Uncategorized03.28.23

The Robots are Coming? AI in the Marketing Industry

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We started this year with much buzz around the office about AI, and that buzz hasn’t seemed to calm down. It seems like every major digital player is embracing AI. From the announcement of ChatGPT4, Google’s beta release of its AI chatbot, Bard, and Microsoft’s multi-year, multi-billion dollar investment in ChatGPT to other smaller companies like Grammarly and Canva adding AI features, everyone wants to get in on the action.

How is this all making marketers and creatives feel? Are our jobs really going to be replaced by robots? At Overit, we’re pretty optimistic that we’ll be able to use these tools to supplement, not replace, our skills. And in fact, our skills will differentiate us from the “cheap” content which will soon be flooding the web. Here are just a few takes from our team: 

Does AI worry you as an artist?

Jeremy, Senior Graphic Designer: Not yet… Because it’s supposed to be used as a tool, not a replacement.

Richard, Chief Creative Officer: Exactly, it’s a tool. It’s not “cheating.” It’s a tool like anything else we’ve gotten over the years, like Photoshop. It just gives you the ability to take your work to another level.

Jeremy: There are also things that you just can’t do without AI, like the ability to recreate old images. It can also give people who don’t have a natural artistic ability the opportunity to create things.

How do you see AI impacting content writing?

Caitlin, Senior Content Strategist: Use it as a tool to help you overcome writing blocks. It gives you a starting place, something to go off of. Think of it as an inspiration tool to kick-start your creative process. 

Chris, Lead Technologist: One really effective use of AI is having it craft responses to online reviews. It makes a tedious process extremely efficient. You might think this is replacing someone’s job, but that’s not really true. It allows the content strategists to get less bogged down by tedious, repetitive manual tasks and instead lets them focus on larger, more strategic work. 

Lisa, Vice President, Brand: AI tools like ChatGPT and GoCharlie do a stellar job of creating mediocre content efficiently. But our job as marketers is not to form words into sentences as quickly as possible. Our job is to make words recognizable and trustworthy to our target audience. Do not sacrifice your voice and what makes you recognizable for the false promise of “cheap content.” 

What are some other ways marketers can use AI?

  • Ask it to rewrite or reformat your existing content, like turning a video into a blog post and vice versa.
  • Ask it to proofread your content, or use a tool like NaturalReader to read your content out loud, which can help you catch typos or awkward sentences.
  • Use it to transcribe video or audio for transcripts or subtitles.
  • Use it to find trends in your top-performing content.
  • Feed it large amounts of information and ask for key takeaways.
  • Use it to help you come up with titles, social post hooks, or email subject lines.

In an era of tighter budgets, AI delivers new value to help us get more from our resources. But the most important thing you can do to prepare for our “robot overlords” is to remember that it was never about the words or how quickly they came to you, it’s about the story you used those words to tell. And that will never be automated. 

What are your thoughts on AI in the marketing industry? Connect with us on Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook, and let us know! Want to read more? Check out our recent Into & Overit Newsletter, “AI Writing: More than words is all I ever needed to show.