As an increasing amount of the digital marketing moves to adopt more and more artificial intelligence (AI) methodology, there is an ever growing number of people wondering if they seem to be the only people who have concerns with the technology. If you are one of those people, do not worry, because you are most certainly not alone.
Just like the cases of essentially every kind of new technology, there will always be a reason for practical people to have some hesitation to adopt a new technology. Even with the original people who adopted AI, there can still be several concerns about its possible disadvantages and risks, especially when it comes to digital marketers.
Consider this to be a basic outline of the current state of AI in the larger world of digital marketing. Here are seven common disadvantages of AI in digital marketing, as well as tips about mitigating any disadvantages and risks so companies can adopt AI for the best benefit of their marketing strategies.
How AI is Now Being Used In Marketing
There is considerable misunderstanding about how companies are actually now using AI. This is most often the result of a lack of understanding of what AI actually is and what it really does.
Right now, AI can touch on several aspects of digital marketing. It could be used by email marketing platforms to collect customer data and personalize content, but it can also be used by advertising platforms to optimize digital ad placements.
Some digital marketers will now use AI to collect and curate their content. Simply popping a prompt into ChatGPT or other AI copywriting tools will technically count as being content curation.
Other more blatant examples of AI in digital marketing can include chatbots that are a highly common occurrence all over the internet. Companies use AI technology to respond to customer questions and also learn how to better interact with their customers in the future.
The broader use of AI in the greater digital marketing world can be very wide and varied. With only more AI tools becoming available, the phenomenon is only going to increase with time.
Digital marketers probably have multiple concerns about the risks and disadvantages of using AI in their digital marketing campaigns. They are far from being alone.
According to a survey Neil Patel conducted of 1,000 digital marketers in the industry, the biggest risks with AI in marketing were classified as:
- Content not being optimized for SEO — 14.9 percent
- Legal or ethical concerns — 14.8 percent
- Overdependence on the tools — 14.5 percent
- Content sounding too robotic — 12.8 percent
- Content sounding too similar — 12.1 percent
- AI providing incorrect information — 11.8 percent
- Other — 10 percent
- Lack of personalization — 9.1 percent
The seven biggest problems broke down as follows.
Legal or Ethical Concerns
As we have seen with many other emerging technologies, such as social media and digital advertising, it can often take years for the laws to catch up with them. It goes without saying that use of AI technology in digital marketing probably will not end up being any different.
This can mean that widespread use of AI in digital marketing will only mean that laws are later enacted that dramatically change things. Even though such laws might not be retroactive, it is possible that entire digital marketing firms could be disrupted by any change to the status quo.
Keep in mind that Time magazine reported on May 30, 2023, that the California-based non-profit the Center for AI Safety said in an open letter, “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.” The letter came as many governments and multilateral organizations were waking up to the urgency of regulating AI and leaders of G7 nations were preparing to meet for the first time to discuss setting global technical standards to put guardrails on AI development.
In other words, concerns about AI are not imagined. Again, legal or ethical concerns ranked second in that Neil Patel survey.
Lack of Search Engine Optimization
Content not being optimized for SEO ranked as the top concern in the Patel survey. This is not surprising since SEO is often a top concern for most marketers.
From freelancers to in-house workers to agencies, SEO often requires considerable time and effort to properly implement. It is not surprising then to see that it is a main concern when it comes to AI.
Incorrect Information
All marketers need to ensure that the information they provide is as accurate as possible. This will be true whether a company is providing information to its clients, its general audience, or just the public at large.
While a person could think that AI technology will be accurate enough, ChatGPT can be a good example of limits because the technology can only provide information up to 2021 at the time data was collected. Consider the case of Steven Schwartz, an attorney with the law firm Levidow, Levidow & Oberman, who asked ChatGPT to find cases relevant to his client’s lawsuit only to find the bot fabricated them entirely.
According to the New York Post, Schwartz’s legal partner filed a lawsuit against Colombian airline Avianca on behalf of a man who was allegedly injured when a metal serving cart struck his knee on a flight to New York City. After the airline’s lawyers asked the court to toss the lawsuit, Schwartz filed a brief supposedly citing over a half dozen relevant cases, but the cases—such as Miller v. United Airlines, Petersen v. Iran Air and Varghese v. China Southern Airlines—were completely made up by ChatGPT.
It is no surprise then that so many of the Patel survey respondents said AI providing incorrect information was the biggest risk.
Unnatural or Robotic Content
Even though AI speech patterns have generally improved in recent years, there can still be something rather unnatural and robotic about how they sound. This can often mean that content feels stilted, even when people are not exactly sure what sounds wrong with it.
Overdependence
After any new technology becomes available, and especially one that can provide considerable time and cost savings, adoption and implementation will soon follow. The problem can then become people depending too heavily on the new technology.
When it comes to digital marketing, overdependence on AI may lead to less collaboration and creativity among certain marketers. With time, a marketer or agency could give large parts of their jobs to the technology and reduce core competency in the future.
People shudder to think of what things would look like if AI technology became the sole source of campaigns. Without any human touch, the whole routine could become tiresome quite quickly.
Freelancers have fears about this aspect because companies becoming overdependent on AI technology could mean possible job loss for them. In-house marketers and agencies, on the other hand, could instead see the concern from a professional perspective if AI is going to cost them their own jobs.
Content Sounding Too Similar
For people who are only now getting acquainted with AI, like ChatGPT, the responses the technology produces can seem remarkable. Some will seem varied and engrossing and maybe even human-like.
When a company repeats the same prompts hundreds or thousands of times, the content can quickly become dry and tired. Businesses will find they are getting the same content just reiterated in a similar way.
Lack of Personalization
According to Segment.io, Inc., 49 percent of consumers said that a personalized shopping experience will be more likely to turn them into repeat buyers. This means that companies cannot afford not to adopt personalization techniques in their digital marketing campaigns.
Although a lack of personalization is a common concern among marketers, it is far from being their biggest concern about AI technology. Several platforms, including companies handling email marketing, social media, and paid advertising, are already using AI rather successfully with personalization.
There is little doubt that AI will undoubtedly have its benefits. Because of the many uncertainties still involved right now, however, digital marketers are right to see the possible downsides and risks.
The biggest concerns with using AI are usually centered around content quality, specifically relating to warnings from Google about AI-generated content. Considering that Google has now introduced Bard, the way Google handles AI-generated content could likely evolve with time and possibly affect all of these attitudes.
In addition to concerns about possible Google penalties, there will also be concerns about AI content diluting the quality of human-generated content. In particular, AI could make content that ends up being similar to other content published elsewhere on the internet.
AI Help in Houston, TX
If your company is considering using AI but wants to be sure it is using it in the right way, SERP Matrix can help. We offer a variety of services to help companies get the most bang for their buck.
First of all, we handle all kinds of search engine submission concerns. When you are concerned about how AI might impact your own search engine result page (SERP) results, we know how to help you overcome any obstacles.
We also handle all kinds of web design and development issues. The bottom line remains that we know how to help companies get high-performing websites that generate real results.
We also invest heavily in local SEO so you can be sure that you are going to rank as highly as possible when it comes to competing against the companies in your own backyard. All of our work is backed by an SEO services guarantee.
You do not need to stress about how AI is going to impact your company if you have somebody on your side looking out for all of your best interests, and SERP Matrix can be that company. Call (713) 287-1134 or contact us online to receive a free consultation.
