AI Marketing — Communications Made Easy or Complex?
Communicating effectively with leads and investors is the core of impactful marketing. New tools are emerging all the time — many powered by AI (artificial intelligence) and machine learning — that can streamline communication workflows. Some help by generating content. Others check handcrafted content for consistency and errors. Others automate client interactions or utilize generative AI for conversational, real-time responses.
Despite the rising popularity of these tools, not all marketers are on board. Are the complexities of integrating AI-powered tools holding some firms back? Let’s take a look.
The State of AI Communications Adoption in B2B Marketing
Statistics from LinkedIn Business show that implementing AI technology is the second-most important priority for B2B organizations. AI adoption is also cited as the second-biggest challenge businesses face. According to the Content Marketing Institute (CMI), around 88% of B2B marketers are still utilizing free versions of generative AI, such as ChatGPT. Only 32% pay for generative AI services, although that figure has risen over the last year.
Perhaps surprisingly, most B2B professionals consider AI content reasonably trustworthy and of fair-to-good quality. So why aren’t more marketers using it to reach their desired audience?
Barriers to Adopting AI for Communications
It could be because there’s a widespread lack of understanding about what generative AI is and what it can do. The CMI cites the following as reasons marketers don’t utilize AI:
Concerns about the accuracy of the output
Copyright and other ethical concerns
A lack of training and understanding
The belief that there’s no need to use AI
The biggest concern is the lack of accuracy. That’s a fair point. After all, even tech giants like Google can’t stop their AI from telling people to eat mucus or treat their appendicitis at home. However, generating educational content is far from the only thing marketers can do with AI.
Conversational AI, for example, reacts to the user’s input. The facts it needs are all about your company, so it should only be using your existing knowledge base as training material. That leaves very little room for error. AI also powers tools for making comms concise, changing tone, and using more accessible language.
When used in this way, AI hallucinations (where it gets facts completely wrong) are less of a risk factor.
Opportunities for B2B Marketers
Once marketers forget the misconception that AI is only for generating big blocks of text, they can start exploring its possibilities. AI streamlines processes by quickly processing vast volumes of data and delivering insights that help with hyper-personalization techniques, such as microtargeting.
AI also helps with campaign planning, using predictive analysis to help marketers understand the best time to post or send communications. Advanced automation combined with conversational generative AI can help handle the bulk of client queries. That frees up marketers to handle those aspects that will always require a human touch.
Final Word
Startup marketers who are still reluctant to adopt AI aren’t alone. But they could be left behind as attitudes toward AI shift. For advice and support on the best direction for your startup’s marketing strategy, book a free 15-minute introductory call with one of our in-house experts.
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