AI and Content Marketing: The Big Reality Check of 2024

In 2023, practically everyone in marketing (98% to be exact) hopped aboard the AI express. The goal? To shake up strategies and streamline workflows, all under the banner of "doing more with less." But let's be real — has "more with less" ever really meant "more with less and better"?

Turns out, we might've gone a bit overboard. Sure, we've sped up the content development process (thanks, AI!), but are our customers more engaged? Not really.

So here we are, churning out content like there's no tomorrow. We're definitely achieving "more," but when it comes to quality? Well, that's another story.

It's clear that the initial excitement is giving way to a more nuanced understanding of AI's role in marketing. We're witnessing a pivotal shift in how marketing teams approach AI and content, balancing innovation with the timeless value of human creativity.

The AI Infusion in Content Marketing

Initially, AI tools like Jasper and others surged in popularity for their ability to generate content at an unprecedented scale and speed. Marketing teams, pressed for time and resources, leaned heavily into AI to keep up with the insatiable demand for fresh content. AI provided a seductive promise: more content, less effort, and potentially greater reach. 

The Unforeseen Consequences of AI and Content Marketing

This reliance on AI has led to unforeseen consequences. The market is now saturated with content, much of which lacks depth, originality, and the human touch essential for genuine engagement.

We're talking more fluff than a marshmallow factory. NOBODY likes this guy:

The results have been mixed – while AI has certainly streamlined certain processes, it has also led to a dilution of quality and a decrease in content's impact. In essence, AI's promise of efficiency inadvertently fostered a volume-over-value culture.

See the full LinkedIn thread on AI and content marketing here.

Our AI content development might be lagging due to a critical gap in AI-focused education and training. Shockingly, 78% of organizations, including ours, lack specific training in AI, with 54% having no training and 24% still developing it. Moreover, only 22% of organizations have set up generative AI policies, and a mere 21% have AI ethics policies. This shortfall is exacerbated by the fact that AI initiatives, often led by CEOs and CMOs, find CMOs trailing behind other C-suite executives in AI proficiency and confidence.

Read the full State of Marketing AI Report here. 

2024 Trends for AI and Content Marketing

As we move into 2024, several key trends are emerging, reshaping how marketing teams think about AI and content:

Quality Over Quantity: There's a growing realization that less can be more. Marketing teams are now prioritizing the creation of fewer, but higher-quality pieces of content. The focus is on impactful storytelling, thoughtful analysis, and content that resonates on a human level – aspects where AI tools still lag behind human creators.

Strategic AI Utilization: Instead of using AI to replace human creativity, savvy marketers are leveraging it to enhance their capabilities. AI is being used more for data analysis, predictive insights, and personalization strategies – tasks that can be automated without compromising the quality of the creative output.

Content Distribution and Utilization: The spotlight is shifting from content creation to content distribution and utilization. Marketing teams are exploring how to use AI to better distribute and repurpose existing content, ensuring it reaches the right audience at the right time.

Personalization at Scale: AI's ability to analyze data and personalize content at scale is becoming a focal point. The goal is to use AI to create content that is not only relevant but also tailored to individual preferences and behaviors, thereby increasing engagement and conversion rates.

Integration Across Functions: There's a growing trend of integrating content strategies across various organizational functions. AI is playing a crucial role in breaking down silos, ensuring that content is not just a marketing asset but a tool for sales, customer service, and more.

Ethical AI Use and Authenticity: As AI becomes more ingrained in content marketing, ethical considerations and authenticity are taking center stage. Marketers are being more mindful of the ethical implications of using AI, ensuring transparency and maintaining the human essence that resonates with audiences.

Emergence of New Roles for Quality Assurance: Recognizing the need for high-quality AI-generated content, 2024 will see the rise of new specialized roles like Content QA and Prompt Engineers. These professionals are tasked with ensuring that AI-produced content meets the highest standards of quality, accuracy, and brand alignment. Content QA focuses on scrutinizing and refining content for authenticity and impact, while Prompt Engineers optimize AI output by crafting precise, effective prompts, bridging the gap between AI capabilities and creative excellence.

Content QA & Prompt Engineers: Ensuring Quality in the AI Content Marketing Era

In response to the challenges posed by AI in content creation, 2024 sees the emergence of Content Quality Assurance (QA) as a pivotal role in content marketing. This role transcends traditional editing, focusing on several key aspects:

• Quality and Authenticity Checks: Content QA specialists scrutinize AI-generated content for depth and alignment with the brand’s voice, ensuring authenticity and engagement.
• Accuracy and Fact-Checking: They rigorously verify information for factual accuracy, upholding the credibility of the content.
• Tone and Brand Consistency: Ensuring consistent brand tone across AI-generated content, aligning it with the brand’s style and messaging.
• Ethical Considerations and Proper Citation: Content QA involves ensuring ethical content production and proper sourcing to avoid misinformation and plagiarism.
• Human Insight Integration: Recognizing AI’s limitations, Content QA integrates human creativity to enhance AI content, making it more impactful and relatable.

The rise of Content QA marks a shift towards a balanced approach in content marketing, harmonizing AI’s efficiency with the precision of human oversight to maintain quality and brand integrity.

Expanding AI Use in the Content Development Lifecycle

Beyond content generation, AI offers various applications throughout the content development lifecycle in 2024, enhancing efficiency and effectiveness in several areas:

• Content Strategy and Planning: AI tools analyze market trends, audience preferences, and competitor content, assisting in developing strategic content plans that are more likely to resonate with target audiences.
• SEO Optimization: AI algorithms can optimize content for search engines, identifying keywords, suggesting meta tags, and analyzing search trends to improve content visibility and ranking.
• Audience Segmentation and Personalization: By analyzing user data, AI helps in segmenting audiences more accurately, enabling the creation of highly personalized content tailored to specific segments.
• Performance Analytics and Insights: AI-driven analytics tools provide real-time insights into content performance, audience engagement, and conversion metrics, allowing marketers to make data-driven decisions for content optimization.
• Predictive Analysis for Content Trends: Using predictive analytics, AI can forecast future content trends, helping marketers stay ahead of the curve by producing relevant and timely content.
• Automated A/B Testing: AI facilitates automated A/B testing of content elements like headlines, images, and call-to-actions, quickly identifying what works best with audiences.

These expanded uses of AI in content development represent a holistic approach, where AI not only assists in creation but also plays a crucial role in planning, optimization, and performance analysis, paving the way for more sophisticated and effective content marketing strategies in 2024.

Looking ahead to 2024, it's clear that AI will continue to be a transformative force in content marketing. However, the focus will be on leveraging AI intelligently and ethically, enhancing human creativity rather than replacing it. The future of content marketing in the AI era will be characterized by quality, personalization, strategic distribution, and a seamless blend of technology and human insight.

One way, Air Traffic Control is committed to driving quality content in 2024 is with a Free Content Utilization Report that shows how much content companies have available to them and what percentage of this content is actually being consumed by your target audience. 

Learn more and get your free content report here.