans.
From here, you can also use AI tools to create the structure of blog content, social posts, and how-to-guides which you can then edit with a fine-tooth comb, refine and inject your own creativity. However, using AI at this stage “should not be considered a way to replace strategic thinking and processes” Seth Hargrave, CEO of Media Two says. “Ultimately, there are still limitations in conveying things such as sentiment and tone. So careful planning is still needed at the input phase, and the careful review of output should still be top of mind.” AI should only be used to help your team produce more content in less time. You can even return to the same AI tools for guidance on imagery standards, keyword density and more before you publish.
Kate Vasylenko, Co-Founder of 42DM Corporation, explains, “While using AI, my team and I focus on deeply understanding how a tool works and what algorithms drive it and then on finding the most efficient way to implement it. For example, we know that ChatGPT is not great with logic, providing generic content if asked to independently produce materials from scratch, but it is amazing as a brainstorming partner to help develop original ideas and strategies.”
The Benefits Of Harmonising AI And Human Expertise
We’ve already touched on the clear benefits of using AI above, but there’s something to be said about emphasising the benefits of the human part in this collaboration too. If used correctly, AI tools can help ignite and channel human creativity, while also giving you vital time back.
With the speed in which AI helps to create content, the internet will be filled with even more social posts, blogs and automated emails – some of which may be created in AI haste with a lack of creativity and flair. This will give smarter businesses an opportunity to stand out and break through the clutter by reinforcing their brand positioning and honing their value creation approach. And thanks to AI automation picking up routine, monotonous tasks in areas such as data collection, marketing analytics and customer service email responses, your teams will have more time back to focus on more creative areas of the business that will make all the difference.
By freeing up this precious time, you can also assume the role of content orchestrator: which includes vetting outputs for quality, checking for consistency and accuracy, and ensuring that your content never veers off your brand’s guidelines. Equally, AI software can also help your marketing budgets stretch that bit further and help ambitious brands achieve more on a larger scale. So don’t worry, the future of content marketing still looks just as bright. Instead of seeing AI as the nail in the coffin of creativity, think of it as this incredible new tool that enhances productivity, offers real-time performance analytics and optimisation suggestions that can skyrocket your marketing campaigns – while also giving you the space to be creative.
So, Where Do You Go From Here?
AI is far from the perfect marketing tool. It may make content marketing processes faster and more efficient, but this doesn’t mean that AI algorithms are fool-proof and completely reliable. Some have warned about the rise of misinformation and manipulation like deepfakes developed by AI, which has contributed to the spread of false information and the manipulation of public opinion. So, it’s essential to always do your due diligence and fact-checking before you publish any research gained from AI algorithms. If you don’t, you might create content that not only falls short of the level of quality you would otherwise achieve using “traditional” methods but may lead you to publish incorrect information that could leave your company open to libel and intellectual property rights infringement.
It's essential to always be wary of the pitfalls of using AI in creative workflows. Before your company implements any AI processes, you must make sure you and your colleagues understand how to use the algorithms correctly and robustly review outputs. For instance, always examine sources for accuracy—particularly if you’re talking about regulated sectors where advertising standards are high and penalties are more extreme.
Key Takeaways About The AI-Human Collaboration
While emerging AI technologies may have disrupted the content marketing industry, the new era of human-AI collaboration shows not only a viable but exciting path forward for creative professionals. If you’re doing it right, AI and human expertise should never be mutually exclusive – they should be seen as complementary forces.
Merag Shahzad, CEO of impaktful comments, “While AI can craft content for B2B marketers, it lacks the nuanced understanding of brand values and empathy that resonate with audiences. As AI shapes your messaging, maintain a strong human oversight to ensure your brand’s unique voice and ethical considerations aren’t lost in the automation. This balance will keep your brand relatable and trustworthy in an increasingly AI-driven landscape.”
Robert Rose, chief strategy advisor for the Content Marketing Institute, echoed Merag’s point by saying, “Marketers can stay relevant in an AI-fueled world by constantly focusing on how to bring their uniquely human capability for wisdom to bear. In a world where relaying or creating knowledge is a commodity, it is our ability to synthesize our human experience, available information in a real-time context, and insightful judgement, that will differentiate.”
There’s no denying that AI is swiftly becoming a key content marketing ally, but it’s important to remember that human oversight and guidance are vital. Artificial intelligence should never act as a substitute for actual intelligence. You should instead view the relationship much like a dance – to work well it demands harmonious synchronisation – where AI data insights and human creativity play to their own unique strengths. And if you get the balance right, you will truly set your brand apart from the competition.