A Realistic Look at AI for Content Marketing

Back in 1951, Alan Turing, the father of modern computing, wondered what would happen if a machine could think more intelligently than we do. That question feels more relevant than ever today, especially in the world of marketing. Artificial intelligence sits in a fascinating spot, blending human-like creativity with technological power. For any small business or solo entrepreneur without unlimited resources, this is an exciting prospect—a way to do more with less.

AI isn't just another fleeting trend. It's being adopted on a massive scale. In fact, research firm Gartner has predicted that by 2025, generative AI will be responsible for creating 30 percent of outbound marketing messages from large companies. To really get a handle on its role, we need to look at how we got here and where things are going.

Why ChatGPT Changed Everything

If you look at Google search trends, interest in the term "AI" exploded in December 2022, right after ChatGPT was released to the public. The buzz grew even louder in April 2023 as AI became a fixture in mainstream media.

This surge was years in the making. It started quietly when Microsoft invested a billion dollars into a small called OpenAI back in 2019. In 2020, OpenAI started testing GPT-3, a model that could write everything from code to poetry in a way that was almost impossible to distinguish from human writing. A year later, they released DALL-E, which brought the same magic to creating images from text prompts.

But the real game-changer was ChatGPT, which launched on November 30, 2022, followed by the even more powerful GPT-4 in March 2023. Suddenly, anyone with an internet connection could tap into decades of AI development just by typing instructions into a chat box. ChatGPT acquired users faster than any social network in history. This boom also led to a wave of specialized applications, as other companies used OpenAI’s APIs to build tools for specific marketing needs, helping people everywhere or scale their existing one.

The type of AI we’re talking about here is generative AI. IBM defines it as deep-learning models that can produce high-quality text, images, and other media based on the data they were trained on. Think of it as AI for content creation. While ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini are the most well-known, there are thousands of tools out there. The technology is evolving at a breakneck pace, much like early computer-generated imagery (CGI) in movies, and its current limitations are quickly disappearing.

What’s Possible with Generative AI Today

To figure out how to use this tech in your marketing, you first need to understand what it can actually do. From text to video, the possibilities are already vast.

Text Generation

This is where generative AI has made the most progress. The content it produces is so good that it’s getting harder to spot. It can sometimes "hallucinate" and make up information, but when given the right prompts, it's incredibly powerful. A tool like Jasper, for example, offers pre-built templates for creating Amazon product descriptions, blog post outlines, email subject lines, Google Ads copy, and social media posts for nearly every platform. This makes it a powerful asset for any or strategy.

Static Images

You’ve probably heard the term "deepfake," which hints at how realistic AI-generated images have become. While they’re not always photorealistic yet, they’re getting close. For a blog post or an ad where you just need a compelling visual, AI-generated images can save a lot of time and money. It's particularly useful for creating product photos. You can take a real picture of your product and drop it into an AI-generated background, a perfect solution for a that doesn’t have the budget for a professional photo shoot.

Video Creation

AI is also making waves in video production. Text-to-video tools let you create content with simple prompts, no editing experience required. Some use human-like avatars that read your script, which is great for explainer or training videos and can be generated in over 100 languages. Others take your text or a full blog post and automatically create a video using stock footage, transitions, and animations. Beyond creation, AI can also improve your existing videos by identifying and removing awkward pauses or filler words, which can make your social media clips more engaging.

Audio Production

The impact on audio has been just as significant. For example, the podcast host Buzzsprout offers a tool called Cohost AI that takes a raw audio file and, in minutes, generates podcast titles, a description, chapter markers, a full transcript, and even social media posts. Another tool, Descript, serves as an all-in-one audio and video editor. It can automatically remove filler words like "um" and "uh," and its Overdub feature can create a realistic clone of your voice, allowing you to fix mistakes by simply typing the correct words.

How to Best Use AI in Your Marketing

When social media first appeared, the best advice was that it "replaces nothing yet complements everything." The same is true for AI. You shouldn't create a new workflow just for AI; instead, find where it can enhance what you’re already doing. This is especially true for anyone running a or , where efficiency is key.

You can be successful without using AI at all. But if you do decide to use it, remember this principle: it's okay to be AI on the inside, but always be human on the outside. Your marketing should be about making human connections, so be careful not to lose your soul to automation.

Here’s a look at a standard content creation workflow and where AI can fit in:

1. This is where AI shines. It can help you brainstorm ideas, research topics, and create outlines. If you’re using it for research, always double-check its sources to make sure the data is accurate and not a hallucination.
2. Opinions diverge here. While you shouldn’t rely 100% on AI to write your content, you can always use it as a creative partner to expand on your ideas or overcome writer's block. This applies to blog posts, video scripts, and more.
3. AI is fantastic for creating supporting media, like blog post images or video thumbnails. It's also great for repurposing content, such as turning a long video into a series of short clips for social media.
4. While some AI tools can integrate with platforms like WordPress, it’s usually best to publish content yourself to ensure quality control.
5. From an analytics perspective, AI is still catching up. Human analysis is generally better for reviewing your results and deciding what to do next.
6. Once your analytics show which content needs improvement, AI can be a huge help. Tools exist specifically to help you rewrite and re-optimize existing blog posts for better SEO performance.

Real-World Success with Generative AI

Even though generative AI is new, companies are already seeing impressive results. A few case studies show what’s possible:

• used AI to ramp up its , increasing its blog output to five posts a week and boosting its email click-through rate by 22%. This contributed to an 87% jump in web traffic.
• , a digital marketing agency, found that AI helped them create content 400% faster, leading to a 166% increase in organic traffic.
• , a digital analytics platform, used AI to create a new 15,000-word glossary section for their website. They saw an 88% cost reduction and started ranking on the first page of Google within three weeks.

These examples show the power an can deliver. At the very least, it’s time to start experimenting to see how these tools can fit into your own workflow.

AI Ethics and Your Policy

For all its benefits, AI comes with significant ethical and legal challenges that are still being sorted out. Without proper oversight, it can spread misinformation, infringe on intellectual property, and misuse personal data. Because AI models are trained on existing data, they can also perpetuate biases and even create plagiarized work.

To mitigate these risks, it’s important to:

• Always fact-check and check for plagiarism in any AI-generated content.
• Avoid sharing confidential information with public AI tools.
• Properly label AI-generated content.
• Respect intellectual property rights.

Currently, works that are 100% created by AI aren't eligible for copyright protection. Some companies, like Adobe with its Firefly product, are creating generative AI tools trained on licensed and public domain content to make them safe for commercial use. Solutions like these will be key as the technology and its legal framework continue to evolve.