AI & Marketing

Everywhere you turn, your’e going to hear about ai. There isn’t an industry at the moment that influencers are claiming can’t be replaced by ai.

As a marketer for over 15 years, i can only comment on my thoughts of ai and its place in marketing.

Let's dig in.

First, automation has always existed and always will. It's the key to scalability, and that can't be denied. Using a robot to automate processes, systemize tasks, or clean up data is where I feel AI shines.

The issues, in my humble opinion, arise when non-marketing experts use AI to generate ideas and creative direction.

That sentence itself is almost an oxymoron because AI cannot generate anything truly new. Remember: it's a robot trained on patterns created by humans. Basic input, output.

So when you ask AI to make a logo, it's really showing you a derivative of a derivative of a derivative. That's not going to help your business stand out, nor can you legally trademark most AI-generated concepts in the same way you would an original creative work.

The same goes for flyers. This week alone, I saw five flyers from five different agents, five different brokerages, promoting five different campaigns...THE SAME FLYER.

ChatGPT doesn't know your brand simply because you tell it to. It's generating a "close enough" version based on brands that already exist. And often, those references are outdated. These AI graphics on your feeds with gold gradients, random icons, and paragraphs of text look like the infographics that were popular in 2014.

Let's be honest: fast, cheap, and easy is usually not the best route when it comes to professional services.

I challenge you to ask AI to do your job.

If you're a Realtor, pretend you're looking to sell your house.

If you’re a loan officer pretend your’e a buyer…. ask it what documents you need and what loan best suits you.

My guess?

It will make mistakes.

And you'll instantly realize that where you're the expert, you know far more than the robot.

But what if your client doesn't feel the same way?

What if your client believes the robot over you? (think zillow but worse)

That's what's happening in the marketing industry every day.

Clients who barely trusted the designer now fully trust a robot.

Strategies and concepts that only 15 years of experience could give me have been summarized by AI and handed directly to a client who still doesn't know what to do with the information.

And all in the name of what?

Convenience? Speed?

My prediction is that in the near future, custom creative work will become even more valuable, and AI-generated content will become the bargain-bin version of content creation.

Don't get me wrong. I understand that video editing, design workflows, copywriting, and production can absolutely be enhanced by AI tools. BUT that's only when those tools are being used by someone with experience, knowledge, and vision.

A skilled editor uses AI to execute an idea faster.

A novice uses AI to replace having an idea at all.

And that's how we end up with endless amounts of slop content because someone on the internet told them AI was the only way to grow.

NOTE: This blog may or may not have been polished by ChatGPT