Artificial Intelligence and Content Marketing in 2017
Some futurists believe as artificial intelligence (AI) becomes smarter, it will lead to a technological singularity: humans and machines melding into one digital, biological entity. Such an explosion of intelligence would lead to an entirely new way of life.
This prediction isn’t fantastical. Computer scientists forecast that by 2029 AI could be at about the level of intelligence of adult humans. In October 2016 the US National Science and Technology Council released their first ever document on preparing for the future of artificial intelligence. This document outlines the potential impact AI could have on the world economically, including an increase in the wage gap—and significant job reduction.
A quick Google search for “Content Marketing and Artificial Intelligence” reveals how big a concern this is. Top results include: Will Artificial Intelligence Kill Content Marketing?, Will Artificial Intelligence (AI) Take Over Content Marketing? and Is Artificial Intelligence Taking Over Content Marketing?
For now, AI isn’t causing a robot apocalypse, or even taking marketing jobs, although a study at Karlstads University determined that people are not able to tell the difference between content written by journalists and those generated by software. AI does however, hold significance as a content marketing trend for 2017.
As digital behemoths acquire AI companies and start bringing the technology to a wider audience, AI is changing the course of the content marketing industry. Among other things, AI is starting to eliminate the need for manual messaging and segmentation, is optimizing the personalization and automation features of content strategy, and driving predictive lead scoring and data analysis at the click of a mouse.
This article details seven ways AI is impacting content marketing, and how you can adapt for 2017 and beyond.
Journalist robots are already creating millions of pieces of basic sports content for the Associated Press, as well as Samsung, Comcast, and Yahoo. This technology can create content at a rate of 2,000 pieces per second, and as it improves, robots will become capable of creating more complicated content. Right now however, there are limited programs available for the average content marketer, but what is available saves time on simpler writing tasks so you can devote more time to more meaningful projects. Some examples include WorldAI, Automated Insight’s Wordsmith, and Narrative Science.
According to Forrester, 40 percent of loyalty marketers struggle with personalization. Marketing automation software company Emarsys is addressing this challenge, announcing a new artificial intelligence-driven platform (Emarsys AIM) in November 2016 that aims to let marketers focus on one-to-one engagement and personalization with their customers at scale. Using over two billion Emarsys unified customer profiles, and enabled by AI that automates the timing, content, and communication channel, AIM removes the burden of operational and execution tasks, allowing marketers to focus more on strategy and content. This technology is already pointing marketers to start thinking of content in terms of how it can be personalized by AI software.
One example is WayBlazer, a cognitive travel platform using IBM Watson’s AI to personalize images, recommendations, and travel insights based on customer data. It illustrates how AI can make content intelligent for your audience, allowing you to focus on quality and more personalized messaging.
With the increasing popularity of messaging apps for the office such as Slack, Yammer, and HipChat, combined with messenger platforms such as Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, chat might be killing email.
There’s obvious appeal in receiving an immediate, custom answer from a company without dealing with the frustration and wasted time of waiting on the phone for a customer service representative.
