How Will AI Change Content Marketing? ​

It is pointless to deny that AI influences various aspects of our lives. From heavy machines to the gaming industry to medicine or SEO, it entrenches attitudes in modern society.

Sure thing, content marketing is no exception. So, what potential does AI have? Will it be actively used or maybe even replace humans?

We’ve decided to take a look at some statistics and data to make some assumptions about how AI can change content marketing this year and further.

How AI can be used in content marketing

Statista reports that the global market revenues of AI utilization in marketing are expected to reach $36 billion in 2024. It is an impressive number, and it will only grow over the years to be almost three times as big.

The market value of artificial intelligence (AI) in marketing worldwide from 2020 to 2028(in billion U.S. dollars)

But where do content marketers spend their budgets?

Creating visuals

We’ve already shared popular AI image-creation tools like Canva, Craiyon, Runway ML, etc. Some of them (Canva, Runway ML), and others (e.g., DALL-E) can help marketers create videos.

This way, thanks to AI-powered tools, visual content creation becomes:

• more cost-effective,
• faster,
• more precise,
• easier.

Special tools and services give lots of freedom, especially to SMEs and independent creators, who cannot allocate huge budgets to visual marketing.

Statista reports that 21% of creators in the US have used AI-enabled tools for visual creation.

Of course, some huge players like Virgin Voyages, Nike, and others take on AI actively to create videos.

As a matter of fact, AI-generated videos (including ads) become more and more high-quality so it's hard to detect if it is AI or human-made.

For instance, Nike made a year-long study engaging AI to create a video contribution to tennis legend Serena Williams.

And though it’s pretty tough to produce visual content like this, AI definitely can get you covered in various creative projects.

How AI will change visual content creation

As 81% of creative professionals have already employed generative AI tools (DALL-E, Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, etc.) in their work, this number will only increase.

We believe that AI-enabled services will give content marketers more power for visual creation. While tools like this won’t replace human creators, they will palpably optimize their time and help with a more flawless creative process.

Content writing

Perhaps the hugest AI use in terms of content marketing falls for content writing and related processes.

You might be surprised how AI utilization has become deeply connected with content writing activities. Let’s take a look at some of the statistics shared by Statista.

• 21% of marketers used AI for editing content purposes,
• 42% of marketers used Copy.ai for content drafting and outlines,
• 30% of B2B marketers used AI for content creation purposes,
• 50% of professionals stated they used generative AI to draft content,
• 48.5% percent of content marketers applied gen AI for brainstorming.

Moreover, CMOs from the US and Canada (53%) are willing to put emphasis on AI prioritizations.

Hubspot proves the fast-growing popularity of AI integration into content creation. Their latest study shares that:

• 63% of marketers assume that in 2024, most content will be generated at least partly using generative AI.

And as someone who works in the content marketing field, we can surely confirm this trend.

If we break content creation into some steps, that’s how AI help is allocated:

• 45% for idea generation,
• 31% for creating outlines,
• 18% for content drafting,
• 6% for content writing.

But that’s not all. We were surprised to find the next data:

• 84% of marketers utilizing AI are creating content more efficiently,
• 82% of professionals are producing “significantly more content” thanks to AI,
• 77% of marketers are creating more personalized content.

Well, if marketers already mark gen AI use as an effective tactic, what will be in a year or a few?

Right now, AI content writing tools like ChatGPT, Jasper, Rytr, and others help create content faster and more qualitatively. So, does this mean AI will replace human writers?

How AI will change content writing

We don’t think AI replace human content writers any soon.

Moreover, Google, in all recent updates, emphasizes the importance of content quality. So, content should answer user’s requests and provide the author’s opinions and experience. And AI could hardly replicate this combination.

What we see - time optimization, better data research, idea generation, and advanced proofreading - is what AI can improve in terms of content writing.

Content personalization

It’s not a surprise that customers want to receive personalized solutions. And, while content marketing's goal is to “attract and retain a clearly defined audience - and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action,” it’s hard to deny personalization importance.

In fact, 62% of shoppers expect companies to meet their requests. How can brands do this? Via personalized experiences, for sure.

Right now, only 35% of marketers say consumers get a highly personalized experience. Yet, according to data from the same Hubspot study,

• 96% of marketers agree that personalization increases the likelihood of buyers turning into repeat customers,
• 94% of marketers assert that personalization boosts sales.

That’s when AI technology can come in handy. So, far 77% of marketers report that gen AI helps them create more personalized content.

Influencer Marketing Hub shares that there are 15 directions where AI grows and improves content personalization:

1. Forecast reporting for industry-wide connections

2. Competitor tactics discovery

3. Outreach content creation and distribution

4. Customer segmentation

5. Search engine optimization (SEO)

6. Automated delivery in the right platforms

7. Tailored campaigns

8. Well-designed chatbots

9. Optimized site search

10. Smart always-on self-service option

11. Multilingual support

12. Customized recommendations

13. Human error reduction for faster issue resolution

14. Expanded insight-gathering for better service

15. Customer team coaching and supervisor assistance

Despite the obvious benefits, AI provides, only 9% of global marketers use it to leverage personalized experiences.

How AI will change content personalization

We are sure more and more professionals will see the undeniable perks of AI use for personalization. Nowadays, it’s hard to grab user attention with generic content. Why? Because we are overloaded with it.

As we still see some concerns with cookie use, tracking customer’s activity, and learning their preferences, AI can be the way out.

Hubspot shares that 40% of companies are actively moving toward hiring AI specialists who will assist marketing teams. It’s highly likely, that this trend will continue.

Taking this into consideration, we expect companies and brands to deliver more personal and targeted content. That will grow engagements and allow them to build a better-quality user experience.

Conclusion

As you can see, AI is deeply connected with various marketing activities. Content marketing becomes more precise, creative, and accurate with the help of AI-powered tools.

Though many professionals are afraid of job positions being cut, it won’t happen (at least soon). The point is to learn how to use AI (or generative AI) to take content marketing campaigns to a new level.

Seeing examples from huge brands using the power of AI, we assume smaller companies will take advantage of artificial intelligence. There are lots of ways to use it to improve the content marketing performance.

Have you employed AI to fine-tune your content marketing? How did it work? Leave your comments below and let’s discuss!