AI is here, and it is probably here to stay, given how seemingly ubiquitous it is in online spaces such as social media. It has started to have an impact on the marketing world, especially in the field of content marketing, where hundreds and thousands of words of content can be just a prompt away. However, while you might be tempted to get ready with the copy and paste, there are significant risks to becoming overreliant on AI.
Being Caught Being Wrong
Perhaps one of the most embarrassing, and yet common, mistakes of relying too much on AI is that it simply isn’t always right. AI uses massive datasets and technology to attempt to derive context to answer prompts. It doesn’t truly “think” about the answers to your questions and requests. As such, it can come back with incorrect information, even information that is obviously not right if you took a while to think about it. There have been some pretty famous AI snafus, especially in the marketing world, that only happened because people took AI-generated content at face value, only to end up publishing misleading content, at best, and complete fabrications at worst
Detection And Its Effects On Credibility
Whether you agree with them or not, there is a significant audience, especially online, who have major issues with AI and want nothing to do with it. If they see brands they support using AI, it can result in immediate problems. As such, if you’re relying too much on AI, then your material might get flagged as AI-generated, which can see you risk being marked as inauthentic or lazy. Detection tools are becoming more widespread, so if you use purely AI-generated content and it reaches a certain audience, it most likely will get detected. This can pretty much end up killing your brand if you’re in the digital marketing business, especially. If you do use AI, don’t let it write all the text that you use; use it as a supporting tool instead.
Producing Generic, Forgettable Content
If you’re letting AI write all of your content for you, then you had better believe that it has written pretty much the exact same kind of content for someone who used similar prompts in the past. As mentioned, AI derives its responses from combing through massive datasets, so it’s often going to arrive at the same conclusions in response to prompts. It’s also, by definition, going to lack true emotional nuance, lived experience, and original perspectives. Reading AI-generated marketing content can feel much like reading a template for a real piece of content. Your own insights, experiences, and emotions should underpin your content.
The Risk Of Plagiarism
Again, returning to the point that AI tends to pull responses from massive datasets, sometimes, it doesn’t pull from quite enough. AI can occasionally rely too heavily on individual existing sources, which means that there is a significant danger of unintentionally producing content that’s very similar to someone else’s work. Not all of the common types of plagiarism are intentional; some can be accidental, and AI is making this an increasing problem for those who rely too much on it. Not only can this be a reputational risk, but it can be an ethical and even a legal problem. For that reason, if you’re using AI, you should make sure that you ask for its sources so that you can cite any information it pulls up, and never directly copy and paste, but rather reword, rephrase, and incorporate ideas it presents into your own content.
Google Might Not Like It
While Google is doing a lot to incorporate more AI use in its own functionality, such as the huge lean towards AI-driven rich snippets at the top of searches nowadays, it might be a case of “rules for thee, but not for me.” There have been a lot of questions on whether Google penalises AI-generated content, and while there aren’t clear answers on it just yet, it is certainly the case that AI-generated content is more likely to be generic, lacking in value, and lacking the SEO-driven approach (such as context-sensitive keyword use) which can drive down its ranking. Right now, a lot of AI content doesn’t rank on Google, but this may change, so keep an eye on this space while being wary.
Having To Do A Lot More Work
If you’re using AI responsibly, fact-checking the content AI provides, rewriting it, and making sure that you’re adding your own nuance and insight, you might actually end up doing more work than if you had simply written the piece from scratch, yourself. When you’re working with AI, not only do you have to make sure that you’re typing the prompts that get you the content that you want, but you’re likely to have to ask follow-up questions, not to mention taking the time to read and parse what it brings back. Overall, it can be a lot more work than simply getting started with your writing and then structuring what you come up with.
Forgetting Your Own Skills
We are what we do. If you’re a content writer who uses AI to generate all of your content, then you are not really a content writer. In the process of not writing your content, you’re likely to find your skills dulling over time. It may come to the point where you forget how, not just how to write effective, structured content, but even how to research without the help of AI. While you might not think that’s a practical problem, since you’re fine so long as you have AI, what if you lose access to it, or it becomes too expensive to use in the future? Beyond that, it should be pretty clear that if you can replace your entire value as a content writer with AI, then your clients are eventually likely to do the same. You need your own selling points, insights, and voice to stand out.
There is room for AI in your content marketing campaign, but you need to know what its role is. It can’t be the one running the show. If you are using it, be mindful of the ways that you can avoid the dangers mentioned above, and always ensure that human insight and your own voice are the core of what you write.
