In short: no.

Although it may be able to transform how we go about digital marketing strategies like content creation and search engine optimization. Here’s a look at what the future of content creation may hold, ChatGPT and all.

1. SEO and Content Marketing Will Remain Vital

Despite fears that ChatGPT will make Google Search (thus SEO) irrelevant, that couldn’t be farther from the truth. For starters, ChatGPT and similar tools like Google Bard were not built as search engines.

Even Google Bard works as a companion tool to Google search, giving you the option to run your question through Google search to find citable sources.

Similarly, content marketing is not going anywhere anytime soon — 93% of B2B marketers either have a content marketing strategy or plan to implement one in the next 12 months.

SEO and content marketing work in tandem to help companies build, maintain, and nurture healthy sales pipelines. Perhaps the way content looks may change — we may see more investment in areas such as video, but the content itself won’t go away.

2. The Use of Generative AI for Content Creation Will Continue To Be Experimental

In a survey by AuthorityHacker, 75% of the surveyed marketers stated they already use AI-powered tools in their day-to-day work.

So far, marketers have leveraged AI to create workflow efficiencies by streamlining more manual processes and supporting tasks like brainstorming ideas for video content, creating outlines for blog posts, and writing short-form content like social media posts.

Given the high proportion of early adopters, it’s likely that we’ll see a percentage of companies experimenting with generative AI to create new content.

The main benefit is that AI enables brands to generate a lot of content quickly. However, a few problems with AI-generated content prevent it from being a sustainable way to create engaging content.

First and foremost, there’s the price of paying for quantity by sacrificing content quality. When looking at content quality, inaccuracies in AI content remain a top concern, listed by 56% of companies as a relevant risk.

Having a large library of content on your website will do little to attract an audience and keep them engaged if your readers can’t trust the reliability of the information you provide.

Not to mention, with SEO remaining a relevant marketing strategy, using AI for content production also brings up uniqueness and plagiarism issues.

Using AI tools to generate content results in generic writing similar to any other brand using the same tool trained on the same data. Any benefits teams may gain from speed will be greatly outweighed by the content’s inability to rank on search engines and resonate with readers.

3. Full-Funnel Content Will Become More Important

Many brands are realizing that while SEO is a cost-efficient and effective way to bring leads into the sales funnel, it shouldn’t be their content marketing team’s sole focus. Once potential customers have discovered your brand, content plays a significant role in their eventual purchasing decision.

A study backs that up, showing that 84% of B2B consumers said the winning vendor’s content positively impacted buying decisions.

The importance of mid and low-funnel content only seems to be growing, as 55% of B2B buyers say they rely more on content to inform their research and decision-making when choosing vendors.

Brands wanting to keep leads engaged need to meet changing buyers’ needs by providing relevant content at all sales funnel stages.

For instance, adding clear and specific details about your product can improve your chances of converting leads. In particular, 72% of B2B buyers say they’re more likely to buy when the vendor has transparent pricing information on the website.

Beyond product specifications, brands need to focus on creating the types of content that showcase how their product is relevant for different customer segments. That can be done by sharing assets like case studies, webinars, and ebooks that illustrate your product’s functionality, use cases, and impact.

4. Brand Building Will Still Require Human Connection

Despite the many applicable uses and opportunities AI writing tools present, they also have limitations. When it comes to brand building, AI doesn’t have the empathy required to build strong connections with your target audience.

Brands need content creators who can establish a unique voice and tone to set themselves apart and build relationships with customers. AI, by nature, delivers generic responses that make it difficult to use them to create high-quality content that can set your brand apart from the competition.

You still need humans at the wheel, steering your brand in the right direction and taking the temperature of your target audience to know if you’re succeeding.

Final Thoughts: The Future of Content Creation for Businesses

The recent advancements in AI will no doubt shape the future of marketing and content creation. AI has the power to make teams more efficient, but it can’t replace the essence of content marketing, which is about connecting with an audience.

That need will always stay the same, and it will always require humans. New technology might just change the how: how we work, how our content looks, and how audiences connect with brands.

At The Blogsmith, we’re committed to staying at the forefront of content marketing and SEO growth so we can help our clients navigate the opportunities and pitfalls of transformative tools like AI. If you’re interested in working with a partner who can help you create a successful and sustainable content strategy, get in touch with The Blogsmith today.

About the Author

Maddy Osman is the bestselling author of Writing for Humans and Robots: The New Rules of Content Style. She’s a digital native with a decade-long devotion to creating engaging, accessible, and relevant content and the founder of The Blogsmith content marketing & SEO agency. Her experience earned her a spot in Semrush’s and BuzzSumo’s Top 100 Content Marketers and The Write Life’s 100 Best Websites for Writers.

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In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has become increasingly accessible to developers, with a range of tools and frameworks available that make it easier than ever to integrate AI into your WordPress website. In this blog post, we’ll explore some of the benefits of using AI in WordPress and provide a guide for integrating it into your website.

What Is AI?

Artificial intelligence refers to the ability of machines to learn from data and perform tasks that would typically require human intelligence. AI systems can analyze large amounts of data, recognize patterns, and make predictions based on that data. Some examples of AI include speech recognition, natural language processing, and image recognition.

Benefits of Using Artificial Intelligence with WordPress

There are several benefits to using AI in WordPress, including personalization, automation, and improved website performance.

Personalized UX

Perhaps the most significant benefit of integrating artificial intelligence into WordPress is the ability to personalize the user experience. With AI, you can gather data on your visitors and tailor your website to meet their needs and preferences.

For example, you could use AI to recommend content or products based on the visitor’s browsing history or to generate custom landing pages based on their search queries.

Automation

Another benefit of using AI in WordPress is the ability to automate tasks. AI can be used to automate repetitive tasks such as image tagging, content moderation, and customer support. This can save you time and resources, allowing you to focus on more important tasks.

Improved Website Performance

Finally, using AI in WordPress can help improve website performance. AI can be used to optimize website speed and performance by predicting visitor behavior and preloading content accordingly.

Integrating AI into WordPress

Now that we’ve discussed the benefits of integrating AI into WordPress, let’s look at how to do that by exploring some plugins available for WordPress that involve artificial intelligence (AI) in various ways. Here are a few examples:

Conclusion

Integrating AI into your WordPress website can provide various benefits, including personalization, automation, and improved website performance. By following the steps outlined in this blog post, you can get started with AI in WordPress and take advantage of its many benefits.

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Interactivity is a major player in the field with technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), voice commerce, and augmented reality (AR). These new features, though they may sound a little scary, are actually helping to reshape the way we look at, use, and develop websites.

Artificial Intelligence

AI allows smart machines to learn from experience and perform human-like tasks, such as production and recycling. Websites incorporate AI in various ways, including chatbots and algorithms, to help create a more personalized user experience. AI is a hot website trend, and chances are you’ve interacted with an AI bot in some fashion, whether it’s getting support on your favorite site, ordering goods online, or even watching your favorite streaming service. 

By the year 2025, the global artificial intelligence market is expected to reach $60 billion. Comparatively, in the year 2016, that same market was $1.4 billion. (Source: Accenture)

Chatbots

If you’ve ever interacted with the chat feature on a website, chances are you’ve dealt with a chatbot. These almost human, but not quite human, chatterboxes can feel straight out of the digital Uncanny Valley catalog. Chatbots have become increasingly popular as the underlying technologies, like language processing, have continued to evolve. Today’s bots are more informative, responsive, and more useful. Love them or hate them, this is a website trend that is staying awhile.

User Experience

In times like these, online shopping has become an integral part of our daily lives, from groceries to clothing and household necessities. This $600 billion industry continues to grow year over year, and it’s only going to increase as AI becomes more affordable for smaller companies and organization. Business owners use AI on their websites or eCommerce stores to analyze how users interact and research. Customized filters and recommendations based on a user’s preferences and image enhance the user experience, increase sales, and decrease returns. 

Recommendations

Have you ever noticed the recommendations that apps like Netflix or websites like Amazon suggest whenever you use them? It’s that awkward feeling when Netflix somehow just knows what you’re into watching even when you don’t? These recommendations are powered by AI, continually adjusting algorithms to better serve the consumer through implicit data (user behavior) and explicit data (user activity). Through a system called a “recommendation engine,” companies can build associations between users, items, and content to serve up suggestions on products to the user. This website trend is especially beneficial for companies who depend on upselling to boost profits.

Voice Commerce

It feels like you can’t toss a rock these days, not that we’re throwing rocks all willy nilly, without hitting a smart speaker or someone talking about how great having smart speakers is. These mini geniuses are all the rage, powered by AI and integrating themselves into our lives and homes. Without the use of a browser, screen, or any hardware other than your phone or assistant, these devices allow you to conversationally interact with a company’s brand and make online purchases through a series of voice commands. Which brings me to the next website trend to consider: voice commerce.

What’s all the fuss?

Roughly 60 million people in the U.S., or 24% of the population, own a smart speaker, such as Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa, which is up from 7% in 2017, according to the Smart Audio Report survey conducted by NPR and Edison Research earlier this year.

Over 1.5 billion devices are used as voice assistants, with that number expected to increase to 8 billion by 2023. (Source: Juniper Research.)

As online sales continue to increase, brands are struggling to build a voice commerce presence, as Amazon is leading the race and shifting power to the users. eCommerce consumers are looking for unique experiences that come from a well-designed system that leaves them feeling valued. This helps build rapport between consumers and brands. 

What does this mean for retailers?

As technology continues to advance, brands who take advantage of this website trend will be able to:

• Find a new stream of revenue – Voice commerce could be another channel to sales and new leads.
• Improve search – Creating voice-first search options will provide an optimized user experience.
• Invent new ways to engage – As voice assistants continue to rise in popularity, we could see the emergence of conversational commerce where brands can more actively engage with users throughout the sales process.

Augmented Reality

Gotta catch ’em all! Pokemon Go took the world by storm in 2016, and since then, we’ve seen AR technology rapidly spreading across the digital world through videos, mobile apps, and even eCommerce websites in innovative ways. AR provides a captivating, interactive experience where real-world environments are enhanced with graphics and overlays that bring imagination to life literally right before your eyes.

Augmented Reality in the Wild

Here’s a few examples of where you can see AR in action:

• IKEA – This beloved furniture and interior decor brand uses augmented reality to place their products into the user’s space, like a couch or a vase.
• Football Games – Broadcasters rely on augmented reality to show viewers the visual trajectories of a ball or player or lines on the field to enhance discussions on strategies and plays.
• Navigation Apps – Enhanced apps can lay the route on top of the street view making navigation a more powerful experience.

The future of these technologies is looking so bright you’re going want to wear shades. You can watch them grow by keeping an eye on big brands like Amazon, Google, and Apple. When you’re ready to implement these technologies on your website, contact us! 

Vector images used in this article were sourced from Vecteezy.

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