Let’s address the elephant in the room: Is artificial intelligence going to replace marketing professionals and your marketing agencies? There have been many questions regarding AI and its prevalence in digital marketing and our daily lives.
AI has been gaining a lot of traction since the past year and no one can deny its fascinating capabilities when it comes to automating simple and complex tasks in our lives.
But before we answer the question, we need to understand:
What is AI?
Artificial intelligence, as known as machine learning, is a reflection of human intelligence. Specifically, they are programmed to perform tasks that traditionally required human intelligence. These tasks can include analysing data, perceiving patterns or sequences and automations. The purpose of AI is to simplify existing tasks to help us be more efficient and feel comfortable.
Some of the most famous AI systems include DALL·E 2, an art and image generating system, or ChatGPT, which is a chatbot that can respond to texts in a conversational way. Google has also announced that they are testing their new AI chatbot named “Bard”
! But how are they relevant to marketing agencies and how can marketers use them?
Systems such as Jasper can help marketers create original copy and blog content that generates high conversions. If you like to perform A/B testing,
the AI system can speed up the process for you by creating B content within minutes, allowing you to run more tests in a shorter time frame. Another example is using ChatGPT to come up with five catchy headings for your next newsletter which you can choose from.
Artificial intelligence can have a transformative effect on digital marketing. It can allow campaigns to be more personalised and productive which can result in increased engagement and higher revenue. The outcome of utilising AI in marketing is invaluable and making use of them in the early stages can go a long way in helping brands stand out in the competitive market.
It appears to be that AI can handle almost anything in digital marketing… So the next question is this:
Is AI marketing legit?
We decided to ask ChatGPT if they will replace our marketing agency. This was their response:
We believe that it was too stunned to speak…
But to answer the question in the title, is AI capable enough to be your marketing agency?
Not quite. But that’s not to say that they are useless. Another answer is this: AI is a great tool for marketers when it comes to boosting businesses and drumming up revenue!
Here is a list of limitations and advantages of AI!
Limitations of AI:
Nothing is perfect. There is no doubt that AI is one of the greatest technologies to have around, however, there are certain limitations and disadvantages that come with this technology. Part of the reason is that they are still being developed, constantly changing and improving.
Some limitations include:
1. Accuracy of data
Data accuracy is always a precarious aspect in digital marketing. Incorrect data can provide faulty results in operating systems which can eventually lead to harmful outcomes to a company. On a regular basis, AI programs can provide data that is up to 80% in accuracy. However, there is no indication that the AI program can discern if the data is accurate.
There are many instances of AI programs inventing data and statistics based on its ‘understanding’ of what the facts are. For example, AI can bring about statistics from various databases of reports. However, those statistics provided by AI are not verified or factual as they are a revision from multiple sources and data.
2. Not human enough
AI is gaining a lot of popularity due its proficiencies and capabilities for the future. However, the idea of AI being used in workspaces is still relatively new. Simply put, they are not trusted to be reliable yet. The main issue on why AI lacks trust from businesses is because they are not human enough.
80% of customers still prefer speaking with a real person over a chatbot. An example would be that most people would rather visit a doctor than to be diagnosed by a search engine. It is extremely hard for AI to imitate human responses and understanding emotive tones. As a result, people cannot entirely trust AI with even the simplest of tasks.
3. Needing rich sets of data
Artificial intelligence can provide information based on the data that they have access to. However, what if there is a limitation in the availability of data? AI can only generate content within the boundaries of information that they can get. This means that users may not receive the result they require from AI and some information can be stemming from unreliable sources and data.
This also raises the question of breaching data privacy. With the ability to create more personalised ads, there are growing concerns over data privacy and collection of sensitive information about consumers. Without the supervision of professionals within a business to mitigate such issues, such violations can be detrimental to a brand and their reputation.
Advantages of using AI as tools:
These limitations are based on the idea if artificial intelligence replaces humans or if they function without the supervision of a human. It is important to understand that AI is created to be used by people, not to replace them. With the help of AI, many businesses can be empowered and see an increase in success rates in the digital world.
Some of the advantages of using AI as tools can include:
1. Research
AI accuracy, although not 100% accurate, is still very high and the results are plausible. They are programmed to identify human errors with high precision and are reliable for fact checking and time saving for researchers. Moreover, AI can process large amounts of data faster than humans and handle complex analysis of information that would be difficult for humans to perform.
2. Automation
Due to the growth of digital technologies, big data is available for businesses to predict consumer behaviour and preferences when generating targeted ads. AI can be utilised to automate the majority of data processing work of up to 70%. In doing so, campaigns can be optimised and designed according to the audience’s need which will increase engagement and higher ROI.
3. Efficiency
Efficiency is key when it comes to digital marketing and speed is an important factor of efficiency. AI can allow marketers more time and creativity as the time wasted on repetitive tasks are minimised thanks to its automation. Furthermore, AI can also help speed up decision-making processes by providing insights during research. This is valuable as it can allow businesses to be more innovative which allows them to grow and stand out in the market.
Conclusion
AI technology is moving quickly and new tools will be increasingly powerful. Currently it is a useful tool for marketers; however businesses cannot rely on AI to take full control of their marketing. With its expansive potential and capabilities, it also comes with limitations and challenges such as data accuracy and more. In spite of this, they are a perfect tool for boosting efficiency when it comes to digital marketing.
AI currently can empower people, not replace them. Continue to watch this space…
