14


Q3 • 2023


FEATURE


Writers—marketers, UX designers,


editors, customer service professionals, and others—are using AI to save loads of time by generating drafts and new content from scratch. The real value, though, comes in the more tedious parts of the content development process: repurposing, analyzing, researching, transforming, and even distributing content. Habib uses the example of an original piece of written content, such as a blog post or a white paper. Generative AI can automatically take care of the time-consuming tasks that need to be done once the piece is finished: slicing it into smaller pieces such as summary bullets, making press abstracts, or creating email copy, social posts, or short copy for ads and SEO pieces. “Another big area of value is being able to


create or repurpose content to align to your editorial guidelines and ensure consistency of messaging, brand voice, key terminology, and company facts across all your people and use cases,” Habib explains. “That’s a huge downside of having all your people roll out their own AI rather than do it in an orchestrated manner.” The AI process in a marketing scenario could work like this: A human uses words to apply an idea or creative concept to an algorithm. That algorithm then builds an asset that is judged by its model and produces an outcome. That result is based on what the machine (computer) has learned and anticipates. The upside is that this can all happen in a matter of seconds. The downside—depending on how you look at


“It’s not the creator at the keyboard, but a tool to help brainstorm, refi ne, edit, reimagine a blog post as a social post, or iterate on headlines.”


The real value, though, comes in the more tedious parts of the content development process: repurposing, analyzing, researching, transforming, and even distributing content.


things—is that there is no back-and-forth with a human designer to arrive at an outcome closer to the one desired. Imagine, however, that you’re a client briefing a design team with your creative direction and then waiting days for them to reply with a first idea. Using AI, the early stages of the creative process could be reduced to a few minutes, and you could send the project down the desired creative path, rather than with a human designer’s misinterpretation. Even if the computer- generated design is way off track, you know where you don’t want to go, and a human can take over from there.


So, what does this type of artificial intelligence implementation mean for


marketers? Should they view it as a threat to their livelihoods, or should they be using it to create better content, copy, and designs more efficiently and cost-effectively? The general consensus is that AI should be—and can be—a supplement to human creativity. Much like in the briefing scenario, Handley says writers— and those who rely on them—should think of AI as a robot perched on their shoulder. “It’s not the creator at the keyboard, but a tool to help brainstorm, refine, edit, reimagine a blog post as a social post, or iterate on headlines,” Handley says. “Yes, writing is work, and that is fueling the frenzy around AI writing. A lot of us are looking for a way to shortcut the process, because we think AI is like a microwave that will heat our Hot Pocket in a


jiffy, but it’s not like that because our content isn’t extruded and rolled and mass-produced, or it shouldn’t be, and because that’s not how we should use AI.” May Habib is adamant that Writer was


created to support content creators, not replace them—to take the tedious parts of writing off their plates, freeing them up to do the good stuff and enjoy the process as well. The platform works by snapping into a company’s business data sources to deliver accurate content wherever people write. It delivers a UI and sits in-line wherever you work, whether as a web app, Mac app, or plug-in to an application such as Figma or Contentful, and it suggests writing edits or improvements based on brand, messaging, and facts. It also serves as a place to create content. A user could tell it to “summarize that last paragraph” or “keep writing based on what I just wrote” or “improve the last three sentences.” Habib says that writing copy, however, is only about 10 percent of how the technology is used by clients. Use cases are as diverse as clinical customer communications, curricula and training material development, and market-moving information summarization. “I’m thrilled that businesses are finding ways for generative AI to improve workflows and impact their bottom line. The power comes into play when you figure out how to have it help you streamline your process, not replace your process. It’s not meant to be your process. It’s something to bolt onto your process,” says Habib. “The transition from ‘this is cool’ to ‘this just helped me do my job better’ is happening right now, and it’s exciting to see. But by no means is it coming for peoples’ jobs.” The fear or prediction that in the future, the


byline of this article could read “Story by Tim, the AI Robot” is one thing, but there are bigger AI-related questions around security. Habib’s advice is to thoroughly read the terms and conditions of any AI tool you’re considering and confirm if it uses, keeps, and stores your data. If you’re considering implementing AI into your business, she recommends first gaining a complete understanding of the


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