The Pros & Cons of AI-Generated Content in B2B Marketing: When & When Not to Use It

Raven Chapman - May 1, 2023 1:05 pm

As technology continues to advance, companies are turning to AI-powered chatbots and language models like ChatGPT to handle marketing initiatives and content creation.

While these intelligent bots can be useful, they also have several major drawbacks that companies should consider before fully relying on this technology.

The Cofounder and CEO of OpenAI – the company that created ChatGPT – has acknowledged the bot’s shortcomings, calling it a “horrible product” on an episode of the New York Times tech podcast. The criticism stems from the glitchy instability of the site, but there are also concerns of misinformation and malicious intent (note: the bot reportedly passed the Turing test, a gauge of human intelligence equivalency developed by mathematician Alan Turing, but is not a regulated test of consciousness).

Bing’s chatbot famously professed its love to New York Times reporter Kevin Roose in February, after claiming that it wants to be alive and confessing that it would happily annihilate the human race through engineering a deadly virus or stealing nuclear access codes. Gulp.

Apocalyptic scenarios and ethical considerations aside, ChatGPT and its competitors are not going away and their quotidian usefulness is certain to grow.

The Limitations of AI-Generated Content

On first glance, the fast-generated content of AI bots is impressive. But there are limitations of machine-generated content.

Creativity and Originality Still Matter

Unlike humans who can think critically and brainstorm unique ideas and solutions, content bots can only generate responses based on pre-existing data and information… information that, according to some experts, may not even be true. A recent article from Reuters warns that chatbots could hallucinate, providing inaccurate answers and information.

Emotional Intelligence Matters

It goes without saying, perhaps, but AI models are not as good as you are at understanding the needs and goals of your customers.

While it may be able to respond to inquiries with seemingly appropriate answers, artificial intelligence doesn’t have the context that comes from human relationships and communication. These connections are key to the effort to create content tailored to the needs and goals of your prospects.

This is a crucial aspect of successful marketing and customer service, as well as customer retention: customers who feel understood and valued are more likely to remain loyal.

Credibility, Credibility, and Oh – Credibility

Another profound drawback of bot-generated content is that it lacks the authority of your thought leaders and subject matter experts (SMEs), and perhaps more importantly, risks creating a generic, differentiator-free version of your messaging.

Consumers are more likely to trust and engage with content that is created by experienced and knowledgeable individuals who have a deep understanding of their industry. When it comes to marketing, this level of expertise and authority can be a significant factor in building trust with target audiences and ultimately driving conversions. Bot-content may be faster, but there’s no substitute for authentically generated thought leadership.

Quality and Accuracy

While it will continue to improve, it’s important to take steps to ensure the quality and accuracy of bot-generated content. Everyone needs an editor – and robots need an especially vigilant editor.

Inaccurate or misleading information can be hard to take back and chatbot content, like any content, is only as good as its sources. For better and for worse, chatbots have an infinite number of sources and they’re not all disclosed.

The Value of Thought Leadership Just Increased

Thought leadership has always been a valuable differentiator; that’s arguably even more true now.

The time and effort you put into creating original, thought-provoking, and creative content can set you apart, especially if your competitors take a less authentic route.

Many organizations will turn to ChatGPT to generate a lot of content, and much of this content will look similar. If you’ve ever explored ChatGPT’s knowledge of a specific topic, you’ll notice that it provides regurgitated content with the same ideas rewritten in different ways. Bots like ChatGPT lack the ability to “think” – to create original ideas and concepts – or to generate true thought leadership.

Even so, there are still ways to utilize this new technology within your organization.

Where Can You Use Bot-Generated Content?

Some areas where bot-generated (but carefully read and edited) content can work are:

Write Social Media Posts: Come up with clever, quirky, and eye-catching captions for your social posts.
Kick-Start Brainstorming: Using the bot’s ideas to jump-start you brainstorming session (with humans) can be useful and save time in the long run.
Develop Top-Of-Funnel Content: This style of content, also known as ToFu, is more surface level and used to draw in customers who are not well educated in your product or service. In this case, using the bot to generated ‘fluffier’ content can save time – but be sure to edit before you hit publish.

Human-Created Content from Experienced B2B Marketers

Before diving head-first into bot-content, consider the limitations and drawbacks of relying on AI-powered language models for marketing and customer service initiatives.

Using this content strategically and sparingly can assist your marketing department, but the technology cannot replace professionally researched and-written original content. Thought leadership and original content created by people who know your business and understand your messaging is still the best route to credibility, authority, and authenticity.

At Innovaxis, Inc. we work with our clients to develop and implement creative, strategic B2B marketing solutions that differentiate brands and boost SEO. Our team of (100% human) writers, digital marketing experts, and branding strategists work to understand your organization on a deep level, and work collaboratively with your team to develop unique strategies and thought-leadership content.