Artificial Intelligence, or AI, has changed the landscape for digital marketers. Products like Chat GPT (If you haven’t read our previous blog discussing ChatGPT click here) and Bard have reduced the time it takes to create content, write website code, create and schedule social media posts, and develop email campaigns. So the average business owner may wonder if paying a digital marketing agency is worth it when AI products can do part of the work.
The CEO and founder of the Marketing AI Institute, Paul Roetzer, compares the existing AI tools to a team of skilled interns for any task that can do large parts of the legwork to increase your overall efficiency.
Essentially, digital marketing is too nuanced to be replaced by A.l., but AI can make digital agencies more efficient in executing strategy.
Here are the four significant limitations of AI in the digital marketing space:
AI Makes Mistakes
Artificial Intelligence can make mistakes. Understanding that AI is not perfect and prone to errors is crucial. AI is designed, trained, and maintained by humans who are not infallible. The algorithms used in AI systems are focused on large amounts of data, and if this data is biased or incorrect, the AI will make mistakes. The AI systems also learn from their experiences and improve over time, meaning they are subject to trial and error.
Also, remember that ChatGPT’s data was cut off in 2021, meaning the knowledge database doesn’t include news or events that have occurred since then. Therefore, ChatGPT doesn’t know about specific events, news articles, scientific advancements, or real-world developments after this date. Bard’s cutoff date is unknown, but current information is not in the knowledge database. Eventually, up-to-date information will be part of the model.
Expertise
AI will make digital marketing agencies leaner. Estimates are between 10% and 33% of knowledge-based workers will be displaced by AI But, GDP should increase by 7%. The digital marketers who are left will be able to put out more work more efficiently. Digital marketing agencies are staffed with specialists who have honed their skills in various areas, including SEO, Email Marketing, Content Development, CRM Management, Hosting, and Social Media.
AI can create an SEO plan, write and schedule social media posts, and help website developers with coding. Still, AI doesn’t understand the importance of trends in social media. For example, AI can’t keep up-to-date with the SEO algorithm, which is adjusted daily, and significant changes occur annually. AI can streamline some aspects of CRM management, like data entry and analysis. But building customer relationships, addressing complex issues, and strategizing for customer retention requires a human touch. In addition, developers need to review code on websites as there can be mistakes (see previous section).
Creativity and Emotion
Over-reliance on AI technology can lead to less collaboration and creativity among marketers. AI can create efficiencies in the development process and create images and content from only a prompt. But working with people gives a human touch to creativity that AI doesn’t have. Humans are unique in their capacity to feel complex emotions and translate those feelings into connections, an area where AI still needs to improve.
Ethical Concerns
There needs to be increased transparency in how AI gets its information. The creators of these services need to tell us how their models make decisions, which algorithms it uses, and how it processes data to create marketing strategies. This secrecy can lead to issues of accountability and trust.
The overuse of AI can lead to the potential misuse to manipulate emotions. For example, AI could deliver tailored messages that feed off a person’s insecurities or fears to convince them to buy a product or service. As a result, digial marketing companies depending on AI without human oversight may unknowingly operate deceptively.