AI Marketing: Friend or Foe?

Marketing is facing a new concept – AI. There are some mixed feelings about AI in general, not just when it comes to AI use in the marketing industry. But it seems that the implementation of AI has split the industry down the middle, with some finding it useful and others still being wary of its use. 

In this article, we’re going to be exploring the controversy behind using AI in the world of marketing, discussing why people find it confronting, why AI in marketing could be beneficial and why it’s more important to consider a collaboration between humans and AI, and not being too heavy one way or the other. Let’s delve deeper into the topic:

Why are marketer’s wary of AI?

According to the State of Marketing Report 2024, 60% of marketers reported concerns about using AI in their field of work. Many issues were identified in terms of what is concerning marketers the most about implementing different AI tools in the marketing industry, from content creation to graphic design. So what are their most talked about problems with AI implementation in the field of marketing? Let’s take a closer look:

• Job displacement – there’s concern AI automation is threatening jobs, making their roles redundant in the process, especially in the case of administration roles or even IT security
• Bias & plagiarism – a problem more so with AI that can generate content, it’s a worry that it’s producing articles, for instance, that has been copied from elsewhere on the internet. In addition, the information inputted in the AI system might not be vetted for instances of bias, which can harm your performance in the SERPs, when it comes down to it
• Lack of user knowledge – an AI programme does, essentially, what it’s programmed to do. It can’t think for itself or draw on its own, extensive knowledge because it doesn’t exist. A human has to input the details needed to get the job done, which means that the AI knowledge is somewhat limited. Therefore, a human will still have to go through and add other pieces of information to flesh out what’s already there
• Robotic tone-of-voice – more the case with content-writing AI tools, a tone-of-voice which is robotic and void of any personality is something that can hinder the performance of an article. It can also impact reading volumes in the future. People might not want to come back and read other articles you’re publishing, especially if it’s possible that you’re still using AI to write your content
• Default to American English, rather than British English – it can take time to go through and proofread the content generated by an AI tool, mainly because many of the programmes used will default to American English grammar and spelling. If you’re not trained in how to spot the differences between American and British English, then this can take even more time. In addition, if you get it wrong, then it won’t do the reputation of your writers any good, either
• Repetition – much like the above point, AI tools used to write content for you can be extremely repetitive. It will often use the same words and phrases, and again, it doesn’t do the quality of the content much good if you let that slide. You’ll need to go through and make edits, which can be time consuming when you’re not trained in the art of content writing. Something that should be saving you time is more of a hindrance than anything else, in this case

What are the benefits of using AI in marketing?

While we’ve just detailed some of the disadvantages of using AI in marketing, essentially, there are actually far more ways to benefit from the implementation of AI in the world of marketing, if we give it a chance. Some of the ways in which you can expect to benefit from using AI in marketing are as follows:

• Improved personalisation
• Accurate data analytics and insights
• A boost in efficiency through the use of automation
• A higher return on investment (ROI) 
• The ability to scale up and down as and when needed
• A cost-effective solution to a wealth of marketing tasks
• Save time on idea creation for new and fresh content

Collaborating with, not replacing, humans: AI marketing adaptation

The thing we have to understand about AI is that it’s a capability that is here to stay. We can do nothing else other than embrace it, using it to our advantage where we can. You’ll also find that not all AI programmes run in the same way, some are better than others. In addition, if you’re trained in marketing, inside and out, then AI tools will be no match for you and your marketing team. Instead of fearing AI in marketing, we should be working alongside it, making our jobs easier and more efficient in the process. Some of the AI tools you can use in your line of work includes:

• Jasper – an AI writing assistant to help content creators overcome writer’s block, as well as generating high-quality content for a wealth of platforms
• HubSpot – it can help you generate content ideas, outlines, drafts, social media posts, blog posts, emails and calls to action (CTAs)
• Grammarly – this integrates well with AI writing tools, rather than being considered an AI tool in and of itself
• Surfer SEO – this helps to optimise content for search engines, making sure your content is seen by the right people
• Midjourney – used to generate high-quality, realistic and artistic images
• Canva – a popular designing platform used by marketers, it comes equipped with an AI image generation feature for absolute convenience

Kumo is a highly-experienced digital marketing team with over two decades of knowledge and expertise to draw upon. We are proud to have a team of marketing experts at the helm of our operations, offering content writing, SEO, PPC and website design services, to name just a few. If you would like further information about how we can help you today, get in touch with a member of our friendly, professional team – we’re always pleased to hear from you.