Artificial intelligence (AI) is a topic of huge debate among content creators. It’s been hailed for its efficiency yet critiqued for diluting the human touch in content — not to mention serious concerns around security, privacy, attribution, plagiarism, and more.
Nevertheless, AI is here to stay. But how you decide to leverage this technology — and how much you stand to benefit from its impact — will hinge on your strategic deployment.
AI holds promise in digital strategies, reshaping content governance by automating tasks and enhancing customer experiences at warp speed. In its recent research (registration required), Gartner underscores generative AI’s capacity to produce high-value artifacts, from imagery to copy, but raises questions on its suitability for content creation and ideation.
Still, early adopters attest to AI’s transformative effects on content development and customer engagement; indeed, tech platforms leveraged AI-powered integration for text and image recognition long before ChatGPT and other prompt-based AI tools were introduced.
So, what are the best uses of AI within content marketing workflows, and what considerations should you keep at the top of your mind? Let’s examine a few impactful options.
Accelerating search engine optimization
Elevating your content’s discoverability is pivotal for connecting with your target audience. AI tools can significantly boost your efforts by refining keywords, analyzing rising searches, and crafting compelling meta descriptions. Furthermore, these AI tools offer invaluable assistance in refreshing older content with contemporary SEO-friendly titles, descriptions, and keywords.
Enhancing the quality and search value of your visual content is also crucial. According to Gartner, generative AI facilitates image creation by using text-based prompts to generate synthetic images.
Harnessing AI to generate up-to-date images expedites creative production, eliminating the constraints commonly associated with traditional approaches and enabling seamless integration with SEO strategies.
Improving site accessibility
AI tools can play a pivotal role in enhancing your website’s accessibility. For example, they can facilitate the integration of alt text into all images within your CMS. This helps improve the inclusivity of your content for visually impaired users, as it provides text-based image descriptions that can be read aloud by screen readers.
Moreover, AI tools offer suggestions for integrating advanced accessibility features, including speech recognition, image recognition, and text processing capabilities. Additionally, AI-powered translation tools can expand your content’s reach and usability by automatically translating text and audio recordings from one language to another.
Delivering customized and well-segmented experiences
The Gartner report highlights that generative AI tools use natural language generation (NLG) to turn data into relevant short-form and long-form text.
With AI’s assistance, content teams can more quickly produce — and more easily customize — short-form content like email subject lines, article teasers, and product descriptions. Notably, its ability to generate keyword-optimized title and description copy is particularly valuable for SEO.
AI can also be a potent tool for creating longer-form content, including campaign assets, news stories, and full-length articles. However, acknowledging the inherent risks, such as lack of content variation and originality, is essential. After all, AI can only reflect insights in its data set, not respond to real-world events or offer unique interpretations and opinions.
While AI can streamline processes for generating copy, your creative team should, ultimately, serve as the stewards of your brand’s content quality, integrity, and human value. They also play a vital role in ensuring AI-enhanced content aligns with organizational brand guidelines and resonates with the target audience.
Best practices for AI implementations
Integrating AI tools necessitates a thoughtful approach to experimentation and implementation. Gartner’s research underscores the importance of commencing with pilot projects to gather metrics for success. These metrics encompass various aspects, including time efficiency, draft quality, and asset utilization. Through iterative experimentation, organizations can ascertain the efficacy of their AI tools — and their potential impact on content strategy.
However, before gathering the data, companies must agree on whether, where, and how AI fits within their content governance framework. Answering questions in these key areas can help you make those determinations:
- Strategic alignment: Does AI align with our content strategy and business objectives? How will integrating AI into content governance contribute to our long-term goals?
- Resource allocation: What resources (financial, human, technological) will be required to implement and maintain proper AI content governance? Do we have the necessary expertise, or will we need to invest in training or hiring specialists?
- Risk assessment: What are the potential governance risks and challenges associated with AI adoption? How will we mitigate data privacy, security, and accuracy risks?
- Impact on content workflows: How will AI integration affect our existing content creation, review, and distribution processes? What changes must be made to accommodate AI tools within those workflows and approval processes?
- Quality assurance: How will we ensure that AI-generated content meets our quality standards and brand guidelines? What measures should we implement to validate the content’s accuracy and authenticity?
- Regulatory compliance: Are there any legal or regulatory requirements that govern the use of AI for our organization or industry? How will we ensure our AI usage maintains compliance with data protection laws and regulations?
- User experience: How will AI-driven content governance impact the overall user experience? Will AI enhancements improve accessibility, personalization, and engagement for our audience?
- Measurement and evaluation: What key performance indicators (KPIs) will be used to assess the effectiveness of our AI-driven content distribution? How will we measure the ROI and business impact of AI integration?
- Ethical considerations: What ethical guidelines and principles should govern the use of AI in content creation and distribution? How can we ensure transparency, fairness, and accountability in AI algorithms and decision-making processes?
- Long-term sustainability: How scalable and adaptable is our AI-driven content governance framework to future technological changes and advancements? What steps will we take to continuously optimize and refine our AI strategies for long-term sustainability?
As evident from the above, your site must meet your organization’s standards. That means you’ll need to constantly monitor your content and flag any areas where the use of AI may cause conflicts.
Furthermore, given the data protection and privacy concerns around AI, you’ll need to carefully consider whether your use of AI complies with regulatory requirements.
Put purpose behind your AI prompts
Many people once thought AI was the beginning of the end. However, when used correctly and with a purpose, it can be an attractive tool for broadening your audience reach and achieving optimal content performance.
Well-thought-out strategies using AI automation tools can benefit your content business in many ways, notably by freeing your content creators from mundane or monotonous tasks so that they can focus on the content and experiences that users seek out.
Always weigh the benefits and risks of deploying AI against your goals to ensure it serves a dedicated purpose. The more you can automate the back-end processes and workflows of a tool like your CMS with AI, the more time you can spend on higher-level — and equally impactful — strategic efforts.
About Brightspot
Brightspot is your CMS solution for delivering brilliant, modern digital experiences with a flexible, fast, and secure platform that you can trust to consistently elevate your content approach. An enterprise-grade powerhouse of tools and templates that can be tailored to your specific business needs, for today and beyond. Our robust, ready-to-go library is fully customizable to meet the demands of your business, content contributors, and developers. But we don’t stop there: We offer the flexibility to craft front-end experiences, ensuring content delivery exactly as you need it. For more information on how Brightspot is the right CMS platform for your company, visit our website here. To delve deeper into the integration of AI within your organization’s content strategy, explore Brightspot’s latest e-book, providing valuable insights, considerations, and best practices for effectively navigating the AI landscape. Access the e-book here for comprehensive guidance on leveraging AI in content strategy.