So much excitement around AI being The Next Big Thing™. There’s no doubt it’s impressive, but will it really be The Gamechanger that it’s hyped/hoped to be?
As always, the answer is frustrating, 'it depends'.
See, if all you want is to generate massive volumes of content, reach some kind of minimum word count, or even just write something on a designated topic to tick a box & appease the evil tyrant breathing down your neck about ‘deadlines’, then AI is perfect. Literally, all you need.
In other words…
AI is the perfect tool to compound a terrible (and all too common) approach to content.
As an industry, we’ve already done quantity over quality. That ridiculously optimized word soup that we called SEO is beyond vintage now.
Sure, sometimes it works as bait to bring people to the website. But, as competition increased, the deepest pockets kept winning the race to be on page 1. The other 99% decided to compete in a different game. Though, SEO strategies have become more specialized and more niche.
But, they’re often as misguided as fishing in the desert.
I hate to break it to you, but if a prospective client wants to trade EURUSD, they’re not going to seek out your content on the Egyptian Pound.
Nor will it provide you with any return on investment.
Even if, by some miracle, this weirdly eclectic bait works, the hook on the page is often too weak to land the catch. Another one took a nibble then got away…
In a world saturated with content created for content’s sake, how can you stand out? How can you get results?
Artificial Intelligence has quickly become an integral part of our daily existence, influencing fields as diverse as healthcare, education, finance, and entertainment. As AI continues to evolve, the need for effective governance mechanisms to manage its... https://t.co/sgecgG7v6O
— Daily Maverick (@dailymaverick) July 19, 2023
Focus On The Purpose.
Do you mean the purpose of the content?
Yep.
So we asked ChatGPT to define what that purpose was:
Overall, the purpose of content can vary widely, but it generally revolves around informing, entertaining, engaging, inspiring, persuading, or preserving information. It depends on the goals and objectives of the content creator or organization producing the content.
Fantastic. Just one problem. There’s no life. No vibrancy. No personality. No confidence.
Those drivers of emotion are missing.
If a single paragraph of AI wording is boring and bland, imagine that across an entire article.
Will you finish reading it?
AI content simply doesn’t engage the reader.
But it IS a fantastic tool to assist your content team.
As long as they can add a human layer, apply context, and do all of those things the machines struggle with.
Let’s use some AI suggestions and break it down.
- Information and Education: AI can absolutely assist with this. Definitions & explanations are essentially the AI superpower. That’s the information side covered. Education is a little trickier. Every good teacher has a way of bringing the information to life. The student doesn’t even realize they’re learning. AI can’t really do much here. It’s an art.
- Entertainment: Listen, if they’re not entertained, they’re not gonna hang around. I know you packed a gazillion buzzwords in there Mr/Mrs AI, but that just doesn’t cut it. Make them laugh, amaze them, dazzle them with statistics. Show off. You can’t? Fine, leave that bit to the human.
- Communication and Engagement: Another area of weakness for the robots. Is it possible to have a proper conversation with an AI? Nah. At least not yet.
You’ll notice that ChatGPT loves a list like this, as do most of these generative tools.
I asked one to make a persuasive argument for signing up for the premium version of itself. I got a 444-word reply, with an introduction, a 6-bullet point list, and a summary. The first line?
'Upgrading to the premium version offers several compelling advantages that make it a worthwhile investment.'
Wow. Eyelids are already getting heavy. I’ll spare you the rest. Just imagine the worst salesman ever, multiply that by 1000, and you’ve got SalesmanGP. Your competitors should definitely hire him.
In related news, writers heading off on tangents to make a point is a human superpower that AI will NEVER replace. Now, I could keep going through that listed point by point, but just writing the points gets boring.
How must the reader feel? Lists are like tasks.
For shopping, or those household jobs you’ve been putting off for months. Obligations. Yuck.
Ultimately, AI content is like most non-fiction books. Could be 90% shorter.
A blog post would have done the job (but there’s no money in that).
The entire point of content is to build a connection with the audience, and that connection is an inherently human experience.
If I’ve done a proper job here, you’ll feel like you know me just a little bit.
Maybe even find my ramblings interesting enough to want to know more.
If I ask you to just put one little e-mail address in one tiny little box, you might even do it, right?
Can AI do that?
The biggest danger for businesses isn’t simply missing the purpose of the content.
That’s secondary.
The risk in simply copy-pasting AI-generated content is that it’s not quite bad enough for the audience to tell you they hate it. Even worse, the AI output might even generate excellent traffic and view numbers, and then no conversions. Which of course is the entire point of content.
ChatGPT understands the purpose of content, but it doesn’t understand how to produce it, nor can it massage the reader's shoulders into a warm fuzzy glow of being part of your Tribe.
There's just no comparison to the human touch if you actually want the content to inspire action and generate results.
