Will AI Replace Content Marketers?

As the founder of a content marketing agency, everyone wants to know if we’re worried about AI content marketing taking over our business.

Nope.

Don’t get me wrong; the AI revolution is definitely upping the ante. To some degree, we’ve all got to adapt or die, and that’s a real concern.

But, we believe when employed correctly, AI helps us all go faster and farther than ever before.

Do brands still need human writers?

Absolutely.

The reality is that AI can’t deliver complete content solutions on its own. In my experience, even the best AI tools only get you 70-80% of the way there. By now, a lot of us can recognize the telltale signs of AI writing:

• “Fluffy” language that sounds nice without saying anything useful
• Overused buzzwords
• Contextual gaps that fail to connect the piece to a larger whole
• Lack of emotional depth

That’s where human expertise comes in. Someone has to take content over the finish line.

Someone with actual expertise needs to ensure its accuracy, quality, and—most importantly—that it actually fulfills its marketing objectives.

With great power comes great responsibility

The power of AI actually puts more responsibility on content marketers.

I’ve heard AI likened to a room full of unlimited interns. Sure, there’s a lot of potential there, but would you actually trust them to take over your marketing? (I hope not.)

Now, what if you hired experienced directors, coaches, mentors, and editors to guide the interns’ efforts? It would take some doing, but with the right leadership, they could accomplish amazing things!

That’s the key: AI has given all of us a promotion (whether we want it or not). Humans now get to focus less on execution, which means we have to focus more on:

• Big-picture marketing strategy
• Storytelling that resonates on a human level
• True creativity and innovation
• Consistency and quality control
• Collaboration and communication
• Feedback integration for continuous improvement

Identifying marketers who excel with AI content marketing

These days, everyone and their dog are “powered by AI,” but how can brands identify marketers who can actually leverage AI effectively? Look for partners with…

• Proven track record both with and without AI
• Deep marketing expertise and understanding
• Adaptability to leverage new tools and opportunities
• Collaborative mindset and exceptional communication skills
• Emphasis on quality control

How we’re using AI at Blue Griffin

As a content marketing agency, you can bet we’re using AI tools to go faster and farther than ever before. We use AI to:

• Ideate fresh concepts
• Glean valuable insights about large amounts of analytical data
• Accelerate research
• Streamline early drafts and content creation
• Fact check and quality control (funny enough, it works both ways!)

Despite these incredible new capabilities, some things stay the same. Remember that AI can only generate content based on what already exists out on the web, and we’re often talking about the cutting edge of technology with our technical clients. We still have to apply our expertise to engage and extract the raw materials we need to fashion unique, effective content.

Technology may be the medium, but we like to say that marketing and communications begin and end with real, live human beings.

Watch out. We’re only beginning to see the true potential of combining real expertise and experience with the power of AI.