The growing role of AI and automation in the workplace is a polarizing subject in today’s social climate.
For the sake of science and in the spirit of offering our most unbiased opinion possible, we first asked ClickUp AI, an AI writing assistant, to share its response. You can decide at the end of this blog article whether AI-generated content is a good replacement for content written by a human.
AI’s Response
AI-driven marketing has the potential to automate certain tasks and improve efficiency in marketing processes. However, it is unlikely to completely replace humans in the field of marketing. While AI can analyze data, generate insights, and execute certain marketing activities, human creativity, intuition, and emotional intelligence are still crucial for developing effective marketing strategies, understanding customer needs, and building meaningful relationships. The combination of AI and human expertise is likely to be the most successful approach in the future of marketing.
(In case anyone’s wondering, we didn’t pay Clickup AI to say this!)
EVOLVE’s Response
As professionals who work primarily in the digital landscape, we (the team at EVOLVE) have the unique privilege of witnessing and experiencing first-hand the effects of new AI and automation tools in the marketing industry.
Our aim for this blog article is to share what we’ve seen and gather a conclusion based on our findings. The purpose of this blog post is not to persuade you, the reader, to change your opinion on AI in anyway. But if it does…cool!
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Benefits of AI in Marketing
Let’s start with the positives. As much as there is public anxiety surrounding the growing role of AI in many industries, AI and automation have undeniably made areas of marketing much faster and more efficient.
AI streamlines and accelerates menial or repetitive tasks
Not all marketing work is creative or strategic. Sometimes, it’s putting up with dull and arguably un-glamorous work, like sending thousands of emails, filtering bots out of lead lists, answering repeated questions, and taking rapid-fire notes during meetings—all of which, believe it or not, is incredibly time-consuming.
In these cases where the work is repetitive and—let’s be honest—undesirable to most skilled workers, AI-powered marketing tools are a boon. They will tirelessly take care of these tasks for you, and at great efficiency and zero complaints!
AI can help writers overcome creativity blocks
As much as we wish otherwise, creativity doesn’t have an on/off switch. It’s impossible to think creatively for all 40 hours a week. There’s currently a lot of controversy around ChatGPT; but AI writing assistants like ChatGPT and ClickUp AI are super helpful when you’re struggling to overcome a bad case of writer’s block. They can help with content ideation, getting a piece of content started, and proofreading.
HOWEVER. We don’t believe these writing assistants are a replacement for actual writers.
We’ll expand on this point later in the post.
AI helps marketers make well-informed decisions for hyper-targeted campaigns
Clarity is kindness in marketing. Perhaps AI’s most impactful business benefit lies in its ability to deliver valuable insights about customer behaviour and market trends and fluctuations.
An intelligent algorithm can help marketers personalize content for different audience segments (based on data like individual engagement metrics, browsing and/or purchasing behaviour, demographics, and psychographics), forecast consumer demand, and create more targeted marketing campaigns.
This is the type of knowledge that enables companies to make well-informed decisions, stay ahead of the competition, and drive business continuity and growth.
Benefits of AI in Marketing
Email Automation
Email automation software (in our case, MailChimp) enable marketers to complete the menial task of sending of thousands of emails in a shorter amount of time AND at greater benefit to the end consumer. With the time saved and the tool’s built-in analytics and audience segmentation capabilities, marketers can personalize content for better customer experiences and leverage performance data to improve future outbound content.
Virtual Assistants & Intelligent Chatbots
Nobody enjoys dealing with an incompetent customer service chatbot, but an intelligent, AI-powered chatbot or virtual assistants can change the customer service game. Chatbots and VAs can free up the time spent handling multiple queries, while offering 24/7 support and personalized recommendations to enhance customer satisfaction.
Writing Assistants
When the only thing standing between you and task completion is that catchy email headline or social media post your brain refuses to come up with, AI writing assistants can help get the creative juices flowing. *coughs delicately* As EVOLVE’s Head of Content, I would know!
Limitations of AI in Marketing
AI doesn’t tell good stories
AI may be able to write a cohesive and structured content if you give it a clear enough prompt, but this example shows just how awful it is at storytelling:
As you can see in the 2-minute clip, AI-generated content lacks—well, pretty much everything a good story needs—a storyline, emotional highs and lows, nuance, and (most criminally) a sense of humour. The resulting script is literal, bland, and ultimately no good.
AI is only as good as its data
AI is limited by the data it is given. For AI to be successfully integrated into any company workflow, you would need to have vast amounts of high-quality data.
On the other hand, (most) humans are resourceful. When we encounter barriers to our goals, we can stretch and adapt to different environments to find creative solutions. Plus, we bring unique perspectives gained through our lived experiences—something AI can’t do!
Conclusion
Will AI replace humans in marketing? Like many things in life, the answer is not “all or nothing”.
Based on our experiences and current knowledge, we believe that AI does have its benefits and place in today’s business landscape. AI has the capabilities to fill in the gaps in modern workflows and is better suited for the repetitive, unskilled tasks that people don’t enjoy doing. But ultimately, AI and automation are not replacements for human ingenuity.
It’s important to remember that, as brands and businesses, we will always cater to an audience of human beings. Marketing will always require a human perspective for this reason. To produce emotionally appealing and relatable content, we will always need skilled writers, designers, and strategists who understand the human experience.
Instead of viewing AI as a competitor for skilled work, it’s more accurate to view AI as another miracle of technology that enables us to enhance human productivity and augment workflows that already exist.
And honestly, AI can take care of the menial work. It’s about time us humans can busy ourselves with work we actually enjoy!
Need some help figuring out your marketing plan? Check out our marketing services or contact us today. Our team would be happy to help.
