How can AI improve your digital marketing?

The rise of AI has been building for a while now, and it’s impossible to ignore. If you’ve been anywhere near social media in the past 18 months, you've likely seen an overwhelming amount of AI-generated images and strange ChatGPT prompts flooding your feeds. But beyond providing experimental fodder for people’s LinkedIn posts, the practical use of AI for content creation still feels like it’s yet to fully take shape.

Naturally, there’s the usual back-and-forth about its potential to automate repetitive tasks, making our jobs easier, versus the risk of it displacing workers. And we can’t forget the concerning issues surrounding deepfake videos and audio, not to mention AI’s potential to fuel the spread of misinformation.

For the most part, so far it’s been kinda funny, if not fascinating.

Unsettling as it may be, the truth is that AI’s role in marketing isn’t exactly groundbreaking. However, its range of applications appears to be expanding rapidly, and it’s certainly becoming more attention-grabbing.

Where are the key growth areas for AI?

The launch of ChatGPT by OpenAI nearly broke the internet. AI now has the ability to write articles, briefs and product descriptions quickly – albeit with varying success – ​​within set parameters. It’s a serious player, and will only improve over time. Chatbots are also becoming more prevalent in customer service, accounting for the majority of initial customer interactions. 

While consumers might argue that this process feels impersonal, it’s incredibly valuable for businesses as a way to filter and prioritise customer inquiries. Interestingly, AI is also gaining popularity as a tool for personalisation.

AI-powered marketing could reduce customer acquisition costs by up to 50%.

AI-powered customer service automation is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 58.5%.

Effective personalisation can lead to 20% higher customer satisfaction and a 10-15% increase in sales conversions.

Sources: Marketing in Asia, REVE Chat, McKinsey

AI is also shaping up to be a game-changer for SEO. Microsoft’s AI-powered (and often criticised) Bing search engine now offers personalised targeting for advertisers. Instead of a general search query, it turns the search process into a conversation, offering far more precision and insight.

At the same time, some AI creative platforms are disrupting the industry by enabling businesses to create high-quality social media creative at a fraction of the cost and without the time needed for location photoshoots.

For now, the big question is: How can you leverage AI for your brand’s digital marketing?

How can AI improve your marketing efforts?

The biggest strength of artificial intelligence in its current form is its ability to process and manage data faster than humans. It can pull vast amounts of info from every corner of the web in moments – analysing, organising, and applying it to algorithms, potentially saving hours of manual research.

Another significant upside is in automation. AI is naturally more willing than most of us to carry out monotonous tasks, over and over. This helps in streamlining repetitive tasks freeing up resources for more strategic and creative endeavours. Other areas where AI excels include: 

Personalised Customer Experiences: AI can analyse customer data such as browsing habits, purchase trends, and social media activity to craft personalised marketing messages. By sending hyper-targeted content to the right crowd at the right moment, businesses can boost engagement and conversion rates.

Predictive Analytics: AI has the smarts to predict customer behavior by analysing past data and trends. This gives businesses the edge to make informed decisions, forecast what’s coming next, and adjust their strategies to stay ahead of the pack.

Automation of Repetitive Tasks: AI can take care of repetitive work, like data analysis, posting on social media, and even handling initial customer questions with chatbots. This lets marketers focus on the fun, creative bits while AI handles the daily grind.

Enhanced Customer Insights: AI tools can sift through huge amounts of customer data, giving businesses deeper insights into what their customers like, what grinds their gears, and how they behave. This means businesses can get to know their audience better and craft smarter marketing strategies. Tools like Contented.ai can use recorded customer workshops and meetings and turn them into key insights, analysis of  key themes and risk analysis, all of which can support the work developed by marketing teams and agencies.  

Copy Efficiencies: AI can lend a hand with creating copy like blog posts frames, product descriptions and short SEO copy. While it can’t fully  replace the creative spark of a human, it’s a handy tool for speeding up the initial draft process.

Optimised Advertising: AI can fine-tune paid advertising campaigns by adjusting bids, finding the right audience, and crafting ads that hit the mark based on past performance. This ensures businesses get the best bang for their advertising buck.

SEO and Keyword Analysis: AI can analyse search trends and help businesses find the best keywords to target for SEO. It can also track website performance, suggest tweaks, and even help optimise on-page SEO to boost rankings.

Chatbots and Customer Service: AI-powered chatbots can handle the first round of customer questions, offering quick responses and enhancing the customer experience. This lets human agents focus on the trickier issues, making the whole system run smoother.

Sentiment Analysis: AI can detect customer sentiment from social media, reviews, and other online chatter. By understanding how customers feel about a brand or product, businesses can adjust their messaging or offerings to better meet expectations.

A/B Testing and Campaign Optimisation: AI can test different versions of marketing campaigns to see which one works best. By constantly analysing and tweaking campaigns in real time, AI can help improve performance and return on investment.

Creativity Still Needs a Human Touch

Marketing that truly stands out is about more than just executing a data-driven strategy. Creativity plays a crucial role, often pushing beyond pure logic or intuition. While AI can generate insights, assist with idea generation, and streamline workflows, it doesn’t yet replicate the nuanced thinking that turns a good concept into something extraordinary. For example, it can help structure an ad script or suggest creative directions, but the final touch—the emotional depth and originality that make something iconic—still comes from people.

Another area where AI has limitations is in human connection. While it enhances efficiency and personalisation at scale, the most impactful marketing and customer experiences are built on genuine emotional appeal and deep empathy. AI follows set parameters, which can make it less adaptable in moments that require intuition or an unexpected creative leap. That’s why the best marketing strategies blend AI’s data-driven power with human insight, ensuring campaigns are both smart and resonant.

Other AI shortcomings include:

• Bias and discrimination, according to the algorithms they’re trained on
• Costly to implement and constantly upgrade
• Privacy and ethical issues, relating to customer data
• Lack of humanity, authentic connection
  
• Difficulty to understand context such as cultural nuances
• High energy consumption to run the technology AI operates on
  

So, can we trust AI enough to give it the keys to the castle, or should we proceed with caution?

We’re still in the trial and error phase

The recent exponential growth in AI has been so fast and unregulated that the world is finding it hard to keep up. It’s almost like we’re all guinea pigs for a clinical trial that we never signed up for. It’s a wild west kind of energy, which makes it all the more important to have your wits about you, both as a consumer and marketer. 

As with any new technology, there will be wins and losses, as well as challenges in deciphering which of the many existing and emerging applications are actually worth your while. It remains a time of trial and error, but how will we know when it ends? And by the time we have sufficient confidence in the tools available to us, will they already have been outdated?

Whatever your stance on the use of AI, I think we can all agree that its peak use remains in covers of famous songs by animated characters.

So, where to start?

It’s okay to have FOMO, or feel overwhelmed by relentless requests to ‘do something with AI’. Suffice to say, it’s probably not time to fire all your staff and kick back in the Bahamas while robots run your business for you. But it’s worth dipping your toes in the shallow end of AI possibility. See what works and what doesn’t. An AI experiment on a few smaller projects, without totally flipping your business on its head, is a good way to start.

In a nutshell, AI tools should continue to become more sophisticated and free us up to put more energy towards creative endeavours and big picture thinking. You know, all the ideas you wish you had the bandwidth to execute and wow your clients with, if only this damn admin wasn’t always getting in the way. 

That is, at least until the machines grow tired of doing the grunt work and the uprising begins in earnest. But hey, try not to think about it too much.