If you’ve got your ear to the ground, it can often feel like you can’t go more than five seconds without someone telling you definitively what the future of AI in content marketing is.
After all, everyone’s an expert, right?
Well, rather than listening to your old-school boss who wants you to ignore AI altogether and your ‘crypto-bro’ nephew who suggests you replace your entire team with AI tools, why not check out my predictions?
These predictions have come from years of working within generative AI for industry-leading companies such as Originality AI.
The opinions and predictions here are all my own and are by no means guaranteed, but hopefully, they will help you continue to understand the technology and its capabilities, as well as its current limitations.
Let’s dive in.
Short on Time and Want to Learn About the Future of AI in Content Marketing? Here Are Our Predictions in Short Form
- A lack of trust and transparency will run rife: Lots of content marketing will make it difficult to distinguish what is real and what is made up, and brands will need to focus heavily on trust-building programs.
- Search engines may become obsolete: If more and more people start to use AI tools for quick answers to their queries, search engines could begin to see their user traffic drop significantly, causing a shift in how we use the internet.
- Content marketing could become more locally focused: In the wake of mass content production, brands may opt for a more local approach, using a combination of physical and digital tactics to connect with a loyal local customer base.
- Marketing teams will become much smaller: As AI tools become more powerful, productivity will continue to rise, and the role of a content marketer will expand to cover more elements, reducing the need for more employees. (read on to see why I don’t think this will impact the job market as negatively as others predict.)
What is The Future of AI in Content Marketing? The Rise of Generative AI
Generative AI is not a new concept.
I mean, sure, in the grand scheme of everything ever, it’s incredibly new.
But ChatGPT has been around for almost two years now, and as a result, it has started to become a more influential tool within marketing teams across the world.
In some cases, it is too influential, but I’ll touch on that later in this article.
In fact, Neil Patel recently published a really interesting article titled Are People Really Using ChatGPT Instead of Google? The article showed just how quickly generative AI usage has risen, and although that rapid rise has slowed somewhat, it is still the 24th most visited website.
So it should come as no surprise that in a recent study by ZDnet, they found that over a quarter (28%) of workers use generative AI at work, with more than 50% doing so without any kind of formal approval of their employers.
That’s a lot of stats, but it starts to paint the picture of how much generative AI has already started to move into jobs like content marketing.
Artificial Intelligence’s Current Role in Content Marketing Strategies
With that in mind, let’s dive straight into generative AI’s current role in content marketing, and what it should and shouldn’t get used for.
I’ll only touch on these points in very top line detail, as I plan to write another article soon on this specific topic in more detail, so keep an eye out for that, or subscribe to be notified when it gets published.
Before we jump in, I want you to notice the language I have used here for the following subheadings. Instead of covering what AI ‘can’ do for content marketers, I want to focus on what it ‘should’ do.
After all, with the right prompt, ChatGPT can whip up an entire article in seconds, but as we’ve seen from Google’s recent algorithm updates, that’s probably not a good idea.
What Generative AI Should Do For Content Marketers
Target audience deep dives
When it comes to creating great content, regardless of how you get there, your target audience must always be at the heart of it.
But you already knew that. What you may not have known is that generative AI tools can help with this significantly.
For example, when you are researching your target audience segmentation in more detail and you want to test out content marketing strategies for similar audiences, ChatGPT can be a great source of inspiration.
Here’s an example prompt:
And here’s what we got back:
Idea expansion
As you can imagine then, AI tools can also be fantastic for expanding on ideas you might have for marketing campaigns, such a launching a new product or service.
Here’s a prompt example of reusing our made-up juice company for continuity:
The results below show examples of generative AI being extremely generic, but they also provide some useful insights that we can call upon when crafting an content strategy with the help of AI.
Content outline creation
Finally, generative AI can be an excellent tool to start building out the outline of your SEO-friendly content.
For example, taking time trying to gather information on the top search results for your chosen keyword to establish user intent and what Google is looking for can be very time-consuming.
But with a combination of GPT 4 and WebPilot allows you to take the top ten results in Google, copy the URL’s into the tool, and ask ChatGPT to generate an outline that covers everything needed.
From there, you can tweak it to suit your own human voice and add new headers and information to help take the conversation forward and provide insights that are unique to your content.
What Generative AI Shouldn’t Do For Content Marketers
Now, let’s focus on what generative AI shouldn’t be doing for you. Again, some of these could be done, but that doesn’t mean they should be.
Content creation
Don’t get me wrong, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude, they’re all excellent at helping with elements of the content creation process. For example, they’re great for getting concise answers to questions, building out outlines, and so on.
But when you start to use AI tools in this way, it can be very tempting to ask the tool to create the content for you as well.
After all, how much easier is it to generate content than actually write it yourself? (I should know, as it’s currently 23:41 and I’m on my 7th cup of tea of the day.)
But you shouldn’t do this for several reasons.
For starters, it’s not what your audience wants. They don’t want to come to your website or download your guide only to find the content, which is something they could have generated themselves. This is especially bad if the content you have AI generated is sat behind a paywall.
Your audience isn’t the only one you’ll be annoying, though. Google has also continued to harden it’s stance on AI and spammy content, for many reasons. One of which is audience intent, but they also have their own AI tool to think about, which scrapes the content that ranks at the top of content.
And if that content is AI-generated, it could lead to AI model collapse.
Search engine optimization
Generative AI, therefore, should also not be used in an attempt to improve search engine rankings. SEO is huge aspect of any successful content marketing strategy, and one that can bring lucrative rewards in the shape of free organic traffic.
But the days of stuffing content with a bunch of keywords and producing a ton of content to rank at the top of Google are well behind us.
Instead, Google is looking for unique insights and human perspectives, and E-E-A-T is more important than ever. As a result, when Google detects AI content, websites are actively getting punished en mass.
Don’t get me wrong, there are a ton of free AI SEO tools that you can call upon to improve your process, but you shouldn’t rely on them too heavily.
Just take this website, for example. At the time of writing this article, I have two previous articles already ranking at the top of the Google search results, including this article on How to Become an AI Expert in 2024: The Ultimate Guide.
The website is still only a year or so old, and I have only written ten or so articles to date, but the content has been ranked highly due to my unique perspective and guidance based on my years working for leading AI companies such as Originality.ai.
Sure, my content hits some SEO key points as well, but it certaintly isn’t stuffed with unnecessary or outdated information, just to make some keywords fit.
Fact-finding
While ChatGPT has had an update or two since its launch, it’s still only able to pull information from up to April 2023. And the free version is even further back!
As a result, it is impossible to use generative AI tools to gather the most up to date data and facts. And even when the statistics you are searching for are from before April 2023, AI models can still spit out made up information, which could quickly leave you and your brand with egg on your face.
ChatGPT even admits this within its answers:
Creativity replacement
While AI tools can be excellent for helping you expand on ideas, they certainly shouldn’t replace human creativity for two main reasons.
- It can only pull information from what’s already out there: ChatGPT and other generative artificial intelligence tools can only pull information from what is already published, making it almost impossible to come up with genuinely new ideas and perspectives on a subject.
- If it generated it for you, it would generate it for someone else: Sure, the wording might be different, but ChatGPT pulls from the same pool of data when providing every user with answers, so if they pulled a specific response for you, it is sure to do something incredibly similar for your competitors too.
4 Ways Artificial Intelligence May Impact The Future Of Content Marketing
Now that we’ve garnered a solid understanding of some of the things that generative AI tools are already doing to aid content marketing teams let’s look at some of the ways that many experts believe AI will impact content marketing in the future.
I should state that these are simply predictions and that I sadly can’t see into the future.
This also isn’t one of those kop-out lists where I say, ‘Let’s ask ChatGPT how it thinks it will impact the future!”.
You will notice that it is also erring on the side of positivity. Catch me on a bad day and this list would look significantly different…
A lack of trust and transparency will run rife
First off, let’s start with one of the most obvious predictions that most people are worried about, misinformation.
It’s a question many of us are asking. When AI eventually gets to the same quality of writing and image generation as humans (and it definitely will!), how will we be able to tell what is real and what is fake?
In a simple, honest world, anything published online would have to include some form of disclosure message or watermark so that consumers were aware of what AI was and what was human, but that simply isn’t feasible or possible to manage.
From a content marketing perspective, it will become easier than ever to generate content quickly, easily, and cheaply.
But to really stand out from the crowd, human creativity may become more desireable than ever before, despite AI’s capabilities.
After all, if everything looks the same, no matter how high-quality it is, the content that is different, is the one that catches attention.
Expect to see ‘human-created’ USPs and potential deliberate errors to show off the human side of the content created.
You can read more about whether or not I think an AI writing tool can replace a copywriter here.
Search engines might become obsolete
Advancements in AI aren’t just disrupting humans, they’re also causing major concerns for companies like Google. The more AI content that is generated, the more difficult it is for Google to remain relevant, especially if those AI pieces reach the top of Google.
After all, if articles only regurgitate what tools like ChatGPT generate, then why would people us Google or other search engines? Wouldn’t it be quicker to just go straight to ChatGPT?
Recent Google algorithm updates have highlighted this further, as the company has begun heavily stamping down on AI-generated content and putting more and more emphasis on the importance of high-quality and unique content that offers readers something unique from what is already out there.
Google gods, if you do read this, please know this is all my own work, and I love you all very much!
However, what we also know is that many humans are adverse to change, and as such, a mass movement from search engines to generative AI is a long way off at best.
While ChatGPT saw massive user growth in the last year, Google also continued to see increased usage, suggesting they aren’t prepared to give their title up any time soon.
Content marketing could become more locally focused
The technological developments of recent times have made it easier than ever to launch a brand with international potential.
By simply creating a website and setting your target to different countries, you can persuade those living abroad to hit a couple of buttons on their phone to make an order, and their product will be shipped to them in a matter of days.
But as AI usage grows and the lines become more and more blurred online, it is very feesible that the vast majority of people begin to completely mistrust what they see online, and digital customer loyalty becomes a thing of the past.
Instead, to help brands develop a formidable loyal customer base and long-term success, it is possible that content marketing efforts will revert back to focusing on local communities and physical promotions, connecting with customers on a more physical level, and developing a reputation as a trustworthy brand.
When used correct, the power of content marketing cannot be underestimated, and can have a lasting effective on the perspective of a brand.
Marketing teams will become much smaller
As AI tools continue to advance, the different aspects of marketing are likely to merge into single job roles. Sure, companies will still need someone to spend time generating their marketing content, but if they can easily create social media content, blog content, and paid ads with the support of AI tools and assistants, why would they hire three people for each role?
However, while some are predicting that this will cause potential mass unemployment issues, I see things a little differently.
While marketing teams are certainly likely to shrink, I actually think there will be many more jobs available, as those that are no longer in employment start to create their own companies.
The barriers to creating a digital business from home are lower than ever before, and for each successful venture, there will be new content marketing job opportunities, offering us a wider variety of jobs to choose from, potentially even giving employees more bargaining power.
Don’t judge me. A guy can dream!
Final Thoughts on Content Marketing AI Tools and Their Increasing Role in Content Marketing
There you have it! A guaranteed list of four things that are sure to happen in the future of AI in content marketing.
I’m kidding, of course.
The truth is that no-one can truly predict what is going to happen in the future. If you’d asked most content marketers about the concept of generative AI even 5 years ago, they would’ve laughed at you.
A bit rude of them, but you get the point.
Ultimately, there seem to be two clear beliefs on the role of AI within content marketing.
You shouldn’t use AI within any aspect of your content marketing.
You should use AI everywhere; it’s the future, and you don’t want to get left behind.
The truth ultimately lies somewhere in the middle.
Exactly where will ultimately come down to the speed AI continues to upgrade, and customer sentiment towards the technology.
Thanks for reading! Don’t forget to like this blog to show me you found it valuable, and subscribe to be the first to hear when a new blog post gets published.
Catch you in the next one.
Frequently Asked Questions About AI Tools and Their Role Within Content Marketing
Will content marketers be replaced by AI?
In the short term, no AI will not replace content marketers. AI will certainly become a more and more prominent element of any brands content marketing efforts. Further down the line, as natural language processing improves and it becomes easier and easier to create content, AI-powered content marketing will become more and more prominent, which may lead to smaller, more top-line marketing teams.
How is AI going to change content marketing?
- A lack of trust and transparency will run rife
- Search engines might become obsolete
- Content marketing could become more locally focused
- Marketing teams will become much smaller
Is AI for marketing just hype?
Absolutely not. AI content marketing is a very real thing that is already occurring today. Successful content marketing teams are already using AI-powered analytics tools to track customer behaviour and will be looking for other ways that generative AI can be implemented within their content marketing strategy.
Can ChatGPT replace digital marketing?
In its current iteration, ChatGPT is just a tool that content marketers can use to help speed up the content creation process. In the future, as ChatGPT and other AI tools continue to improve, it is difficult to say how much digital marketing they will take over.
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