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How can marketers balance AI automation with maintaining a personal touch in their content?
Kiana: We’ve talked about personalisation and AI-generated content. How can marketers find a good balance between using AI tools and keeping their content personal?
Azryl: The key is to use AI wisely without relying on it for creativity. As humans, our imagination is one of our greatest strengths. AI isn't likely to become conscious anytime soon, so we don't need to worry about that yet.
AI is great for handling repetitive tasks like organising content, creating first drafts, and making templates. This frees up marketers to focus on what's really important: storytelling and connecting with customers.
However, AI can't match the emotional impact or creative spark that humans bring. We need to oversee AI's work and keep a personal touch in our brand storytelling, tone of voice, and customer interactions.
For example, you can use AI to create social media captions, but you should adjust the final version to match your brand's personality and values. AI should enhance your skills, not replace them.
Sometimes I take what the AI gives me and improve it on my own. Other times, I adjust the AI's output as we go along. Remember, tools like ChatGPT are meant for back-and-forth conversation, and they improve as you interact with them.
In the end, AI is just a tool that helps us save time and work more efficiently. But it's our imagination and experience that turn the AI's output into meaningful content that really connects with our audience.
Anas: My company uses AI to help create outlines for our articles. We don't use the full articles from AI tools like ChatGPT. Instead, we ask AI to create outlines and main points for our content. Then, we develop the actual content ourselves. However, I've noticed that some people just copy and paste AI-generated content directly to their websites.
When people do this, they're letting AI take control instead of using it as a tool. We should be the ones using AI to make our work easier, not the other way around. If we rely too heavily on AI, we risk becoming the tools ourselves.
It's important that we stay in control of what we create and what we say. Simply copying and pasting AI-generated content isn't a good idea. I agree with others who say this approach can make content feel awkward and emotionless. This is especially true for social media posts, which can end up sounding more like formal announcements. We should be the ones in control of these tools, not letting AI control us.
Kiana: I agree with both of you. It's crucial to maintain a balance between our knowledge of a brand's unique voice and the brands we work with.
But when it comes to balance, there's more to consider than just the tone of voice. We also need to think about work balance.
When we marketers first started using AI tools like ChatGPT, I found myself spending too much time trying to create the perfect prompts. This meant I was spending less time on creative tasks.
It's easy to get caught up in conversations with AI, trying to find the perfect prompt. But where do we draw the line? How do we balance AI-driven personalisation with human creativity? And how do we maintain a good work balance within our team? What does this look like for you?
Azryl: As I learned more about AI's strengths and weaknesses, I figured out when to step in and add my personal touch. For example, Anas mentioned asking AI for outlines. In my case, I usually create the outline myself.
I write a full draft as I normally would. Then I put that draft into the AI and ask it to improve it. I look at what it gives back and decide if it needs more changes. But I always realise that even after the AI refines it, I still need to polish it further.
You can't just use whatever the AI gives you without changes. You need to review, edit, and make sure it's polished. You're the one responsible for the final product, no matter what the AI produces.
Anas: I agree with you, Azryl. Even though there's a lot of excitement about AI, many people don't fully trust it. Some might not even trust it 50%.
We often question AI's output. Is it correct? Is it good enough? So, even when we use AI for tasks, we always double-check its work. We often discuss the results with our team too. It's like using AI to help us think, but not to make decisions for us.
This is crucial: we have to make sure AI doesn't make decisions for us. That's the key rule when using AI tools for our content or in our daily work. We need to find the right balance between using AI and maintaining human control.
How has AI influenced your daily workflow and approach to managing content creation, both personally and when leading a content team?
Kiana: This brings me to my next question. We've talked about personal workflows with AI, but I'd like to focus on how teams are using it.
We've discussed how brands are using AI in their branding. But I'm curious about how you've incorporated AI into your team's daily content creation process. How has it changed the way your team works?
Anas: In our team, we use AI tools like ChatGPT mainly to help with our content strategy and article creation. We don't use all of the AI's output. Instead, we ask it to generate topics and related ideas. We also sometimes ask it what topics it would suggest for specific search queries.
We treat AI as a team member we can talk to and ask questions, but not as someone who makes decisions. We use AI to create outlines and basic structures for our articles. Even though ChatGPT has many benefits, we don't use it to write entire articles.
I've trained my team to use AI effectively, but I don't let them copy and paste AI-generated content directly into our posts. This would lead to poor quality and lack of control over our content. The most important thing is that we don't use AI blindly. We always review and refine its output.
Kiana: Anas, you mentioned using AI for writing articles. Do you use AI for other types of content creation, like making videos or visuals? How often do you use it? Or do you only use AI for creating outlines?
Anas: We do use AI for some design work, but the results often need adjustments. They rarely fit perfectly with what our clients want.
When it comes to design and creativity, human imagination is still the best. I don't think AI can replace human creativity.
We can use AI to make fun and interesting things, like with tools such as Stable Diffusion. But for professional work, especially for companies and brands, AI-generated content isn't always the best choice.
Clients hire us for our experience, not because we have AI tools. AI can't replace our experience in marketing and advertising. It can help us, but it won't completely change how we work, especially when it comes to creative tasks.
Kiana: Can you tell me more about how you prepare your team to use AI effectively in their daily tasks?
Anas: Even before AI became popular, we had a standard procedure for creating content. We start by identifying main topics, then break them down into subtopics and keywords. We also consider user intentions when choosing words.
This process can be done manually, but it takes a long time. That's where AI tools like ChatGPT come in handy. We use them as part of our team to help generate related words and ideas. For example, if we're writing about buying Bitcoin in the Netherlands, we ask the AI for relevant keywords.
My team is excited about these AI tools. They experiment with them daily and now use them regularly, just like any other tool we have. But AI doesn't replace our work – it's more like a helpful assistant.
Kiana: Azryl, you mentioned earlier that you've done a lot of content work. Did you use AI in your recent campaign?
Azryl: I work as a solo marketing lead for small businesses. I handle both strategy and day-to-day marketing tasks, including content creation. For big projects like branding or web development, I work with freelancers. But for most tasks, I use AI as my assistant.
AI helps me work more efficiently. I use tools like ChatGPT to create content drafts and summarise research. For example, when writing case studies for my engineering client, I first give ChatGPT examples of my previous work. This helps it learn my writing style.
Then, I give it the key facts of a project, and it generates content in a similar style. This saves me a lot of time. However, I always review and refine the AI's output to make sure it's consistent and not repetitive.
Another helpful tool I use is TLDV, which records and summarises client meetings. This lets me focus on listening to the client instead of taking notes. After the meeting, I get a summary with key points and action items.
I started using TLDV for my research interviews too. It allowed me to concentrate on asking good follow-up questions instead of worrying about writing everything down.
Some people overestimate or underestimate AI, but it's really just an extension of a marketer's skills. It helps us work faster, but we still need our knowledge and experience to get good results. Just as design software helps us create visuals more quickly, AI speeds up our work but still needs human creativity and oversight to produce the best outcomes.
