Creating content with AI is wrecking your brand...
Monday rolls round again, and you’re staring at your phone… You’ve got to post today on socials, but you’ve got nothing planned - dang it!
The answer - In two shakes of a lamb’s tail, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has created a jazzy promotion for your brand, and you didn’t even have to outsource to an expensive agency or freelancer! Cut time, costs and stress - what’s there not to love?
Hey, I get it, it is the most efficient way to create content for your brand’s social media page, especially when you’re time-poor or on a tight budget. Having worked in marketing for years, I can honestly appreciate the value of easy and speedy assets when you’re spinning a million plates -
You’re busy running your business
Your brain is too full to think of any new ideas
You don’t have any professional imagery but want to stand out
So what’s the harm? It’s just a post on socials.
AI is great at creating ordinary.
By design, Artificial Intelligence software takes an average, and makes an average.
“In the context of generative AI, the "average" refers to a probabilistic consensus—a mathematical synthesis of the most common patterns, structures, and information found within its training data.”
What does this mean? AI has been trained worryingly fast over the past few years to absorb huge amounts of information in the form of real life statistics, words, images, faces and world data. Anything that has ever been input into ChatGPT (or any other app), trains the software, continuously improving it’s power to create. ‘Chat’, as it’s lovingly known, then uses an average of all of it’s data to produce any asset. By design, what it is producing cannot stand out, it is simply an amalgamation of creative and informative theft and regurgitation.
AI content is representing your brand.
Each and every piece of content that is published under your brand name is a hearty message to your ideal customer. No matter if you’re high-end luxury, or a smaller local business serving your community, your audience wants to know what to expect when they connect with you.
When I see a brand I love using AI generated content, this is my first thought,“You’ve cut corners in the first impression, where else will you cut them?”
Casual scrollers and ready-to-spend customers are becoming increasingly fatigued and dissatisfied with AI content, labelling it “AI Slop” across social platforms. And with the cost of living becoming ever tighter, consumers are having to become more intentional than ever before of their spending habits, regularly opting for human-led campaigns that they feel they can trust on a deeper level.
Did you know that 1 in 3 people will see AI content now, and not only scroll on, but choose a competitor. AI tools can never replace human connection, emotion or insight, and these are all the most valuable factors of marketing. To create a successful campaign, you must choose to be more human.
AI is driving away it’s own viewers.
As artificial content floods our algorithms at an ever increasing pace, viewers are seeking something refreshing - some in the industry call this The Analogue Renaissance.
What does this mean? Audiences are making a deliberate return to realistic, imperfect, and human-first technologies and experiences. It’s really quite simple; the more ‘Chat’ is used to create, the more content is published. The more that’s published, the more tiresome AI generated content becomes. The more tiresome it becomes, the stronger the yearning for real content becomes.
Your audience wants to see you, know you and buy from you. So please, simply be you!
Am I anti-AI? No, not entirely. Am I worried AI will take my job as a photographer? Ha, absolutely not.
Am I concerned about the marketer-consumer relationship that is being warped by generated content? Yes.
Am I appalled by the continuous theft from visionaries, intellectuals and creatives to bastardise their work? Yes.
Am I fed up of my poor, unsuspecting Mother sending me ‘crazy’ things on social media, only to notice that it’s AI generated… YES.
While, as a creative, I do have a certain bias towards this topic, I am deeply passionate about this: Success in branding, marketing and promotion lies in humanity and intentional relationships.
If you want to succeed online, step away from the ‘slop’ and be human.
Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.
Love, Soph x