As AI rapidly develops to carry out increasingly complex tasks, there is a common concern amongst many workers that technological advances could be accompanied by the possibility of automation replacing them in the workplace.

The latest in a long line of these tech innovations is generative AI. It certainly has ruffled some feathers in the marketing community, as this new artificial intelligence branch can generate original and creative ideas.

What is generative AI?

Generative AI is a subfield of artificial intelligence focusing on creating original content from scratch, including text, images and music. It is designed to use patterns and styles from existing data to generate brand-new concepts without external input aside from an initial prompt.

There are two types of generative AI; ‘supervised’, which is trained to generate content that matches specific goals or criteria, and ‘unsupervised’, which can create content without clear labels or objectives. So, it’s pretty clever stuff.

Several generative AI tools are available, including Jasper, Writesonic and the largest and best known, ChatGPT by OpenAI. These content-generators can create content and answer questions in natural-sounding, conversational language, which would be tricky to distinguish from a real human response or piece of copywriting.

OpenAI explains that their ChatGPT bot can even interact conversationally, with the ability to answer follow-up questions, admit its mistakes, challenge incorrect premises and reject inappropriate requests.

Are workers being replaced?

Looking at the abilities of generative tools, it is easy to see why marketers might be worried, as much marketing activity involves creating original copy, such as writing; adverts, website content, marketing emails, social media posts and even blogs.

Not only does generative AI create this content and tailor it to a target audience, but it can do it at a speed and scale which is just not achievable by humans, meaning it could have tremendous time and cost-saving benefits compared to employing a team of highly skilled communication specialists.

However, existing generative AI still needs to develop and is extremely unlikely to replace real creative professionals soon. Although tools like ChatGPT can create tailored content, which can be extremely useful, technically speaking, these bots are not capable of genuine creativity as they can only produce new ideas based on what they understand from existing information they received as data input.

This means the output may target a specific audience, but the content may be too generic to give a competitive edge or brand voice. Ultimately this can reduce engagement with customers who may have previously been interested in the content of a particular company because of the relationship they have developed through an authentic tone of voice which AI is still incapable of replicating.

Moreover, generative AI comes with a small risk of damaging a brand if it is not monitored and moderated. There is always the possibility that the algorithms could make decisions using inaccurate or incomplete information, which could create low-quality content. The technology is also currently unable to effectively make ethical or strategic decisions to align with company values and goals.

So generative AI has pros and cons. It can work at speed and scale, but it is only as good as the prompt and the information it knows, and the output needs to be quality checked for accuracy and effectiveness. It can be used for the more mundane and formulaic tasks, such as generating copy containing lots of keywords for SEO or writing product descriptions, and this could have an effect on the level of demand for some more junior roles, but it would seem that currently, the majority of creative professionals are not replaceable in the near future.

Embracing the Technology

As with all technological advances, AI will likely continue to play a broader role in the workplace as time goes on. Just last month, OpenAI launched an updated version of the tool, ChatGPT Plus – a subscription option for faster service. Microsoft simultaneously launched ChatGPT 3.5-powered Teams Premium, which offers enhanced features for improved user experience. According to recent sources, ChatGPT 4.0 may be just around the corner and is set to be ‘exponentially more powerful’, available as a mobile app and directly linked to search engines.

So rather than thinking about being edged out of the door, employees should consider how they can harness the power of generative AI and incorporate it into their role. For instance, although the output often needs moderating, the bots can be an excellent source of ideas generation for brainstorming or creating a first draft of content for editing by a real person, which can save time and offer innovation.

In addition, sector specialists who can write accurate and detailed briefs that can be used as prompts to create more precise output are also likely to be in demand. Those who embrace generative AI and learn how to utilise it best may find they have a competitive edge when landing a job and differentiating their brand and themselves from the pack.

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