Adobe FireflyThere’s been a buzz in the air. In every corner of the business world, people talk about this game-changer called Generative AI for Content Creation. Some think it’s revolutionary; some think it’s a threat. Some say they use it every day. Some wouldn’t touch it with a ten-foot pole. But in my eleven years of navigating the world of marketing and seeing what truly lasts, I’ve come to see Generative AI for Content Creation differently.
For years now, we at RevUp Now have believed in and practiced a specific kind of marketing – inbound marketing. That is, 100% automated streams of traffic coming to a beautiful website that you own. Imagine having 100,000 visitors, turning into revenue month after month, all on autopilot.
So, what exactly is Generative AI?
What’s generative AI, anyway? Simply put, it’s a type of artificial intelligence that can create things. This includes written content (like articles, poems, or code), images (illustrations, photographs, even abstract art), audio (music, voiceovers), videos, and more. It’s like giving a computer a paintbrush and a canvas and letting it figure out its masterpiece.
Where does this AI “magic” come from?
The secret ingredient is machine learning. That’s where AI models gobble up tons of data—texts, images, and code—analyzing it to find hidden patterns and relationships. This is where the magic of machine learning comes into play. Think of it this way: Generative AI models, like Jasper AI and GPT-4, learn from tons of examples to produce new stuff in a similar vein, just like kids learn from grown-ups.
Generative AI Tools for Every Kind of Content
It’s hard even to remember what life was like before these AI tools came along. I bet you are using some AI content tools without even realizing it. A chance is you’ve come across them while browsing the web, drafting an email, or even composing a social media post. This is because this technology has found its way into many online platforms.
Text Generation
ChatGPT – that’s the name buzzing around, the AI writer on everyone’s lips. Great for brainstorming content ideas with its conversational format.
Bard – Google’s entry into this world is like ChatGPT’s sibling from another mother.
Surfer SEO – AI with a twist. Surfer SEO has integrated generative AI to create content outlines and drafts with a focus on search engine optimization. Imagine it’s like a seasoned SEO professional helping you shape every sentence.
Grammar and Style Checkers
Grammarly and Hemmingway– your trusty sidekicks. Grammarly goes beyond checking your spelling; it dives deep to enhance your style, clarity, and grammar. Hemingway helps you cut the clutter and tighten your prose with shorter sentences.
AI Image Generators
Remember that picture of a cat riding a unicorn in a spaceship? AI probably created it. Check out these incredible tools that give artists (or anyone.) superhuman creativity.
Midjourney – where imagination runs wild. To get into this tool, you’ll have to use Discord, a messaging platform. Don’t worry, though; I decided to jump in and try a bunch of prompts myself; it’s totally worth it. You can create pretty impressive pieces even without a ton of artistic skills.
Adobe Firefly – AI with Adobe’s famous user-friendliness. The AI that powers Firefly goes above and beyond by giving you very detailed controls and suggestions to create more targeted text prompts to ensure the AI is fully “getting” what you are asking it for. For instance, you are able to create stunning text effects and explore options to re-color existing images, with more features coming out all the time.
DALL-E 2 and DALL-E 3 are powerful image generators from the geniuses at OpenAI, who are also the creators of ChatGPT. OpenAI owns it. Guess what? DALL-E 2 is free.
Getty Images AI – high-quality images. What’s the big deal about this one, you ask? It’s about those copyright concerns we spoke of. Getty’s AI tool creates commercially safe content. You’re less likely to get tangled up in any legal nightmares this way.
Voice Generation
What if you need lifelike voices, different languages, and accents?
Murf – get studio quality in over 20 languages without stepping foot in a recording studio. Murf can even clone your voice – ultimate authenticity for podcasts, training videos, and more. No more long recording sessions.
AI Video Tools
It’s becoming hard to believe these AI video tools exist because they are so new to the scene and keep getting better.
Synthesia is another tool on the rise. It allows for the seamless creation of lifelike videos simply by typing out a text script.
The Potential Of AI for Content Creators
It’s easy to fall into the doom-and-gloom narratives around AI. After all, haven’t movies taught us to fear our robot overlords? But what if the reality is far less scary? Let’s take a practical look.
1. Increased Efficiency and Productivity: Time Back on Your Hands
AI tools have really upped our game. In my own experience, drafting a 1200-word blog post (with research, editing, reviewing, all the nitty-gritty stuff) would take at least 3-4 hours, if not longer. AI writers have become helpful co-workers, allowing me to quickly draft multiple drafts with different viewpoints within a short timeframe. AI writers help create initial drafts while human experts then refine and shape them.
2. Scaling Your Content Efforts: 3x Your Results?
I run pilot tests to find the true value of marketing technology before going “all-in” to determine the true impact and to see the impact on time savings and productivity. You may even recall how I put all my cards on the table by selling Content Hacker to Content at Scale because I wholeheartedly believe in AI being the future of content creation. The company’s name says it all, and it is doing amazing work in this new, emerging world of AI Content.
As a result of our testing with various Generative AI tools at Performics India, we noticed an incredible increase in productivity—our team delivered three times as much output during those AI tests. When testing, we realized we needed far fewer rewrites when an AI-first wrote the draft, saving both time and manpower for more content to be created in the same time frame.
3. Unlocking a Treasure Chest of Insights and Ideas
AI has become a magical crystal ball. Sprout Social, for example, has created a unique social media-optimized AI platform built on its extensive marketing data to really give specific support to social media marketing pros.
Let me give you another example that’s not limited to one tool. Do you want to research a new topic, analyze successful campaign techniques, or get customer demographic info for specific geographic locations to truly zero in on personalized campaigns to match the culture of each geographic location? You can ask specific questions, and AI will whip up those insights from mountains of data faster than any human could, enabling data-backed decision-making that truly transforms. AI helps with finding and summarizing info, highlighting gaps, and even revealing opportunities to connect further.
4. Reaching Global Audiences: Crossing Borders
Ever wish you had a marketing department for each country you targeted, ensuring that every email, tagline, or image fully reflects that market’s culture? We found that in 2023, 73% of U.S. marketers already use generative artificial intelligence tools. That means over 2 out of every three marketing professionals you work with use generative AI to produce or refine work.
Let’s take this concept a step further. Generative AI is a powerhouse for translating across multiple languages with surprising accuracy, allowing you to scale up those personalized messages we spoke about. Some tools, like Murf, can produce voiceovers and AI narrators in many languages. Some are capable of adjusting the tonality and inflection of text prompts, letting your company build that personal connection worldwide.
5. Enhancing Creativity: Let The Brainstorm Begin.
Imagine AI that is able to provide you with real-time assistance for everything you create, from email blasts, marketing campaigns, and slogans to SEO optimization and images. And what about AI that is able to give you valuable feedback on an AI-written blog post before you launch it to the world? It may surprise you, but this already exists.
Generative AI is constantly being infused into more aspects of the content creation world to assist humans, and we are only at the tip of the iceberg of the innovation we’ll be experiencing.
Ethical Concerns and The Way Forward
This is what worries people about AI the most because the possibilities can feel frightening. How do we ensure this new era of creation is also ethical? These are the top areas to keep top of mind:
Bias, Representation, and Ethics
Generative AI tools are like parrots mimicking humans – they learn from us, including any bad habits or outdated viewpoints. That means it is extremely important that those who use this technology use it responsibly. All AI models are trained on a massive amount of information that contains data from many different locations and belief systems that have varying morals and belief systems. They will, sadly, adopt all those same quirks and viewpoints.
Copyright Concerns
You can look around at all those articles discussing those lawsuit filings related to generative AI “stealing” art, and you’ll see we’re only at the very beginning. This will get more contentious, not less so. No matter how exciting AI content is, be wary about that copyright issue as the line on who owns that work, or if copyright can be claimed on work generated by AI, isn’t crystal clear yet.
Deepfakes and Authenticity
These “deepfakes” sound straight out of science fiction, but the truth is that these issues have infiltrated all of society because these powerful AI tools are readily available. People can convincingly mimic you or your employees, with audio and video being very easily generated in authentic and human ways. Think twice before assuming what you see or hear online is actually real because it may just be a sophisticated fake.
Over-reliance and Deskilling
There are countless books written on AI “stealing” our jobs and careers, leading to unemployment, poverty, and societal collapse. These dangers are not what this article focuses on. Rather, I think about those areas where wld be less hands-on than we should. AI is a tremendous assistant, but there’s still that “gut feeling,” the strategic thought, and that personal voice that is necessary for success in content creation that only we as humans truly “get.”
Conclusion
When I think back to those science fiction novels I read as a kid, in which robots took over and ruled the world, this just isn’t the reality. It can sometimes feel scary to think about how far this new Generative AI for Content Creation will evolve, particularly as a longtime content expert. But the truth is AI technology like this has the opportunity to assist content creation and unlock more opportunities. AI lets content creators push creative boundaries with more ease to produce quality content. Whether creating email blasts or personalized video presentations tailored to international audiences – AI gives the world incredible opportunity for growth.
The biggest hurdle will be those ethics issues discussed—that’s where we, as content creators, have to become more vigilant about how this technology is used.
Ultimately, the best way to ensure long-term success is to strike a healthy balance between humans and their AI helpers, maintaining authenticity and creative passion.
In addition, Generative AI is a powerful tool that can produce human-like text. It can be used to create various types of content, such as blog posts, social media posts, and email campaigns. By analyzing data patterns, it can generate unique and personalized content tailored to target audiences.
In content marketing, AI-generated content can save time and effort by quickly producing marketing content and blog articles. This technology can also refresh existing content, making it more relevant and engaging. Businesses can use AI to develop effective content strategies and reach their audiences with high-quality, creative work.
For financial topics like savings accounts and high-yield savings accounts, generative AI can craft detailed and informative articles that help educate readers. Overall, AI-generated content is a valuable asset for creating and distributing content that connects with people.
