Artificial intelligence is on the rise, and it's going to change the way we work.
AI has been a driving force behind digital marketing's evolution over the last few years. Today's marketers are creating content faster than ever before and they're able to do so with less effort thanks to AI-generated content.
So what does this mean for you? For one thing, it means that the creative marketing industry is going to be undergoing some major changes in the next few years. In fact, we're already seeing some of these changes happening right now.
Consider how much digital marketing has changed over the last decade or so. In the early days, it was all about sending emails and posting on social media. Then came content marketing and video production. Now we're in an era where chatbots are being used to engage with customers, and voice search is becoming more prevalent than ever before.
With each new innovation comes a new opportunity for agencies to grow—but only if they're willing to embrace these changes instead of running away from them like they did with chatbots or voice search in their infancy. To keep up with what's happening in today's world of marketing, agencies need to be willing to experiment with new technologies like AI to see what works best for their clients' needs and goals rather than relying solely on traditional methods that have worked well enough in the past but may not work as well going forward if they continue using them forever without testing out new approaches first (like chatbots did).
Used in the right hands, AI-produced content can merge seamlessly with human-produced content. Take this blog post, for example: all of the above paragraphs were written with AI tool copy.ai. But it isn't quite right for Picos purposes. It lacks our originality, our flair, and our creatively critical approach.
The copy AI tool makes a good point about working alongside AI, rather than rejecting it. We're seeing AI enter the mainstream from major magazine covers to ads copy, architecture to academic papers. With benefits spanning speed, productivity, and reduced operational costs, why wouldn't businesses swipe right on AI?
If you're an agency or freelancer and haven't yet jumped aboard the AI train, it's time to start revolutionising the way you work.
Copywriting
From a copywriting perspective, AI's content is generic. Blog posts are vague, they lack flair, they fall short of the nuance that each client and article requires. Instagram captions occasionally hit the nail on the head, but often spout ordinary content that sounds like it was written by, well, a computer. But copy AI tools are a damn good starting point, and can help writers push through creative block and mass-produce relevant content.
If all this talk of computer-generated copy sounds as confusing as wrapping your head around NFTs, don't stress. Consider using simple, effective tools such as copy.ai and Jasper to source a starting point and optimise advertisements. It takes a bit of time to learn which writing prompts will provide your desired results, and you will absolutely need to collate and edit this copy thoroughly.
That's where the human element comes in. For the foreseeable future, building a brand story that connects with real people is still very much a human process. The personality that shines through your tone and style guides is, for now, inimitable.
Design
AI image generators are a whole other ballpark. Software like DALL-E 2 can produce images from photorealistic to ethereal; it can replicate mediums from cartoon illustrations to oil paintings. There are shortfalls, such as the inability to generate realistic human faces and public figures – an intentional decision to protect against real people being exploited by fake images. AI is also plagued by gender and cultural bias, an issue the major players are working towards improving.
Despite these drawbacks, an AI image generator is the ultimate weapon to add to your graphic design toolkit. Create stunning graphics in seconds, add objects to an image, or expand the borders of a photo that's cropped a little too tightly.
If you're looking for the best of the best, DALLE-2 is widely recognised as the industry frontrunner. Another option is Stable Diffusion; if you can make it past the waitlist, Midjourney is a favourite among digital creators. We're eagerly waiting the release of Google's AI image generator, Imagen.
It would take a lifetime to deliver a comprehensive evaluation on where this technology is now, and where it's going. But the baseline is this: marketers need to keep an ear to the ground of developments in technology.
We're in the midst of a digital revolution, and in order to keep up we need to take advantage of all the tools we can. Delegating early-stage tasks to AI can open up a whole lot more time for doing what you really love – creating, strategising, and working with real people.
