Generative AI (Gen AI) is giving the false impression that it’s easier than ever for brands to create thought leadership content. As audiences become familiar with giveaway Artificial Intelligence (AI) generated words and phrases, and increasingly frustrated with reading iterations of the same old article, businesses will need to pull it out of the bag with even higher quality content if they want readers to trust and engage with it in the future. Ask any salesperson and they will tell you: you only get one chance to make a first impression. Please, implores Ashley Carr, Managing Director of Neo PR, don’t let that first impression be AI generated.
As Chat GPT would say, generative AI is a rapidly evolving landscape. From analysing data and forecasting to streamlining customer service activities, new operational applications for Gen AI are being unearthed every day. But what is one thing that AI can’t be relied upon to generate? A positive first impression of your brand. Original, authentic, meaningful content has always been at the very heart of brand communication strategies – without it, businesses have the channels but nothing of substance to say on them. Prospects won’t read beyond the first line of your blog. Journalists won’t recognise your PR articles as newsworthy. And yet, generative AI has entered the mix and basic principles of good content have got lost in the excitement. And, don’t get me wrong, AI is exciting. But the opportunity in generative AI doesn’t come from writing PR and marketing content – especially where thought leadership is concerned.
AI can’t be a thought leader
Thought leadership forms the basis for many PR and marketing activities: blogs, webinars, presentations, media interviews, articles – the list goes on. Significantly, it’s all content that sits at the top of your sales funnel. It’s the content that needs to resonate with your target audience during the first touchpoints, speak to their challenges, and position your business and its leadership team as the authority when it comes to solving them. Thought leadership is all about brand building. It’s intended to create a positive first impression, and then another one, and another one, until your brand is one your prospects know and trust. The last thing you want is for that first impression to be generated by AI and risk putting your prospect off.
I understand the reasoning. For one, it can feel like there is an unending demand for new content. Websites and blogs need to be updated frequently for SEO purposes, social media accounts need feeding with a variety of formats, media partners need exclusive articles, and resource centres need white papers, videos, presentations and other helpful content to support a prospect’s decision-making. We’re already well-versed at using AI in our everyday writing tasks with the likes of autocorrect and other tools – and even our Google Search is augmented with AI-powered results. Plus, generating all this content takes time. And with marketing budgets being stretched and squeezed, time is a scarce commodity.
Despite this, and aside– from AI’s benefits as a tool for handling hundreds of tasks more efficiently – writing thought leadership content cannot be one of them. Already, the prevalence of AI-generated content online is a concern for 73% of the UK public according to YouGov. More than a quarter would block or unfollow an account with content labelled as AI generated. Beyond questions around transparency and the ethics of AI-generated content, there’s also a problem with the content itself: AI cannot be a thought leader. AI can’t create original thought or opinion, and AI can’t capture the nuance, experience and examples of your argument in the same way a human can.
Tell the ‘why’, not the ‘what’
Businesses need to up their thought leadership game if they’re to cut through the increasing amount of AI generated ‘grey’ on the internet and not be tarred with the same brush. One trap that’s very easy to fall into when creating thought leadership content is reverting back to the features and functions of a business. There’s a place for that content in the sales journey, of course – but classic selling has always been about finding a way to successfully communicate the benefits.
This means shifting focus away from the ‘what’ and towards the ‘why’. Why do you create the products you do? Why is this significant from the customer’s perspective? Not only should thought leadership focus on the challenges you solve for your customers, but it needs to fit into the bigger picture and provide a narrative on the direction of the industry.
Whether that’s environmental, economic, legislative or HR-related, you need a narrative that talks about the issues experienced by your customers in the now or in the future. Understanding your audience’s pain points and resonating with their thinking is the really important place to start. And that’s another reason why AI can’t help you. Do an AI search today and the result might describe the answer beautifully – but there’s no original thinking to it. There’s no ‘why’.
You are the expert. Your observations and opinions on the industry are original thinking and are forming the direction of travel. Gen AI doesn’t know what those thoughts are, and even if you give it all the right prompts, it’s very challenging to capture your personal tone of voice and avoid the giveaway AI phrases that are turning readers off.
PR is the home of thought leadership
When people think about PR, they often see it as a single channel. And, yes, PR should be considered as part of a brand’s overall marketing strategy, but content created for PR use can also be very useful to feed your other channels. Thought leadership should start in the PR world, but it needs to marry to the messaging being used across other sales and marketing content as part of one holistic and harmonious campaign. As we all know, it takes several touchpoints or more to turn a lead into a sale – and those touchpoints need to deliver a consistent message. That way, by the time you are in contact with a prospect, they understand clearly why they need your services and they’ve done their pre-qualification.
The content you create in PR should also amplify your other direct channels. PR not only feeds them with content, it also expands the reach of that message beyond your own channels and onto those of influential and independent publications and professionals in your industry.
Conclusion
Content may be king, but relying on AI wins you no favours. Original thought leadership is key to building your sales pipeline, and to be a thought leader means talking to the market about the issues in the market, having an original perspective and a unique voice – your voice, not a voice generated by AI. This should sit with your PR team to extract and communicate, but the output is multi-channel. Don’t compromise on quality by using AI to create content quickly. Instead, work with your PR team and subject matter experts to create fewer pieces of very high-quality thought leadership content that you can maximise across all of your other channels – leaving a lasting impression with your target audience for all the right reasons.