Unless you're living under a rock, you've seen an article about some form of artificial intelligence (AI) in the last couple of months. We've seen AI-generated images, designs, and copy everywhere. Now, the question is, will marketing jobs become obsolete?
What a lot of people don’t realize is that AI has been around for a long time. Things like ChatGPT, Jasper, CopyAI, and the like, are tools that take an input and generate an output for you to use.
Google, Microsoft, and others have been using AI to make bidding decisions for a long time. This use case is more in line with predictive modeling. Using a set of data and analyzing it in real-time to make a decision on which advertiser's ad is the best one to show to a user.
What does that mean? They look at how people have typically responded to your ad. If the response was positive, they give you a cheaper price and serve your ad more.
Now we get into the vast amount of opinions you’ll hear about the use of AI and it’s potential to take away jobs. “Media buying is a dying profession.” or “Performance Max will replace media buyers!”
These are two things I’ve heard lately that are missing the point. Over a decade ago Google started encouraging advertisers to use automated bidding strategies to manage their search campaigns. At the time, people were concerned that if bidding weren’t done manually, what would be the point in having media buyers manage campaigns anymore? Here we are, 10+ years later, and still, we have human beings managing these campaigns.
Why? Because relying on the machine is only going to get you so far. AI and machines lack the ability to see the nuance in a situation or the larger strategic direction of an organization. You are still going to need a human to put guardrails on the automation and monitor and tweak the performance.
Just this week I heard someone say that ChatGPT is going to replace copywriters. Yet another instance of taking a broad brush to an industry discipline without understanding the time and place for AI. Just like with ad bidding, you still largely need a human being to evaluate the outcome of programs like ChatGPT and make edits that keep your messaging aligned with brand standards.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not bashing the use of AI or any of these tools. I think every tool has its use. We use ChatGPT occasionally at High Beam Marketing. It’s a useful tool for us to break free from writer’s block and generate ideas to kick off a project.
If you’re working with a business that doesn’t have the resources to hire an agency to look at these types of things for you, it makes a lot of sense to use these tools and rely on them.
Most of the time, these automated tools will do well enough on their own. If you’re a business at scale, “Set it and forget it.” is not a strategy that will spend your money wisely and get you the most effective performance. There is a limit to AI’s ability to work without human intervention.
Are you using AI? Let us know what you think the future holds!