Automation is already here, whether we like it or not. But it’s not all bad news… Automation has worked to improve our everyday lives for the better. And it’s because of this that AI (artificial intelligence) exists and continues to make waves, particularly in the business tools we now use.
AI has become so useful, in fact, that many people wonder if it will soon take over one of the most important elements in our lives, content. And they’re not far off.
Automated content creation is already a reality
AI has grown from rudimentary beginnings to helping humans automate a number of tasks and workflows. Not only that but it can be used to analyse data and even predict outcomes. However, it still requires a human to facilitate the process.
The idea that AI can generate content for us without our help isn’t far off. Machine learning has shown some promise. Even going as far as to mimic the human brain and fill in logical gaps by analysing text and speech in some cases.
A great example of the above is Google Docs. It can sometimes predict certain words while you type and essentially guess the following sentence.
Examples of automated content creation
Below are some real-world examples of AI in action, particularly in regard to automated content creation.
1. Conversational chatbots
Conversational chatbots help customers with quick FAQs which free up employees to focus on more involved aspects of the business, such as planning and strategizing.
Chatbots are, in fact, so useful that they can even offer support to people in their native language, without the need for human agents.
2. Wikipedia’s bots
Wikipedia now uses bots in their entries to compile facts and replicate sentence structure. Even going as far as to use bots to crawl their content for stubs, or short articles, in order to expand them with relevant content.
Despite all this, we know that nothing, as of yet, can replace the human touch, which effectively elevates content by way of humour, context, wordplay and other impactful subtleties.
How can brands leverage automated content creation?
- Brands can leverage content automation to save time and money, and rely on fewer resources.
- Automated content creation can also support content marketers and give them a leg up when it comes to producing content faster. Impacting their marketing efforts in a significant way.
- If you begin a business using automation and then bring in a human content creator, you can lessen the time spent on projects and free up more time to drive your content marketing efforts more efficiently.
- Automated content creation is useful for small, lower priority content that you need to churn out quickly.
AI may not replace writers just yet
Automated content creation is far from perfect at this stage, and as a result, can only handle quick, high-level tasks. This means that we still need to rely on humans for the heavy lifting and error-correcting.
So as much as it can help us, it has its drawbacks.
Another downside of AI currently, is the fact that the human touch cannot yet be replaced. Creativity is still very much needed in this space, which is good news for us writers.
A good balance between machine and human content creation
Suggestions in Google Docs, Grammarly, and Gmail drafts are automated content creation at its best. As a writer, you can still get behind the wheel of the content creation process while being subtly directed.
Google directs and suggests the best terms and phrases to use. While Grammarly helps to point out your mistakes in a non-invasive way. Helping you to do your job better and faster, with less effort.
Conclusion
For the foreseeable future, readers and customers will continue to prefer to hear from humans over bots. And until AI improves, this seems like the most effective way we’ve got.
