Humans + AI
The perfect marketing partnership + a few realities and opportunities
Today’s era of AI is a mind-blowing time for tech marketers. There are so many amazing new AI tools promising to boost creativity and help us get more done at a rapid pace—ChatGPT, Grammarly, Jasper, Midjourney, and more.
Mind blown!
At Sappington, we’ve embraced the wonders of AI with open arms. We—and many of our tech product and content marketing clients—see AI as a powerful “marketing partner.” We’re finding the application of AI tools as a fun, no-rules way of pushing the boundaries as we enter new creative territory together.
We’re not alone. According to the Product Marketing Alliance’s 2023 State of Product Marketing Report, 53.6 percent of product marketers implemented AI in 2022 within their Product Marketing Manager strategies. I’m sure that number is much higher today. Marketers are using AI to generate draft content, improve productivity, and more. Cheers to the opportunity.
As our marketing partnership with AI continues to heat up and we explore the changed landscape, we’ve observed a few realities and opportunities that we feel obliged to share with our fellow marketers:
Let’s agree on where people fit in: It’s important to blend humans’ creative ingenuity with AI's speed and efficiency. The correct equation, we believe, is Humans + AI. AI is a tool to help humans realize ideas, not a replacement for our creative endeavors. There are times when AI can certainly help the creative process, but the human mind perfects the output for better outcomes—and that’s a fact that all marketers can and do get behind. The balance is essential.
Don’t forget what matters: Security, ethics, brand, authenticity, and more must be considered when using AI. For example, many AI marketing tools are not guaranteed to be secure and shouldn’t be used for confidential information needed to inform marketing materials. In short, we don’t put clients’ confidential information into these tools. And we’re careful to follow copyright and sourcing rules and always cite sources.
Build real-world and descriptive use cases: There needs to be more examples of how to successfully implement AI, whether for marketing or other use cases, like finance, healthcare, and more. In the tech industry, marketers often focus first on technical specifications over explaining the tangible ways their new tech will solve real business problems. Due to the massive hype surrounding AI, it’s critical that we articulate how people and their organizations can derive meaningful business value from AI—in a real-world way. The result will be greater, more confident adoption of AI and strong business outcomes.
Collectively manage expectations: While marketers are using AI in their jobs, they’re also finding that their leadership doesn’t seem to understand the realities of what’s possible and how fast it can be done. In the State of Product Marketing Report, 51 percent of product marketers say AI tools have prompted increased demand on product marketing teams. Due to the volume of promises around AI, leaders now expect teams to move faster and do more. It’s still true that meaningful creative work takes time and can’t be completed automatically in hours. But AI can aid implementation.
Marketers can take on the guidance leadership: According to the Content Marketing Institute, over 70 percent of content marketers are using generative AI, but 61 percent say their organization lacks clear guidelines for use. Ann Handley, CCO of the learning resources website MarketingProfs, believes this gives marketers a big opportunity to start the conversation and lead it for all their team members. We agree: marketers can lead the charge—or at least should be a powerful voice.
Closing thoughts
AI is here to stay—to make things better—and we’re looking forward to the results and outcomes it can help our team and clients achieve. I know I’m anxious to get time back in my day to freshen up my creative ingenuity and, with the help of my AI marketing partner, push the limits of “What if?” for our clients.
“AI can help, but the human mind perfects the output for better outcomes—and that’s a fact that all marketers can and do get behind.”
FURTHER READING
