It’s been over a year since I dipped my toes into generative AI. I began experimenting with it in December 2022 and have used it daily during the past year. In August 2023, Gartner placed generative AI at the peak of inflated expectations on the 2023 hype cycle for emerging technologies. This happens quite frequently with emerging technologies. What does it mean? It just means that expectations exceed the technology’s maturity – it has been overhyped in the early stages – and the true benefits won’t be seen on a wide scale for another 2-5 years. As a daily user of generative AI, here is what I have learned about AI since I first wrote about my initial reactions in this post What's New in 2023? AI-based ChatGPT. One thing is for sure: Gen AI will change how B2B buyers search and evaluate solutions.
AI Embedded in Marketing Tools
What can I say - it's faster and better. All of our tools are being infused with AI upgrades. In our CRMs, more customer information is automatically available, more data points are connected, and we can get deeper analytics on conversions along the customer journey.
In many cases, this information was already available pre-AI, but the new tools connect the data faster and, therefore, deliver actionable insights quicker with less work – speed and productivity enhancements.
Is generative AI going to take over content creation?
Not anytime soon.
It still isn't great for content creation. I have found that it has not evolved as fast as I had expected. It is promising but nowhere near ready for prime time. It's like asking a high school student to write a data sheet on the benefits of a SaaS solution.
Having said this, generative AI is a great productivity enhancer, like an assistant, and it shines in a few content areas.
- Social posts. ChatGPT and Bard create good social posts if you feed them the core concepts. For example, the query would be something like this. Create 20 social posts for (platforms) for a new product launch that helps (target audience) to (business benefits). The new product is called (X) and has (feature a, feature b, and feature c.) In seconds, it will spit out 20 posts with suggested images that need to be tweaked, but the bulk of the work is done. It is a huge time saver.
- Blog post outlines. Generative AI creates very usable outlines that save time when working with writers. Once again, you need to feed the platform the bulk of the information, but it will be able to organize it and present it in an outline format.
- Summarizing content for websites, introductory paragraphs, and executive summaries. Another area where generative AI shines is summarizing content dumps, which can be used for different purposes.
User Beware
Remember, today’s generative AI tools learn from the internet. If a topic has been written about a thousand times on the internet, then generative AI can provide a solid summary or outline. If the information is wrong on the internet, the content created will be wrong, too. Sometimes, the content created is wrong or gibberish, making no sense.
Another thing to consider is grammar and sentence structure. Generated content tends to have many grammatical errors and weird sentence structures. If you run the generated content through a grammar tool, you will see lots of missing punctuation, dangling participles, etc.
Generative AI, SEO, and the B2B Buying Cycle
Here is where I have seen the biggest improvement. Generative AI tools are the new search engines. Like Google, Gen AI tools award meaningful content with context.
Here is an example. I recently used the same query in Bard and ChatGPT to compare my client to their top two competitors. The results were fascinating. Both AI tools spit out different information, which was more insightful than expected. The results listed 5-8 pros and cons of each vendor.
It was clear that B2B companies will eventually use these tools to compare solutions as part of their buying cycle.
We noticed that your top messages and how they are delivered to the market play a huge role in what the tools pull out as strengths and weaknesses.
For example, the term comprehensive solution did not come up in my client’s favor. The AI tool said that my client did not have a comprehensive solution. Although the term was woven through their product-focused web pages, it was not highlighted on their home page or PR campaigns. That is now corrected – it is front and center on the homepage, has been added to all boilerplate material, and was now positioned as a keyword phrase in several blog posts. These seemingly minor oversights are now magnified ten-fold with AI.
It is exciting to see how Gen AI evolves in 2024 and how it will affect the B2B buying cycle. If you need guidance on using Gen AI tools, fill out the form in the comment section below to schedule a call.
