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The idea of having content produced by artificial intelligence (AI or neural networks, specifically) may seem like a pipe dream to any manager who has had writers completely miss deadlines or even the mark. A completed post or page is in the hands of an overworked marketer after a few keystrokes and the entry of a few key phrases.
However, technology is not a panacea for all of society’s ills. Although artificial intelligence is here to stay, it doesn’t seem likely to replace all human employment.
Already, AI is Creating Thousands of Articles
Though many of us view AI as a technology of the future, organisations like data science and software business Automated Insights are now at the forefront of the development of AI-generated content. The Wordsmith platform from Automated Insights has been utilised by The Associated Press to create 3,000 quarterly earnings reports each quarter.
The real deal? These admittedly uninteresting financial or statistical-based pieces are now put together by an automated system, which makes fewer mistakes than the reporters who previously did it.
In addition to authoring, content automation has been effective in locating the most well-liked connected pieces. Automation and machine learning promise to locate these components and then use algorithms to examine interaction, platform, time posted, and other factors.
In order to create a similar, effective piece of content, it can examine the most well-read articles and mimic their tone, sentence structure, and subject.
Could artificial intelligence and neural networks provide a solution to the time crunch that many content marketers experience?
What Should an Unskilled Content Marketer Do?
You may have heard that over the course of the next 20 years, many professions will become obsolete due to robots, automation, and software. Truck drivers, financial and insurance analysts, and bank tellers might all be replaced by autonomous vehicles, software, and ATMs. Will content marketers be the next to get fired?
The majority of copywriters learned the “catch them with emotions; convince them with facts” methodology for all writing intended to interest readers, not just for persuasive sales writing. When used in the right context, persuasive marketing language taps into emotions including want, excitement, grief, fear, envy, greed, and more. It also makes use of word play, a quick move that appears to be still beyond the computational grasp of neural networks.
Humans won’t bother opening emails or reading blogs as more content is created by machines. Email, social media, and content marketing all rely largely on interpersonal relationships. On their digital platforms, individuals want to engage with other people, not read manufactured sentences put together by an algorithm. Throughout the day, people check their email and social media feeds to feel human.
A monotonous, computer-dominated day is made more enjoyable by Facebook’s status updates and kitten videos. Businesses run the risk of automating blog posts, articles, web pages, and even email newsletter content. We’ve discovered that the material that performs the best is driven by passion, a distinctive voice, and an extraordinarily original point of view.
Marketers Can’t Be Completely Replaced by AI
Humans occasionally put artificial intelligence to the test to see whether it can be as clever and insightful as their fellow colleagues in content marketing. The outcomes could shock you.
Even while proverbs make perfect sense to us, a system that just works with ones and zeros finds it difficult to code the personification and other clever literary devices that give them their cool factor. After all, a writer’s word choices, ability to connect with readers, and avoid grammatical errors are all influenced by a lifetime’s worth of social contacts and experiences. However, neural networks have made enough development to be able to play chess better than a champion, drive vehicles, and compose music. Is writing really that distinct from those other activities?
However, there is room for AI Content to Succeed
The simple conclusion is that algorithms like Wordsmith heavily rely on formulaic source material to produce the millions of articles they produce. Do you understand how a quarterly report is calculated?
- goal
- description of Program/Initiative
- conclusion
- anecdotes
- append Income Statements, Cash Flow, and Balance Sheets
Description of Program/Initiative Objective Anecdotes Conclusion Append Income Statements, Cash Flow Statements, and Balance Sheets
A spreadsheet has each of the aforementioned components. The neural network places each element in its proper location and adds a little fluff to stitch the pieces together by modeling after the human-generated template (perhaps Q1). As it progresses from quarter to quarter for each organisation, it also significantly relies on the thesaurus for some useful synonyms.
The content Wordsmith creates for Yahoo and Comcast is also formula- and figure-based. Again, depending on the phrasing chosen to seem novel in each iteration, the opening sentence, transition sentences, and conclusions can be encoded into a neural network.
Undoubtedly, AI-produced content has its place. By taking on the responsibility of creating the frequently feared first draught, it might even be doing a great service for content writers and even journalists.
Any competent journalist or content creator may appreciate an AI presenting the information in a clear and logical manner, freeing the reporter to add flourishes, draw inferences, and connect the dots to related pieces and even societal patterns.
Even those at the Associated Press who manage the AI-generated quarterly reports aren’t quite ready to do away with live, active feedback on those dreary pages. In actuality, the usage of Wordsmith has not led to the firing of any writers.
Most authors are eager to provide more details, but time and financial constraints prevent them from making sweeping claims that would greatly improve the article. AI systems might be able to assist.
Don’t be afraid of AI, content marketers; embrace it as a helping hand
Because of the sci-fi genre and the “if it bleeds, it leads” mentality in the media, AI has been made to sound frightening. Don’t let the headlines about AI snatching content jobs concern you, either. Marketing news is just as guilty of invoking fear to attract readers. The development of AI writing platforms does not eliminate the need for humans to contribute meaning, creativity, and direction to content creation, just as the invention of the calculator did not eliminate the need for mathematicians and the development of Photoshop did not do the same for photographers.
Any marketing manager who has cringed at giving a writer 25 pages of product- or location-based content to work with knows that AI-generated content will likely make marketers’ jobs simpler and more meaningful. Even the most seasoned writer might become mentally disoriented by repetitive pages. Why use much energy to accomplish what a clever robot can do?
You are now free to use your creativity, expertise, and uniquely human experience to create material that holds more worth explores the deeper meaning and elicits genuine emotion in readers thanks to that robot’s capacity to gather data and present it to you in a pleasant (although boring) piece of writing.
Only an actual human writer is capable of doing it.