There are three types of people in this world: Those who rush to adopt the latest "advances" in technology. Those who resist adopting those advances until they have no other choice but to do so. And those who cautiously take a wait and see approach in order to make the best decision for themselves in the long run.
At this moment in time, all three of those types of people are faced with a decision to make in which the outcome will determine the direction of just about every industry in the world—as well as the livelihoods of millions of employees working in those industries.
That decision is whether or not to fully embrace AI-generated work over work that could be performed by human beings.
There’s no question about it, AI (artificial intelligence) has now become the biggest threat to the job security of most employees in the United States as well hundreds of millions of employees around the world. So much so that in a recent interview with Bloomberg, IBM CEO Arvin Krisha stated that he could easily see 30% of his company’s employees being replaced by AI or automation within the next five years.
With the emergence of chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard, many executives and marketing professionals are now left wondering just how long it will be before AI replaces human marketing professionals—especially those who specialize in content and social media marketing.
These are three advantages human-generated content have over AI that should put a pause on that conversation for the foreseeable future.
1. Personal stories
Think back to a moment in your childhood when something happened to you that was just so embarrassing, so humiliating, or maybe so outright hilarious that there’s no way that you could ever forget it. For me, one of those moments occurred during a party celebrating my 12th birthday.
As a kid growing up in Oakland, California in the 90s, house parties were everything! Before the prevalence of social media, it was local house parties that kids in Oakland utilized most in order to socialize with their peers outside of school.
Having already attended many of my friends and classmates’ birthday parties, I decided that it would be cool if I had one of my own. After expressing the idea to my mom leading up to my birthday, my mom began making the necessary arrangements to have my birthday party at our house.
Figuring that I could take a shortcut and skip the cost of creating and distributing invitations by having my friend and classmate (who threw his own hugely successful birthday party earlier that year) inform all of the kids in our school about the date and time—I could save that money for things that were more important to me at the time… food.
It wasn't until the night of the party that I realized just how big of a mistake I had made by entrusting my friend with the task of being the only person to relay the information about the party to our classmates.
As I stood there embarrassed in my parents' living room during my party (due to the fact that it was only attended by five kids besides myself) I learned a valuable lesson that every kid will eventually learn—kids can be really conniving.
Especially when those kids are afraid that you’re going to throw a party that would've been better than theirs so they don’t tell anyone that you’re having a party after promising you they would (I also learned the kid I entrusted to inform everyone about the party really wasn’t a friend and secretly despised me).
No matter how advanced AI currently is or will become, no chatbot will ever be able to tell your personal stories like the one I just told better than you could because it's your personal story. ChatGPT doesn’t know your most intimate and vulnerable moments, moments that you can share with your audience and connect with other human beings on an emotional level.
I believe Laura Holloway, founder and chief of The Storytelling Agency, put it best when she said, “Storytelling offers the opportunity to talk with your audience, not at them.” While chatbots can do a good job of talking at your audience—real human storytelling helps build a real connection by talking to your audience.
2. Personal branding
Listed as the world’s most expensive painting, Salvator Mundi was sold at a Christie’s auction in 2017 to an anonymous buyer for a whopping $450.3 million. And while every piece of art varies in value and appreciation based on each individual's perception of it—it doesn’t take an art aficionado to tell us that if you or I created that exact same painting—it wouldn’t have come close to selling for as much as it sold for.
That’s because that particular painting was created by Leonardo da Vinci, the most famous and influential painter the world has ever known.
In the art world, the da Vinci brand is the strongest brand there is. The late painter's brand is so respected and appreciated—people travel from all over the world to see his paintings up close. That’s the power that having a great brand could have on your works.
Like Leonardo da Vinci, each and every marketing professional has the opportunity to build their own personal brand through their content. When authors use their voice by sharing their opinions and expertise with their audience—that audience feels more connected to the author. It’s those types of connections built on personal branding that AI could never replicate.
3. A distinctive style
While I must admit that AI can do some pretty amazing things when it comes to creating content from just a few words or ideas; one thing that AI cannot do (at least, not yet) is duplicate an author's personal style.
For example, for years, movie studios have hired film directors to approach films with the “Scorcese style of filmmaking.” Which is a reference to American and Italian film director and producer Martin Scorsese's unique style of making a film.
Although many directors and producers have tried, none have been able to duplicate the look and feel of a Martin Scorcese-made film. That’s because Scorcese has his own distinctive style and approach to filmmaking that cannot be duplicated.
The same logic applies to human content creators that create content with their own unique style. That style doesn’t have to be flawless or even exceptional, but as long as it’s unique, personable, and created with the intent to connect with a specific audience—that style is a great asset. An asset that is more valuable towards a company's bottom line than AI-generated content.
Conclusion
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The great Seth Godin once said, “Change is not a threat, it’s an opportunity. Survival is not the goal, transformative success is.” For marketing professionals around the world, AI is now perceived as being the biggest threat to the survival of the human-led marketing landscape as we know it.
Don’t get me wrong, I believe that when used correctly, AI software is a great thing that could improve the lives of millions of people.
However, that improvement should not come at the expense of human beings that could do those same jobs more efficiently—but maybe just for not as cheap as AI. By leaning into the three advantages listed above, marketing professionals will not only have an edge over AI—they’ll also have transformative success.